The Old Pioneer Cemetery is the oldest public burying ground in the village of Dryden. While it was publicly dedicated in 1830, burials had occurred there long before. Attempts to catalog all of the burials began with a survey in 1901, followed by another in 1922, and again in 1965/1966, with Charles Sandwick's "The Old Cemetery of Dryden, Records of Inscriptions and Genealogical Notes" published by the Historical Society of Tompkins County in 1966 (revised 1970).

In 1830, Abram Griswold gave the trustees of the Presbyterian Church in Dryden access from the cemetery leading out to the street (East Main Street) and a deed by him, in exchange for $5, for land for the cemetery stipulated that it always be used as a burying ground "for the use of all sects and denominations." At the time the deed was recorded, twenty-seven known burials had already occurred at the site, the earliest being that of four-year-old Henry Godard, in 1815.

The cemetery fell into a deplorable state during the 20th century with vandalism, an overgrowth of vegetation, and excavations from an adjacent gravel pit on its west side. Graves were being exposed with an occasional human bone seen protruding from the excavations. Several grave stones that fell into the pit were moved to nearby Green Hills Cemetery but only some of those stones represent an actual removal of human remains.

During a restoration project at Old Pioneer Cemetery in 1966 it was decided that a resetting of all the stones in their original locations was impossible. Those that were scattered about in the cemetery were reset in rows among the remaining standing markers.