The LOCKE CEMETERY is located on top of a hill just southwest of Lewisburg and approximately four and one-half miles north of Corvallis via Highway 99W. The cemetery drive is on the left of Lewisburg Road and about three-tenths of a mile west of the Highway 99W intersection.
This cemetery, one of the oldest in Benton County, is on the former Donation Land Claim of A.N.Locke. On 25 August 1855, A.N. Locke deeded to the citizens of Benton County 'all that portion of land contained in the burying ground enclosed by a plank fence, except forty feet square in the southwest corner of said burying ground which the said party of the first part reserves for himself".
That Locke Cemetery was one of the first opened to the public is clear not only from the dates on the tombstones, but from the names of pionee rs buried there. The earliest death date on a stone is 19 May 1846, over the grave of Mrs.Anna Hughart, (b.1808), however her body had been moved from an original burial site in Philomath. Mrs.Hughart is said to have been the first immigrant to die within what are the present limits of Benton County. Many graves bear a date before or soon after 1850. Among those who early found a resting place here were: Anna's husband, Joseph Hughart (1804-1886); and her brother, David C. Henderson (1803-1872). Henderson's DLC was purchased in 1865 by the founders of Philomath and became the original townsite of Philomath. Other early pioneers buried here include Joshua Adkins (1809-1852); his mother, Sarah (d.1866); William Ryals (1831-1914); his wife Ermaline (1829-1899); John Lewis (1785-1854); and his wife, Elizabeth (1786-1852).
A two lot strip along the east end of Blocks 2 and 3 in the cemetery was deeded to Benton County on 26 September 1938 for indigent burials. Each lot has space for 6 burials. With the help of the Anthropology Field School at Oregon State University, the County completed an investigation of the indigent burial site in July 1987. Fifty-three graves were located. Of these, approximately 14 have markers.