stones moved

On Detroit Road there had been a cemetery. In 1957 the bodies were buried elsewhere and the headstones came to Lakewood Historical Society.

rain spout

The War Chapel has two gargoyles on its roof over the porch. Here is one.

IOOF

Independent Order of Odd Fellows 1917

In Glendale Cemetery, there are sections reserved for the Masons, and the Odd Fellows. In the late 19th century, the Odd Fellows were the largest fraternal lodge. The three links of the chain stand for  Friendship, Love and Truth.

more from Glendale

Why would there be door knockers on a mausoleum?

Norris

There is an eagle grasping a snake on the Union Memorial Chapel.

posing

Captain America , Greyhound extraordinaire

building your own mausoleum

The most elaborate mausoleum in Glendale Akron is this one. Some have walls of solid stone, this one has stonework mudded in, and patterned. This was a personal project. There are Greek columns. There is a double eagle ornament. There is a walkway.

Walter A. Franklin *1868 was a plasterer, mason, and then in business with his brother a contractor, Franklin Brothers. Walter's mausoleum was built in 1910 (his first wife died that year), the outside statues were made in 1914. Walter died in in 1943. He had much opportunity to see his monument. His second wife lived an hundred years, she died in 1993. Inside there are three fine religious stained glass windows, one is of the Ascension of Jesus.

Outside are a pair of lion monuments, a male and cub, and a female and cub. On the sides are some mythical sea tableauxs? In the front below the lions there is a gorgon?

 

 

Rough Rider

 

A Miller family has a plot which includes thirteen oval discs.  Some have a cross through crown bronze on top, others looked like they had a cross and crown. Five have these bronze ornaments, seven others had them ripped away.

Theodore Wentwood Miller was part of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders (1st Volunteer Cavalry).

glass icons

Some of the colors of the Scottish stained glass have faded. The Memorial Chapel remembers the Union dead, but it was also built in the centennial of national Independence. This triple window is called "Centennial Anniversary of American Independence". It has General Washington in the center lintel, flanked by Abraham Lincoln, and Oliver Hazard Perry. People forget about Perry now. He was the hero of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. His battle flag "Don't Give up the Ship" is part of this window. His words are underneath his portrait, "We have met the enemy and they are ours". Both statements à propos for the then recent war. Before, Cleveland had its Union Monument for the Soldiers and Sailors of the Union on Public Square, a statue of Perry was there. It is now on Lakeside Avenue.

The opposite triple window is of the Sanitary Commission and Soldiers' Aid Society. In between, in front where the altar would be, is a large window dedicated to Colonel Lewis P. Buckley. The local Grand Army of the Republic post is named after him.

Chapel for the Union Dead

Glendale Cemetery Akron Ohio has a memorial chapel for the Union war dead. The ground was dedicated on Memorial Day 1875, and the formal opening was on the next Memorial Day. It is a beautiful building, inside and out.

There is a statue for the unknown dead.

The news has much on confederate memorials now. The United States Union survived the war, the rebellion was put down, the insurgents lost. We should consider and honor those that died to preserve the country. A previous post [click] was especially poignant, concerning the deaths of two local boys.

The window pictured supra is dedicated to Henry N. Smith who died at the Confederate Prison Camp Andersonville Georgia, and to Eugene D. Smith who "died from the effects of war" in 1868.

The left window below remembers three Voris Brothers who died, one in service, one from exposure as prisoner, and one of starvation at Andersonville. The right window is for the first Akron soldier that died in the war, William Palmer Williamson.

his cemetery

'C' is for cemetery

Akron Rural Cemetery began in 1839. Pharmacist, Dr. Jedediah Commins' son, Augustus, died in 1837.  Akron's burial ground was subject to flood. He kept the corpse in a cask of alcohol. In 1838, Commins went to Boston to see Mount Auburn Cemetery, which was the nation's first 'rural cemetery'. 'Cemetery' was a recent term for burial grounds and graveyards. It becames the model for American public parks and monuments.  He was impressed, other people in Akron were in favor of a new cemetery. Commins wrote a charter which the state legislature approved. Akron Rural Cemetery Association (later Glendale Cemetery) was the third chartered cemetery in the country.

The first of many mausoleums in the cemetery was his family's, built in 1860. Commins died in 1867.

Benjamin F. Weary

There is a beautiful War Chapel built in 1875-6 in Akron's Glendale Cemetery for those that died from Akron and nearby. This is for the Union dead.

There are several windows from Scotland. Some colors are faded. There are symbols, portraits, and script. This is an incredibly poignant and sad story. The story is that like a novel, or a movie; something similar to All's Quiet on the Western Front. Two brothers-in-law are memorialised. One, Virgil J. Robinson, died at the confederate prison camp at Andersonville. Andersonville was a hideous destination where men wasted away from starvation. The other soldier, Benjamin F. Weary, was the first volunteer from Akron. Robert E. Lee surrendered on the 9th of April 1865, at Appomattox Court House Virginia, to Ulysses S. Grant. Later that day, Weary was shot dead.

I spoke to a friend about what i read that day on that window. He said, "that's war".  I said, "No, that is murder".

remembering Ness

Eliot Ness, prohibition agent agent in Chicago, safety director in Cleveland has his ashes interred in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery. Some people leave mementos.

Someone left a card of police dog Clancy and his handler, and a police patch from New York City.

no go

There is Tiffany mosaics, and stained glass inside. I saw this and took a picture. Within a minute or two, a woman sees it too, and says, she has to take a picture. Recently, i have seen groups of people huddled looking at their phones, at Parma metropark, St. Mary Elyria, and elsewhere. I had not seen them since last year, the fad came back. The funny thing is they printed the sign with the diacritical mark, this would have been rare two generations ago.