Bosque Bello Cemetery – Original or Old Section

The Bosque Bello Old Cemetery is located one mile North of Atlantic Avenue on North 14th Street within the city of Fernandina Beach, Florida on Amelia Island. The original section of the cemetery is thought to have been established in 1798 but the oldest identifiable grave, of French Soldier Peter Bouissou de Nicar, dates from 1813.

Bosque Bello Cemetery - Old Section

About the Original Bosque Bello Cemetery Survey

The Cemetery Survey was conducted during 1987 by the General Duncan Lamont Clinch Historical Society of Amelia Island, by the following members of that society: George E. Barnes; Claire and Harold J. Belcher; Nancy and Scott R. Berryman; Mary Holt Boswell; David G. Bowers; Harry Bridges; Marie and Ernest Chaplin; Par Cottrell; Mary Isabel Doak; Carolyn Durden; Suzanne Hardee; Betty Long; Audrey Mertz; Fran and David Mudd; Ruth N. Neely; William F. Oliver; Annie Francis; Jack Walker; and Patsy and Allen P. Whitfield.

In 1997, the Amelia Island Genealogy Society update the original survey to include later burials, and this information is included in the current database. Mary Nelson, Nancy Sturges, Hal Belcher, Jean Mann, Joan Johnson, Pat Graham, Bill Hayes, and Ken Sturges Jr. completed this second survey.

Confederate Soldier burials were supplied by Jean Mann and Ken Sturges respectively, and their input is appreciated.

The Grave location is given in two parts, first the name of the plot, if identified, and then the location on the map shown, so a grave location for Charles W. Anderson on map B8 would designate the Anderson grave plot, at location 2,7 on that map.

The cemetery contains graves of many interesting people who lived on and around Amelia Island, including:

• The Sisters of Saint Joseph – Catholic Nuns from France who founded schools after the Civil War and tended to the sick of Fernandina during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1877.
• Major Ferdinand Charles Suhrer – A Union Army Officer who settled in Fernandina after the Civil War (1866) and died at the hands of Thomas Jefferson Eppes in 1884.
• Amos Latham – Revolutionary War Patriot and the first Keeper of Amelia’s Lighthouse in 1838.
• The Traeye Family – A Pre-Civil War African American Family, whose descendants are still prominent in Fernandina today.
• Lt. Edward John Kent Johnston – Confederate Naval Officer captured, imprisoned and buried in the North in 1863, whose remains were brought back to Fernandina in 2003 for re-interment next to his wife.
• Arthur Steil – Fernandina Saloon-keeper, whose monument at Bosque Bello once graced the cover of the Stake Publication promoting preservation of old cemeteries.
• Sollecito Salvador – Sicilian immigrant who became known as the “Father of the Shrimping Industry.”
• Domingo Acosta – Member of the Spanish Militia, Storekeeper, and Old Fernandina’s first Postmaster in 1821.

These people, and many others are buried here among the Live Oak trees who gave the cemetery it’s Spanish name of Bosque Bello (Spanish for beautiful woods).

Additional Information about the original Bosque Bello Cemetery

• A complete copy of the Veterans Grave Registration Survey of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) was located by Jim Miller.  The copy can be read on our website at WPA Survey Nassau Florida.
• The 1956 LDS survey of Bosque Bello is here.
• An interesting article about Bosque Bello is in the Tolomato Cemetery Times.
• Florida Master Site File ID NA01245, established circa 1798.