MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY And finally, the cemetery 1s a 196-acre muse- Parker we~ecaptured and tortured to death by AS A MUSEUM OF HISTORY um of history. And that 1s the subject that I the Indians in a frightful ritual~sticsenes of have selected for this article. Let's take a tortures that lasted throughout a whole night by Richard 0. Reisem chronological journey through some highlights and that has had no equal in American history. photos by Frank A. Gillespie of 225 years represented in Mount Hope. The recovered pieces of their young bodies were finally put to rest in Section BB of There are several ways to look at Mount Hope Mount Hope Cemetery. The Oneida Indian Cemetery. You can regard the cemetery as a guide in the scouting party, Han Yerry, was park, where man-made features combine with also killed in the ambuscade and is buried with nature to make one of the most transcendental- Boyd and Parker. ly beautiful areas in western New York. Colonel Nathaniel Rochestel; the founder of Jonathan Child, jirst mayor of the city of Rochestel; zs buried in Section R on Rochesteq is buried in Section R. a hill overlooking the Genesee River and downtown Rochester The sculpture of a weary Civil War soldier and the company bugle boy was sculpted by Sally James Farnham, a student of Frederic Remington. Second, the cemetery is also a nonpareil out- In 1779, General John Sullivan and his army The founder of our city, Colonel Nathaniel door sculpture and architectural museum. of 5000 men arrived in western New York on Rochester, is buried in Section R on top of orders from General George Washington to Rochester Hill which overlooks the Genesee Third, the cemetery can be viewed for its destroy the Seneca Indian nation. On River and downtown. The Latin inscription on immense repository of Victorian and contem- September 13, General Sullivan sent out a his tombstone reads: "Si monumentum requiris porary symbolism. scouting party to locate the principal Seneca circumspicie," which translates to: "If you village from which Chief Little Beard ruled his would seek his monument, look about you." Fourth, the cemetery, with its wide diversity of nation. That scouting party was led by a strap- epitaphs and inscriptions, can be studied for ping 23-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Boyd and Myron Holley was handsome, courteous, well the variety of poetic sentiment to be found was overwhelmed in the historic Groveland educated, and particularly articulate. When you there. Ambuscade. Boyd and Sergeant Michael view his obelisk, you may have difficulty eval- uating his physical qualities, since his likeness clubbed him with a hammer, and threw his introduced a plan for creating such a railroad in the bas relief sculpture on top of the hill in body over the precipice. Ira's eyeglasses and and spent years promoting its feasibility and Section G is badly deteriorated. On the east other evidence accompanied the fall, were practical use. He wrote and lectured incessant- face of the obelisk is a bas relief sculpture of recovered, and he was arrested, tried, convict- ly across the country for the fulfillment of his his daughter, Sallie Holley, and it is in much ed, and hanged on October 22, 1858. He is dream until finally in 1861 the enterprise was better condition. Myron Holley is the unsung buried in an unmarked grave in Section D right begun. Union Pacific Railroad thanked him for hero of Rochester, for it was he, along with beside the distinguished upright Rochesterian his efforts by erecting in Range 2 a 50-foot- DeWitt Clinton, who became a principal cru- family of Hiram Sibley. high memorial, the second highest monument sader to build the hotly contested Erie Canal. in the cemetery. He became a canal commissioner and its treas- Elizabeth Atkinson Finney, buried in southern urer. For eight years, he traveled the canal part of Section G, was the wife of the Kit Carson Cody, buried in Range 2, was the son of Colonel William F. Codv.,, better known as Buffalo Bill. Kit died of scarlet fever at the age of 5 years. Buffalo Bill and his family lived in Rochester from 1873 to 1877. It was here where he developed his combination trav- eling circus, theatrical troupe, and stunt show known as the Wild West Show. Kit Carson played the part of a native American Indian boy. At 7:30 p.m. on November 9, 1888, a fire started in the basement of the Steam Gauge and Lantern Works. It swept up the stairs and elevator, trapping 60 workers on the 5th, 6th, and 7th floors. In all, 34 men and boys per- ished, the worst death toll for any fire in our city's history. A large memorial to them stands in Section BB. And some people were even born in this famous place. Actually, Nancy Harris was not born in the cemetery, because Mount Hope wasn't established until 1838. In 1818, howev- er, there was a one-room log cabin here where -she was born, joining her nine siblings and parents in the crowded cabin where they had to barricade the door and windows against the wolves and bears. Despite Detroit's claims to the contrary, the D,: Hartwell Carter was the father of the trcznscontinental man who invented the first gasoline automo- railroad. Union Pacific Railroad rewarded him with this bile lies in Mount Hope Cemetery. George 50-foot-high memorial in Range 2. Selden made his first engine in 1878 and route on horseback, paying the workers, sleep- Reverend Charles Grandison Finney, the fun- ing in shacks or under the stars, eating with damentalist preacher. His evangelical, fire-and- Irish diggers, nursing malaria sufferers, and brimstone sermons at revival meetings helped Plihlrthed q~inrterlybv the Frlends qf, even burying cholera victims when others to cause 19th-century western New York to be Hope refused to touch their bodies. But what he called "the Burned-over District," which Xetv York 1 - ,. .-. - accomplished, the Erie Canal, became the final implied that the many revivals that had swept ur~""'.- - element that created the Flour City. over it like wildfire had left very few people 8 2004 The F it Hope Cemel yet to be converted. Finney pronounced that Rrcha n. Editor Jonathan Child, buried in Section R, was Rochester was, quote, "full of thrift and enter- Frmk. .A crrlrespre, rtlorogrupher Rochester's first mayor. In his inaugural prise and full of sin." Don MLzlczewlski, A rr Director address in 1834, he said, "Let us forget our Lucrlle Malt czew.rki, Edr toriul As~rsrant politics and our parties and seek only the pub- Monroe County provided 10,000 soldiers to <.;, <.;, n,o,,,,,,l.,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,*.,n,.,hnr'.l,;n .,.,,, is $20. Call lic good." Sound advice for Rochester and the Union cause in the Civil War. Half of them Monroe County even today. were from the city of Rochester and many of 51-3494 for N free pock-t .t guide to k them are buried in the Civil War lot in Section Ipe Ce~nctet? and n me1~~her~hip LIP Marion Ira Stout was in love with his sister, BB. 7n. See our colorfril nno Sarah, who was married to Charles Littles. rm. org During an incestuous brotherlsister relation- Dr. Hartwell Carver published a series of arti- ship, Marion Ira lured Charles to High Falls, cles proposing a transcontinental railroad. He applied for a patent in 1879. Henry Ford didn't Clayla, was, for sevddecades of the 20th century, believe in the U.S. patent systenl and used 11the Grande Dame of Rochester. m to mention one Selden's idea. So Selden sued. An I I-year of the founders of the Chatterbox Club and involved court battle resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court in many civic and philanthropic organizations. On ruling that technological changes in auto man- Apd 11, 1%5, she learned that her 35-year-old son, ufacturing over those 11 years made Selden's Addison, and his son, Peter, aged 7 years, had been patents invalid. I think it was a blessing in dis- killed in a tomado in Ohio. They are buried next to guise, because otherwise Rochester could be her gravesite in Range 4. Detroit today. Selden's grave is in Section C. Lynne Clarke, as zoning director of Rochester, John Jacob Bausch discovered a way to make led the city to adopt a preservation ordinance eyeglass frames from hard rubber. He teamed in 1969. Rochester was the second city in New up with Henry Lomb to design and build the York State to create architectural preservation first high-powered lens-grinding machine in of historic structures. Rochester's ordinance the U.S. And the great optical company was N(rnc.y Harris nus hriried on the sire created the city's largest preservation district launched. The partners in business decided to n-here she was horn in Section H. on East Avenue. This preservation district was be partners in death by purchasing a single plot followed by seven more, one of which for their two families. The family monument includes Mount Hope Cemetery. Lynne Clarke reads "Bausch-Lomb" on one side, but to be was also mentor to me when I was chairman of fair, "Lomb-Bausch" on the other side. Their the Rochester Preservation Board. She is lot is in Section D beneath a great weeping buried in Section U. beech tree. Nicolaos Tahou was a Rochester restaurateur Johnny Baker became the son that Buffalo Bill who ran a friendly, popular, 24-hour restaurant Cody lost when Kit Carson died.