Cemetery Spotlight 12/4/2013
Cemetery Spotlight –December 4, 2013
Oak Hill Cemetery –
Evansville, Indiana
Located
near the curve of the Ohio River in what is a now a thriving section of the
city, Oak Hill Cemetery is nestled among 175 acres of rolling hills. This
quaint “rural cemetery” began in Evansville, Indiana in 1853 and still retains
its Victorian charm.
The History
The
land for the cemetery was originally purchased in 1852. A local paper of the
time described the selection as “a hillock, a wilderness of underbrush and briars, and called at that
with a mantle of loess, underlain by sandstone.” On February 18th 1853,
the first burial occurred, that of two-year-old Ellen Johnson.
The
main entrance to the cemetery is located on Virginia Street and the drive up to
the main office is 365 feet long.
Architects William Harris and Clifford Shopbell designed the Craftsman
style Administration building in 1899, and the Mission style entrance gate in
1901. The early administration office
also contained a waiting room and chapel. The building still maintains its massive
fireplace and central bell tower, and is surrounded on three sides by a large
porch.
The
cemetery grounds are made up of numerous hills and vales. Most of the landscaping was done between 1853
and 1932 and has grown over the years into a place of beauty and seasonal
color. The cemetery is a treasure-trove
of trees, many native to the state of Indiana, and some that are not. While pine, maple, willow and oak abound, it
was interesting to see several magnolias, and one of the largest ginkgo trees
in the U.S.
The
large man-made lake is surrounded by a “mausoleum row” of crypts crafted from
marble, Indiana limestone and granite.
Local architects designed many of the mausoleums in varying styles with
intricately laced bronze doors, and a stone pedestrian walking bridge that crosses
over the lake to a small island where the Mead family (founders of the Mead-Johnson
company) are buried.
Famous Burials
There
are numerous well-known Evansville residents interred at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Among them are:
Willard
Carpenter, a railroad and canal promoter, and founder of Willard Library, the
first library that was free “for the use
of people of all classes and sexes.”
Dr.
Cola K. Newsome, a local physician, and the first African American to serve on
the Evansville- Vanderburgh School Board. Newsome was instrumental in the early
planning in desegregation of public schools.
William
H. McCurdy, who moved to Evansville to start the Hercules Buggy Company in
1902. The factory provided buggies for Sears, Roebuck and Company, and
eventually grew into the largest industry in the city.
Those
buried here of national note include Annie Fellows Johnson, author of the over
a dozen of the children’s Little Colonel
book series. Born May 15,
1863 in Evansville, Johnson wrote for years about her Little Colonel, a “precocious young girl growing up in
aristocratic Kentucky prone to bullying and temper tantrums.” Over a million books were sold at the turn of
the century. The series of Little Colonel books inspired a movie by
the same name, which starred Shirley Temple and Lionel Barrymore.
Also
interred here are Charles Denby, U.S. Minister to China from 1881-1894, and
John Watson Foster, U.S. Minister to Mexico, Russia, and Spain, and U.S.
Secretary of State from 1892-1893.
The
best-attended burial belongs to the Queen of a tribe of Romany Gypsies. Elizabeth Harrison, known as the Queen of the
Gypsies, died in November 1895 in one of the following state - Massachusetts,
Mississippi, or Ohio. Her body was
shipped to Oak Hill Cemetery and held in the receiving vault until members of
her tribe could gather to attend her funeral. Services were finally held five
months later on April 1, 1896. Over
6,000 people were on hand for the graveside services, fifty of them from her
Gypsy tribe. This was the largest
funeral ever held at the cemetery.
Then
on Christmas Eve, 1900, Harrison’s husband Isaac, known as the King of the
Gypsies, was buried beside her. Isaac Harrison had been killed by a bullet, in
a fight between his sons on December 1st, in Alabama.
North and South
Influences
Oak
Hill Cemetery has a Civil War section that includes over 500 Union soldiers and
24 Confederates. In 1898 the cemetery
was appropriated $1,000 for improving and enclosing the area where Union
soldiers were buried. Heavy chains were placed around the section and two Civil
War cannons were stationed inside the fence. To this day, it is still a moving
tribute to those fallen soldiers.
A
bronze Confederate Solider stands at the intersection of two lanes, one that
leads to the military section. The
statue was erected at the turn of the twentieth century by the Fitzhugh Lee
Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy in remembrance of the 24
Confederate soldiers buried on Yankee soil.
Today
The superintendent of Cemeteries for the City of
Evansville is Chris Cooke. Cooke faces a multitude of obligations in order to
be a good steward of the facility, and to preserve the history of the cemetery for
the community. It is interesting to realize that on any given day Cooke’s job
challenges can date back to 1853 – the year the cemetery began.
As Cooke explains it, “An
employee could have had a bad day 100 years ago and been off on a measurement,
or didn’t keep a complete record of a burial.
That opportunity could be sitting there for years unknown until a
distant family member walks through our doors with a request for service
today. I have still not been able to fully
grasp my hands around the fact that what I do in the present may not have an
effect on a family until 100 years from now.
However, I have refined my approach to ensure that the future people who
sit in my chair will have a clear record of what we did, and why, so that the
continuation of service can be represented as an unbroken chain to the past for
the generations that follow.”
Tomorrow
One of the biggest difficulties currently facing
cemeteries across the country is a lack of burial space. The City of Evansville
has prepared Oak Hill for this dilemma, having held around 60 acres of
undeveloped ground in reserve. Cooke said that a
long-term master plan for land use is being developed because “undeveloped acreage is like gold in the
death care industry.”
The cemetery is also keeping up with the digital age.
According to Cooke, “We are in the process of upgrading our databases to include
GIS maps, user friendly apps, and a modern record management system.” Just
another way the continuation of service today becomes a link to the past for
future generations.
Visit
Oak Hill Cemetery is located at 1400 E.
Virginia Street in
Evansville, Indiana. Regular office hours are from 7:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. For
more information contact Chris Cooke at (812) 435-6045 or email him at CCooke@Evansville.in.gov.
Oak Hill Cemetery continues to fulfill its purpose of
being a place of relaxation and contemplation.
For over 160 years Oak Hill has been there for those who “become wearied with the sight of human
faces, when the noise and bustle of the city grate harshly on the ear, when we
feel an inward yearning for some quiet spot where we may rest in seclusion,
undisturbed and alone.” - A
sentiment that is still true today.
~ Joy Neighbors
Freelance Writer and Blogger for A Grave Interest
