On 27 May 2019 the My GI Foundation in conjunction with the National Association of Black Veterans placed eighteen new headstones at the Pioneer Cemetery as a testimony for our veterans who fought between 1790-1865. Funding for this project was via multiple donors and a grant from the Wounded Warriors Family Support System. 

A large memorial was placed in September of 2019 explaining the significance of the Pioneer Cemetery and those who rest there.

Pioneer Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Hamilton County and the second oldest in Ohio, is hard to find even if you're looking for it. It's tucked away, small sign and all, across from Lunken Airport.

When settlement founder Benjamin Stites and about two dozen others arrived from New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1788 there were Indians. Stites became interested in the land while in pursuit of horse thieves three years earlier. On November 18, 1788, just below the mouth of the Little Miami, Stites and the others stepped off a boat to create Columbia.

Eventually the pioneers built a church, Columbia Baptist, on this site. It was the first Protestant church organized in the Northwest. This early settlement, known as Colombia, is seen as the very beginnings of Cincinnati. Memorial Pioneer Cemetery is the only remnant of the Columbia pioneer settlement and that's why, in 1967, a restoration effort began.