Pine Forest Cemetery is one of the biggest and only cemeteries located in Mount Dora. The land was set aside for the cemetery in 1866. Although I am not sure this is accurate since Mount Dora did not become a settlement till the 1870s. But Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Donnelly set aside 2 1/2 acres which would be used as a forest cemetery.

It was eventually conveyed to the Forest Cemetery Association in 1919. It kept the Forest Cemetery name till 1953 when a council woman named Esther Wyatt Bishop had it changed to Pine Forest because 29 other cities had cemeteries with the same name. Because of this change only one other city uses the name Pine Forest for their cemetery. The cemetery eventually was enlarged to about 40 acres in the historical part of Mount Dora. 

The first burial within the cemetery was a lady by the name of Mrs. I.M. Mabbette in 1881 but nobody can find her grave so either it is unmarked or someone vandalized it. The first actual monument here is for the Warburton Family.

Their is a story I read that in 1875 Robert and Hannah Warburton had lived on a homestead of about 160 acres acquiring a title to the property in 1876. It is told which is a sad tale that the family was on a wagon trip to Eustis in 1882. Well they stopped at Fiddler's Pond to water their horse. When they approached near the lakes bank it was too steep and both the parents and the two children drowned to death. It was more then like that they were not found for awhile since they took a wagon trail from their homestead. The Warburton family is the first set of burials with stones in Pine Forest. I believe the Warburton stone is just one monument with all their names on it.

 Today the city owns the cemetery and has over 5,000 permanent guest here. Around the property is brick and these giant wrought iron gates. The cemetery has a road which contains these giant globe lamps for quite a ways. The cemetery unfortunately is very fussy. The do not allow mausoleums for example but other then that its one of the nicest cemeteries I have seen considering it had some 1800s history to it.

© By

Rick-AngelOfThyNight