Billings Cemetery was started in approximately 1882 by the O’Donnell family and operated until the City bought it in 1926. Edward O’Donnell was the first Superintendent of the Cemetery followed by James when James returned from WWI.

In 1920 our city fathers purchased land adjacent to the Billings Cemetery and started the Mountview Cemetery. James O’Donnell was the first Superintend to live in the Cemetery house and operated the Cemetery until he retired in 1965 with at least 47 years on the job. Arnold “Bud” Kautsky was the next Superintendent followed by LeRoy “Stew” Stewart. Stew was the last Superintendent to live on the Cemetery grounds and was the second longest on the job with 26 years. Lee Stadtmiller is the current Superintendent, who started in 2000.

Many of the pioneers of the Billings area are buried in the Billings and Mountview Cemeteries. One of the first people to be buried here was Ellen Anderson who was buried in Boothill before being moved. Her stone as many of the stones in this part of the Cemetery have been damaged by time, as the O’Donnell’s allowed anything the grave owners wanted and many of the stone have not held up.

Some of the famous people buried here are: Henry Frith, first settler to what is now Yellowstone County; Jean McCormick, who claimed to be the daughter of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock; P. B. Moss, who built the Moss Mansion for his family; I. D. O’Donnell, who was instrumental in bringing the sugar beet factory and the “Big Ditch” to the area; Sheriff James T. Webb, who was murdered in 1908 and has a monument erected in his honor at the Yellowstone County Courthouse; and many, many more famous and first settlers of Billings.

In 1952, the Cemetery bought land again adjacent to the Cemetery for future use. It remains to be seen, but the agreement was that when the Cemetery needs it, Par 3 Golf Course will revert back to cemetery use. Even so, we have enough land at the current levels of use to sell graves for another 60 years and we will be burying Billings residents well into the twenty second century.