gemcityghoststories

Dayton’s skyline far surpasses the dreams of John Van Cleve, one of the city’s important leaders and Woodland’s founder. By the 1840s, Dayton was outgrowing its original cemetery at Third and Main Streets. Dayton’s pioneer families faced the problem. The village was growing and a larger, more suitable cemetery was needed, preferably on some of the beautiful wooded and rolling land with which Dayton was surrounded. Selecting from thousands of available acres, the original trustees, led by John Van Cleve, chose 40 acres remarkable for their hilltop views and their wide variety of trees. Opening in 1843, it was for that natural beauty that they chose to call it “Woodland.” At that time those acres seemed quite far from the center of the little city. Little did they know that, in the decades to come, Dayton would reach out to Woodland and then surround it on all sides.

In those days, Ohio was most popular for settling because of the value of our farm products. Southwestern Ohio had very good farms and had the largest Ohio city, Cincinnati, with a population of over 100,000. Dayton had about 20,000 people, one out of every four being foreign-born, mainly Irish and German, who had come to build the Miami-Erie Canal in the 1850s. Half were Ohio-born, with a few African-Americans. Dayton was already becoming industrial with the Barney & Smith Car Works, a leading producer of railroad cars. Streets were dirt, often mud, with wooden sidewalks. The Courthouse downtown was the best building there. It was built in the 1840s. 

Today, Woodland’s 200 acres make up one of the nation’s oldest “garden” cemeteries. Its Romanesque gateway, chapel and office, completed in 1889, are on the National Register of Historic Places. The chapel has one of the finest original Tiffany windows in the country. 100,000 monuments, ranging from rugged boulders to Greek statues and temples, note the lives of people who helped to shape a young nation and a young city. With more than 3,000 trees on its rolling hills, Woodland is recognized as one of the area’s finest arboretums. Many of its trees are more than a century old. Having burial space for many years to come, Woodland offers several types of burial services. In the Garden of the Soaring Spirit, lawn crypts provide the advantage of a modern memorial along with a smaller burial space.

Other parts of Woodland provide more efficient use of the land, featuring cremation and mausoleums. The beautiful architecture of Woodland Mausoleum with its rock and bronze face, features twenty-two varieties of imported marble and twelve large stained glass windows, inspired by famous literary works. The crematory and columbaria (storage for urns) in the building give families more options for remembering their loved ones. 

Erma Bombeck Boulder
A 29,000-pound rock has become a monument for writer Erma Bombeck’s grave. The massive rock was brought here by flat-bed truck from near her former home in Arizona. Her husband, Bill Bombeck, said he wanted a “piece of Phoenix” at Erma’s grave to commemorate the 25 years they spent together in Arizona.
Born Erma Louise Fiste in 1927 in Dayton, Ohio, she worked for a daily newspaper while in high school and while attending the University of Dayton. After graduating she became a reporter for the Dayton Journal-Herald (which later became the Dayton Daily News), where she also wrote feature stories and a housekeeping column for the women’s page, continuing until the birth of her first child in 1953. By 1964 she was the mother of three, and returned to her column appearing in more than 800 newspapers. Her witty-but-wise columns poked fun at family life from her place as a suburban housewife. One of her six best sellers won the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor in 1990 for advice to help children survive cancer. This internationally read humor columnist died of complications following a kidney transplant operation in 1996.

A Boy and His Dog
In the 1860s there was a boy, Johnny Morehouse, the youngest son of John and Mory, who lived with them in the back of his father’s shoe repair shop. One day the five-year-old was playing near his home by the edge of the Miami & Erie Canal (which used to run along the present Patterson Blvd. in downtown Dayton near the library).
The boy accidentally fell into the canal water. His dog, playing by him, jumped into the water and tried to save him. He pulled the boy out, but not in time to save his life. The boy drowned and was buried in Woodland Cemetery. Legend has it that, several days after the burial, the dog appeared next to the boy’s grave staying by it morning, noon, and night. Visitors to the cemetery saw him and began to worry about his health. Some began leaving him bits of food. Passersby still bring small toys and other trinkets to decorate the grave marker to express their spontaneous outpourings of sympathy. Some visitors put money there. A lady who walks the cemetery every day collects the money and buys something for the grave often. As you can see on his grave marker, he already has toys to play with – his harmonica, his top, his cap, his ball.

Beckel Beehive
This unusual beehive, or skep, is a monument marking the final resting place of Daniel Beckel, who lived from 1814 to 1862. Daniel helped to start the first Dayton bank. He was also the builder of the Beckel Hotel and Opera House, a popular entertainment center in Dayton in the mid 1800s. In funerary, or monument art, a beehive represents having good character and promising “abundance in the Promised Land.” There is no other connection to beehives known in Daniel Beckel’s life.
 

Queen of the Gypsies
In 1856, Owen Stanley, king of gypsy tribes in England, came to the U.S. with many of his group because England was so thickly populated. He wanted to make Dayton his permanent home. He bought land in the City of Dayton as well as Harrison, Wayne, Mad River, and Butler townships so they could raise horses and winter there, renting out their farms while they took to the road as soon as the weather became warm.Gypsies were a group of nomadic people whose ancestors are said to have originated in Eastern Europe. Within their groups they have rulers, sometimes women, who decide what is best for their tribe. British gypsies had so many kings and queens – from King John Bucelle in 1657 down to the Gypsy Queen of the U.S., Matilda Stanley, royally buried at Woodland Cemetery in 1878. It is rare that such royalty would be buried here, or that an American clergy would preach at the funeral of a queen, but that happened.

Queen Matilda had died of cancer in February. Her husband, Levi Stanley, son of Owen Stanley, sent her body to Woodland to be kept in a vault for burial in September. Newspapers here and in many large American cities sent special reporters who printed long columns of accounts before and after the funeral. The Sunday of the event, thousands of people came in from surrounding places by special trains. An estimated crowd of 25,000 swarmed over the avenues and grounds of the cemetery. Police were needed to make way for the funeral procession. The newspaper said a procession of 1000 carriages began downtown and was so long it had to be refused admission at the cemetery gates. Around the gravesite there were so many people that the minister had to deliver his sermon while standing on a wooden plank laid across the open grave under an umbrella in the rain. The king and his tribe, being heartbroken, stayed around the Queen’s still open grave as the great crowd left. Her younger daughters were so upset that they jumped down into the grave onto the marble slab to be closer to their mother and sobbed tenderly.

A granite monument marks the grave of King Levi and Queen Matilda Stanley. Funerals of the Stanley gypsies were quite elaborate. They spared no expense to give their loved ones dignity and show their regard for the dead. The funeral coaches, the undertaker’s hearse, a long procession, a rich casket, and a great profusion of flowers were all a part of the event. The women came dressed in their best silks, satins, or velvets. Their fingers were adorned with much gold. The gypsy woman who possesses money does not hesitate to buy expensive things when she has set her heart on them. When you visit the Stanley graves, look for the messages and verses carved on their slabs, called ledgers. 

One tale of Woodland Cemetery is one of a young lady who sits alone on one of the park benches. Men have chased the ghostly gal only to catch nothing.

    Woodland Time Line 1840
  John Van Cleve initiates movement to establish rural cemetery.

1841
  First organizational meeting of subscribers to new cemetery.

1843
  Cemetery opened and lots offered for sale. Cemetery dedicated on June 21. First interment in cemetery on July 9.

1844
  Work begun on sexton’s house, roads, fences, etc.

1847
  Receiving vault built as an Egyptian style temple in the theme of Thebes and Karnak.

1848
  Cholera epidemic, 225 burials.

1849
  Plans for gateway, chapel, office. Stone fence for cemetery. First high school in Dayton. Courthouse at Third and Main finished.

1850
  Railroad comes to Dayton.

1851
  James Hanna family and others removed from an old burying ground at northeast corner of Third and Main.

1852
  Samuel Forrer, an engineer, makes survey of cemetery grounds and lays out roads.

1861
  Civil War (ended 1865). Dayton has 20,000 people.

1877
  First well sunk. A steam pump raised water to a reservoir on the summit.
  Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

1878
  New residence built for cemetery superintendent. Old house used for office and reception rooms.

1880
  Dunbar publishes first book of poetry, Oak & Ivy.

1881
  Boonshoft Museum of Discovery begins as Dayton Museum of Natural History.

1882
  Carriages permitted in Woodland on Easter Sunday.

1884
  Spanish-American War (April to August 1898).

1885
  Pumping station built on Wyoming St. to pump water to summit.

1886
  Plans for gateway, office and chapel buildings, using stone from the cemetery fence.

1903
  First airplane flight by Wright Brothers.

1904
  Window for north wall of Chapel installed by Heinegke & Bowen of N.Y. (Tiffany Studios).

1908
  35 acres of land purchased from University of Dayton.
  Tunnel built under Stewart Street to connect it to main cemetery.

1909
  Cemetery lot owners denied permission to drive automobiles inside cemetery.

1910
  Automobile hearses allowed in cemetery. Cars and trucks purchased for cemetery work.
  Rules prepared for autos in cemetery. Kettering invented electric ignition for cars.

1912
  Shelter house and iron gates completed at Waldo Street.

1913
  Dayton flood. Fifty victims of flood interred during March.

1915
  Stone vaults, first used, purchased from Portsmouth Stone Co.

1916
  Dayton Daily News produces largest single-day paper in world.

1917
  U.S. entered World War I (ended 1918).

1918
  Influenza epidemic.

1929
  Stock market crash, the Depression begins.

1935
  Wood box burials prohibited for adults.

1936
  U.S. entered World War II (ended 1945). World War II manpower shortage.
  400 sheep “employed” to keep grass “mowed.”
  Discontinued next year because of “difficulty in controlling natural grazing habits.”

1950
  Korean War (ended 1953).

1951
  Pump house windows bricked and well filled, no longer used after City water available.

1955
  Kettering becomes a city.

1961
  Acreage south of Stewart Street opened for sale.

1965
  Vietnam War (ended in 1973).

1968
  Ground broken for mausoleum and crematory, completed in 1970.

1969
  First cremation in new crematory. First moon walk.

1970
  Bronze marker for Wright Brothers erected. “Avenue of Flags” dedicated for all veterans.

1974
  Xenia tornado.

1976
  Nation celebrates its 200th birthday; Woodland celebrates its 135th birthday.

1978
  The big blizzard.

1979
  Main office building, gates, and old chapel placed in National Register of Historic Places.

1980
  96-niche unit built at center of Lawn Crypt area with bronze “Soaring Spirit” feature statue placed above it.

1981
  Land exchanged between cemetery, State of Ohio (Mental Hospital grounds), and UD, adding seven
  acres of land bounded by Wilmington Avenue and east line of Dayton City Reservoir.
  Lake drained to remove mud and debris and repair banks.

1984
  First computer purchased for cemetery. New uniform signage system designed and erected.

1986
  New park-like water stations installed.

1988
  Stewart Street underpass renovated and landscaped.

1990
  Woodland documentary video produced.

1991
  Woodland celebrates 150th birthday. $1.2 million building and renovation project completed.
  Woodland Arboretum Foundation established. Woodland’s history book written.

1995
  Inaugural Board of Trustees of Woodland Arboretum Foundation formed.

1996
  Cemetery roadways resurfaced.

1998
  Free audio tours offered by Arboretum Foundation.

2000
  Woodland Mausoleum renovated; Victorian columbarium room and fountain added.

2001
  www.woodlandcemetery.org.

The area shown in the photo on the left is said to have had extremely high EMF readings (as high as 19 milligauss) as well as shadow people activity.