Background
Oaklawn Cemetery was Tampa, Florida's first public burial ground. The location was deeded in the mid-19th century. It was named as the final resting place for "White and Slave, Rich and Poor". The First Mayor of the City of Tampa Judge Joseph B. Lancaster is buried at Oaklawn. The 6th mayor, James McKay Sr. is also interred. Others include pirates, slaves, yellow-fever epidemic victims and confederate soldiers.
The northwest section was originally a separate cemetery known as Saint Louis Catholic Cemetery. Established in 1874, it had its own entry gates and was for many years completely separated from Oaklawn by an iron fence. Among those buried in the St. Louis section are Ybor City founder, Vicente Martinez Ybor, five pioneer priests (3 of whom died in a 15 day span during the 1887 yellow fever epidemic) and Cecilia Morse, the foundress of Catholic parochial education in the Tampa Bay area. A few remnants of the fence are still visible today including several brick fence posts with marble finials, the original driveways and the gates that serviced only the St. Louis section. In 2010 and 2011 the Diocese of Saint Petersburg added Catholic Heritage Markers to the cemetery recognizing the contributions of both Mrs. Morse and the pioneer priests, as well as a site map which delineates the "Saint Louis section" of the graveyard.