According to Lois Ann Baker and Ruth Schieltz, a small log building was erected between 1835 and 1839 three miles northeast of Greenville, Darke County, Ohio, in Section 24, Township 12, Range 2, along what was then known as Jacksonville Pike and is now State Route 121. This is where the present St. Mary's Cemetery is located.

This building was used as a chapel for the Catholics who settled in this area, and was named St. Charles in Silvis (St. Charles in the Woods); it might have also been known as St. Jacob's at one time. The small chapel was never blessed and had no altar, but parishioners took turns leading prayers and conducting Masses there. For all official church rites, residents would travel to have them performed by a priest in an established Catholic church.

The building was abandoned in 1863 when the congregation organized as St. Mary's of the Annunciation, and moved to a church in Greenville, located on West Third Street. Today there is little evidence of the primitive chapel in the cemetery, but a faint impression of the drive can still be seen in the grass of Section A where there are no tombstones.

Interments were probably made in the cemetery when the land was first donated, but the earliest tombstone inscription found reads, "Anthony Sucher, son of B. & P., died August 5, 1845, aged 01y 06m 28d."

SOURCES: Anita Short, Ruth Wagner Schieltz, and Lois Ann Baker

The cemetery is located in Greenville Township, Darke County, Ohio and is #2713 (Saint Mary's Catholic Cemetery / Saint Mary's Cemetery) in "Ohio Cemeteries 1803-2003", compiled by the Ohio Genealogical Society.
The cemetery is registered with the Ohio Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing (ODRE) as St. Mary's Cemetery with registration license number CBR.0000983006.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) feature ID for the cemetery is 1806192 (Saint Mary's Cemetery / Saint Mary's Catholic Cemetery).