Established in 1834, North Cemetery is the oldest cemetery within Mount Vernon's city limits and was named after Juliet North, a young girl that died of cholera in 1834. The area where it was located was then called Hedges Hill. The cemetery was closed in 1899. After a restoration project the dedication ceremony for the cemetery was on May 15, 2011. Local 6th grade students assisted the historical society with this project, which was spearheaded by Posey County Historical Society President Becky Higgins. Their goal was to raise money an rehabilitate the cemetery and its remaining stones. There are very few markers remaining, and these are now moved and protected in a small fenced area, near the area of the city schools. A few of the stones are more modern replacements. Hundreds of graves, however, are believed to be there unmarked.

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Mount Vernon Democrat - The Old North Cemetery, located on Hedges Hill in Mount Vernon, can go unnoticeable to some with fallen monuments and head stones.

The cemetery, which was created in the early 1800s, is a final resting place for several who suffered from cholera in the late 19th century, Civil War veterans, and Judge John Pitcher who at one time lent a law book to Abraham Lincoln and later lent the same one to Gen. Alvin P. Hovey.

The old stones of over 500 people are now mostly gone... the Juliet North who died in 1834, the Hector Craig of 1836, the Welborn's of the 1830's and 1850's, the Mexican War veteran, the grandmother of a Secretary of State, the original stone of Judge Pitcher (replaced), the relatives of Governor Hovey. Long gone too are the names of Thomas Newman, Aaron Baker and Jesse Baker. Dust to dust including the hanged murderers of 1884 Anderson and Snyder. There were maybe as many as 50 Union soldiers buried here and victims of the cholera epidemic of 1873. What's done is done sadly.
The old Leonard family also had a family burial ground nearby.

Before Bellefontaine Cemetery was established, the main burial ground for the early Mount Vernon pioneers was the old North Cemetery, and adjacent to it the Leonard Cemetery, both located in a field at the edge of town North of East Sixth Street and west of today's Harriet Street.

During the Civil War, this city lost many husbands and son; some of them were put to rest there. Some in their blue uniforms. Two of them were said to have worn the Confederate gray. Available records verify the mass grave burial there of 75 Mount Vernon citizens in 1873, all victims of the dread cholera epidemic. In 1892 the popular and venerable judge John Pitcher, and in 1895 his daughter Kate Pitcher Whitworth were laid to rest in the burial ground between Sixth and Eighth Streets.

Most of the graves had markers which still dotted the field as late as 1940. Today, one lone stone can still be seen. During the early 1950s and 1960s, high school students used the old slabs to sit in the sun, or eat their lunches out-of-doors. Some former students even tell of finding buttons from old Civil War uniforms which were unearthed during the leveling of the athletic field.

Today, by and large, Mount Vernon has forgotten that there ever was a North and a Leonard Cemetery, and that beneath the lawn of this city's school area lie the remains of our early pioneers and city fathers. (Ilse Horacek, May 26, 1993)

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The cemetery was located in Black Township about 300 feet north of E 6th Street at its intersection with N Wood Street. Indiana Cemetery Locations, Volume 4, published by the Indiana Genealogical Society (April 2009), gives the primary cemetery name as Old North Cemetery with an alternate name of Leonard Cemetery. The cemetery is listed in the Cemetery and Burial Grounds Registry of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and in the State Historical Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD) with Cemetery Record Number CR-65-14 (Maple Grove / Old North / Leonard). The Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory (IHSSI) survey number for Old North and Leonard Cemetery / Maple Grove Cemetery is 129-439-39055 with the dataset compiled in 2002.