Mount View Cemetery has stood just outside of downtown Olean since 1847 and is the burial site of an unknown Civil War soldier and the home of Cattaraugus County’s Veterans Field of Honor.
Many local residents don’t know that part of Olean’s history lies within the beautiful wrought iron fence surrounding Mount View. Oak Hill Park, at the corners of Laurens, North Fourth and Washington streets was once a cemetery. In 1906, 1,300 remains were removed from Oak Hill and re-interred at Mount View. The cemetery is also the final resting place for New York State Governor Frank W. Higgins, whose grandson is on Mount View’s board of directors.
The Mount View Cemetery Maintenance Fund, recently established at the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation, by the Mount View Cemetery Association, will help ensure that the cemetery remains maintained as a beautiful final resting place for both local loved ones and/or veterans for many more years to come.
The original idea for this fund came many years ago from the late Elizabeth “Betty” Pappas, a longtime board member of Mount View Cemetery Association, who passed away in April 2020 and now rests in Mount View Cemetery.
“The Mount View Cemetery board of directors had for years discussed the opportunities that having this maintenance fund with the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation would provide us,” said Brad Spink, president. “One of the biggest proponents of it was our beloved and longtime board member, Betty Pappas, who passed away this year. To honor her, we are establishing this fund with part of her generous bequest."
Pappas dedicated much of her time, spirit and money during her life to charitable causes in the community, and, through her estate, chose to continue that support with a number of bequests to area nonprofits, including the Mount View Cemetery.
CRCF Executive Director Karen Niemic Buchheit called the fund a fitting tribute to Pappas’ generosity.
“At CRCF we were blessed to have a relationship with Betty, as she was a member of our scholarship committee up until her very last days and established the Rose Pappas Foundation Fund in memory of her beloved sister,” said Buchheit. “Our community will dearly miss her, but seeing this fund that she supported come to fruition after her passing shows just how much she meant to this place and the people that live here.”
“She was a forward thinker,” Buchheit said of Pappas. “She wanted to see the organizations that she loved, like Mount View, last through time. Cemeteries are expensive to maintain and upkeep, and this fund will provide support for the cemetery for many years to come.”
Donations can be made to the Mount View Cemetery Maintenance Fund at CRCF, 301 N. Union St., Olean, NY 14760, or online at cattfoundation.org or facebook.com/MountViewCemetery.
