Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio

Established in 1869 as a nonprofit garden cemetery, Lake View Cemetery at 12316 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio contains a veritable who’s who from Cleveland’s once-storied past, including the remains of U.S. President James A. Garfield. Over 110,000 former residents are interred in its sprawling 285 acres.

This larger-then-life statue is dedicated to Scottish-American steel magnate Henry Chisholm (1822-1881). Chisholm emigrated to Montreal, Quebec at the age of 20. He steadily built a thriving construction business, then bought the Cleveland Rolling Mill with his brother in 1857. It became one of the largest steel companies in the U.S. His wife, Jean Allen, and he had five children. They are not buried beneath this monument (designed by sculptor Charles Henry Niehaus) but in the family mausoleum nearby.

This intimidating monument was erected in memory of U.S. Secretary of State John Milton Hay (1838-1905). Hay was a lawyer and Abraham Lincoln’s private secretary. He served President William McKinley as Ambassador to Great Britain, and then Secretary of State in 1898. He continued in that position under President Theodore Roosevelt. He was also an author who wrote a ten volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. His epitaph reads: “The fruit of righteousness is sown in place of them that make peace.”

A lovely monument to Henry Reynolds Hatch (1831-1915) and his wife Lida Newton Baldwin Hatch (1832-1886) and their family. Hatch, a Presbyterian, founded a dry goods business called H.R. Hatch & Company. After retirement, he participated in numerous charitable and philanthropic activities, including building Adelbert College’s Hatch Library and Lake View Cemetery’s own office. Four of Henry and Lida’s children died in infancy. His second wife was Mary C. Browne.

Eliot Ness (1903–1957) was a Prohibition agent and Public Safety Director for Cleveland from 1935 to 1942, best known for fighting bootleggers and helping bring down Al Capone in Chicago. His outfit was nicknamed “The Untouchables” for refusing to take bribes. Ironically, Ness suffered from alcoholism and financial insecurity for the rest of his life.

This unique bronze or copper medallion relief portrait adorns a granite monument to Newton Deloraime Fisher (1843-1893), his wife Imogene E Telford Fisher (1848-1936), and four of their children who died at a young age, including three in infancy. During the Civil War, he served in Company H, Second Ohio Cavalry. He went on to found a lumber business called Fisher and Wilson Company.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to photograph unique headstones like that of Alan Freed, the disc jockey who coined the term “rock and roll”. It’s worth a return visit!