Rose Hill Cemetery in Syracuse:
Of Memories and Markers
As to quote the book title by David Sloane about the subject,
Cemeteries are "The Last Great Necessity".
And Rose Hill Cemetery grew out of necessity and...
...was abandoned when the "necessity" was perceived as no longer needed.
Syracuse started of as Bogardus Corners, a stop along the Genesee Turnpike, about where Downtown is...
...and the Village of Salina, by Washington Square Park, started off as was Salt Point, a settlement of Salt Boilers.
With the coming of the canals, the Erie Canal and the lateral Oswego Canal,
the villages grew from their center points eventually meeting in the middle at Division St.
Division St divided the Village of Salina from the Village of Syracuse.
As the city grew, the need for more burial space also grew.
Death was (and is) a fact of life,
the last great necessity.
And when the two villages merged with Lodi to form the City of Syracuse
on December 14th, 1847,
this "middle ground" between the two villages became the Second Ward.
A cemetery was laid out on Lodi St,
"Second Ward Cemetery".
Much like First Ward, it had four part layout,
and a central, tree-lined drive.
"The cemetery was established in 1841, covering an area of approx. 22 acres."
~Find a Grave
This was the beginning of the rural cemetery movement.
The founders wanted this to reflect this.
Syracuse was an up and coming city.
Even the first Mayor, Harvey Baldwin bought a plot here
and built a family mausoleum.
You can even see his mausoleum on the
1868 Birds-eye map.
For Harvey, it was a pre-necessity, a sad one...
While Harvey wouldn't need it until 1863.
and his second wife, Eliza wouldn't need it until 1888,
(His first wife Laura died during the first year they were married in 1825.
A tear jerking tribute is on her headstone.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69394686/laura-baldwin
A tear jerking tribute is on her headstone.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69394686/laura-baldwin
Harvey was no stranger to sorrow.)
He and his second wife, Eliza, had several children that predeceased them,
including:
Charlotte on Easter Morning, 1846 at 12 years old
And Heron at only 26 days old
😥
And as more people bought plots, the cemetery expanded to
fill in the whole square-ish block.
(ok...more like a trapezoid)
The blank square on the NW point was where
the caretaker's house stood.
Next to the new millionaire's row of James St, Rose Hill Cemetery
seemed to have nothing to worry about.
They even commissioned a fancy gate house designed by
architect, Horatio Nelson White, so that the mourners could arrive in style.
But two things spelled the end to the about 60 year run of the cemetery:
Limited Space & the "new" Oakwood cemetery.
There was no room to expand the cemetery.
And Oakwood Cemetery was more than seven times larger
with much more attention to landscaping.
In short it was prettier and more fashionable.
Something that Rose Hill with its limited space could ever be.
It tried to be a rural cemetery, but just couldn't be one.
Shortly after 1900 it was abandoned.
Calls were made by local citizens to turn it into a park
as many famous founding fathers and notable citizens were interred here.
In 1910, it became a city park.
But it is still a cemetery.
Everyone is still interred here. The bodies have not been removed.
After the tragedy in First Ward Cemetery in the late 1930s,
most of the monuments were leveled
with the interred, taking their names and stories with them
Vandalism is not a new problem.
Things were not always better in yesteryear.
Nostalgia is a great painter, but a poor historian.
An untended cemetery in the middle of a neighborhood
went from pleasant walking path to
a tempting place for young vandals.
More than 40 years after its closing,
people broke into Harvey Balwin's family vault
and desecrated it.
"In 1952, the interior of his mausoleum was disturbed for the very last time. That year, city stone master, Dave Clary had been called to the cemetery after word that individuals had gained entry to the Baldwin mausoleum. Clary opened the door to find eight bodies of the family spewed across the floor, their caskets long ago turning to dust. Clary obtained a permit to put the remains of the 8 family members into a single casket. The city made a decision to repair the mausoleum and install a metal door with bronze stripes at its entrance. The door consisted of a large lock, and the key was filed at the city clerk’s office. The door was then covered behind the stone you see today."
David Haas, SyracuseHistory
At least Harvey had a vault...it was big...hard to move.
Oliver Teall who was not only a war vet,
but a canal investor, banker, and entrepreneur was buried here.
He and his wife's markers went missing.
Someone took it as a souvenir.
"Another prominent Syracuse resident is buried at the top of the hill at Rose Hill Cemetery, Oliver Teall. Teall was the Erie Canal Superintendent who oversaw the construction of the canal in Syracuse. It was him whom Teall Avenue is named for. Passing away in 1857, his tombstone went missing in the mid-1900’s and was strangely found in 1991, 134 years after his death, in the basement of 1161 Grant Boulevard. This was the very same year that his former home, built on the Erie Canal, was demolished to make way for a credit union after a long battle between preservationists and the homeowner. The local papers stated that Teall must of had a 'restless soul.'"
~David Haas, SyracuseHistory
Now back at Rose Hill, it is set in concrete to prevent it from wandering again.
More about Oliver and his memorial here:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18799412/oliver-teall
More about Oliver and his memorial here:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18799412/oliver-teall
The marker of his wife Catherine is still missing.
Many other veteran memorials are missing:
Another marker lost was the location
of the burial of the last Revolutionary Soldier to pass away.
At 101, Rev. Daniel Waldo!
More about Daniel Waldo:
No sign properly recognizes him, his life, and his memory anymore.
Also lost is the knowledge that was contained on the headstones
in the African-American "African" section of the cemetery.
Yes, even in Syracuse, the heart of Abolitionism,
people were segregated in death.
Collectively, the African American Community is remembered
on this sign:
Individually, their final stories in stones are missing.
A few of the "Stories in Stone" that are gone
Their names are preserved at the OHA archives
By the Baldwin Mausoleum, is a stone that somehow survived.
It literally has a story to tell.
It is more than just a name and dates:
It is the story of Hugh Gibson:
"Mr. Gibson erected a large brick house at Grape and East Genesee streets, the site of the Hiawatha Building. He had to make a clearing in the woods at the time and for many years the house was one of the social centers of the village of Syracuse."
"Mr. Gibson erected a large brick house at Grape and East Genesee streets, the site of the Hiawatha Building. He had to make a clearing in the woods at the time and for many years the house was one of the social centers of the village of Syracuse."
~Syracuse Post Standard, 1915
He died in the line of duty in 1841 while responding to a building fire
along the Oswego Canal,
that unknown to the first responders, had gunpower in the basement.
25 men died, and more that 60 were injured.
Hugh was one life lost that day
pic by Pamela Priest
"Hugh T. Gibson, conducted the old Syracuse House and was one of a score or more of persons killed by the powder explosion of 1841." ~Syracuse Post Standard, 1915
He is probably the earliest burial here, before it became and official cemetery.
Just over 6 months later,
his wife, Susan, would lose their son, Marven, after a brief illness.
In all that grief, she still had a young daughter to think of.
She remarried Andrew Young Thompson, in 1844 ....
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92724511/andrew-young-thompson
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92724511/andrew-young-thompson
...and lived into her 90s
Maybe his marker survived because of his sad death...a tribute
Most likely it survived because it was at the top of the hill on a flat surface.
His marker must tell the story for the others
who fought fire and died in the explosion
who are buried at Franklin Burial Ground
as theirs is long gone.
Without reminders, we forget
Without markers, it is hard to remember.
Headstones help us rememeber...
Headstones are more than pieces of rock. They are connections to the past.
And somehow, in noting a headstone
---the meeting of a life of today, momentarily, with a life of yesterday---
a story continues on to the next generation.
And in this place of "The Last Great Necessity" the storytelling of life continues.
