Coming Up: Chill at Oak Hill Twilight Tour

Last year I offered, in connection with the Rock County Historical Society, for the first time, a twilight tour of Oak Hill.  Unlike my usual Saturday morning casual walks that emphasize early settlers and others who built up our town one way or another, I lead these late afternoon walks in costume, and the emphasis here is on the eerie. Think horrific accidental deaths, murder, and folks who claimed to be clairvoyants and mediums.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised at having local mediums, since Janesville is fairly close to Whitewater, which was at one time headquarters of the Morris Pratt Institute, a school for spiritualists. Last year the tours were very popular and more folks wanted to attend than I could accommodate.

This year I will again be leading tours, this time six of them, and I hope there is enough interest to make the extra walks worthwhile.  There is a minimal charge of $5 that goes to support the RCHS, and tickets can be ordered here.

The tours are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the first two weeks of October. Each tour starts at the chapel, and lasts just under an hour, from five o'clock in the afternoon until six.  People who attend should dress for the weather, which can be a little chilly in October, and wear sensible footwear.  Also, be aware that there are no bathroom facilities at the cemetery.

That said, people last year seemed to enjoy the tour, both the stories and the shadowy atmosphere of Oak Hill at that time of day.  We never saw the Lady in White last year, but this year, who knows?

Headstone Walk

I have been leading informal walks through Oak Hill for several years, and the tour I like to lead at least once each year is the one that shows off interesting headstones.  This tour emphasizes the variety of different sorts of monuments and discusses some of the symbolism included on the stones.  There are several site on the internet that do a good job of describing headstone symbolism, so I won't do that here. This is a good one.

Oak Hill was established in 1851 as a garden style cemetery, with meandering roads, lots of decorative trees and flowering bushes, and lovely old Victorian monuments and headstones.  It does not resemble modern memorial parks with their markers flush to the ground for easy mowing, arranged in neat and tidy rows.

There are two kinds of markers to look for, family monuments, which tend to be large, sort of billboards advertising the final resting place of a family, and then individual headstones.  Often the monument is in the middle of the family plot, and the individual headstones arranged around the central monument. Sometime the headstones only have initials, or a general indication of the person, like "Mother" or "Papa."  Sometimes there is a raised curb around the entire plot - something the parks department mowers do not especially like today.

Here is a walk you can try on your own.  There are lots more interesting stones to see besides these, but if you want to walk this route you will get a nice sampling, and it shouldn't take more than an hour.  To begin, get a map from the office, or download the one from one of my earlier posts. It seriously helps to have a map of the blocks.  Then dress sensibly for the weather and uneven terrain. Watch where you step because the ground can be uneven and I promise you, there are woodchuck holes.

1. Ithamar Conkey Sloan vault - part way up the hall near the chapel.  This is the family vault of a politician from Abraham Lincoln's cabinet.  It was faced with marble originally, with all the names engraved.  That has fallen away.

2. Dearborn family (block 16) A life-sized tree with twining ivy, cross. The Culvers also have a tree monument in block 83.

3. Morris Carter Smith (block 17) The monument of a child, it is a broken column with a wreath.

4. John Griffiths (block 12) An obelisk with a crown and hand pointing toward heaven.

5. Gerald "Dad" Braisher (block 23) - Helmet, the Packer "G" logo, which Braiser designed.

6. Odd Fellows area - near Gerald Braisher - Obelisk with Odd Fellows symbol of interlocking rings.

7. Jennie Coryell Weiglef (block 28) - Tablet with floral wreath

8. Alice Crosby (block 30) - Tall column topped with the statue of a woman pointing to heaven, scroll, anchor, doves.

9. Sergeant Henry Whittier (block 96) Eagle and shield, Hands and Bibles, Doves on an obelisk

10. Julia Fuller (block 97) Draped Box

11 Josie Kimball Conant (block 97) Rusticated monument with rocks, ivy, lilies, and an area designed to be a small garden.

12. John and Esther McMartin (block 112) Hand reaching down, broken chain, weeping willow

13. Kerr family - Bible, rose, hand pointing to heaven, Masonic symbol of square and compass

14. G.A.R section - Standardized government stone for Union soldiers from the Civil War, the corner markers of the section are cannon muzzles and balls.

15. Gaylord Griswold (block 94) Draped urn on a column

16. Eliza Ellis (block 80) Clasped hands and floral wreath on a tablet

17. Alden children (block 81) Small obelisk with floral wreath

18. Capt. William Macloon (block 94) Obelisk with three-masted ship with furled sails

19. Emma Matilda DeBaun (block91) Scroll, book, lamb

20. Captain George Bentley (block 91) Sword and shield, Union cap

21. Thomas Jefferson Nichols (block 91) Railroad car

22. Charles Brown (block 91) Father Time and the weeping virgin (Masonic imagery) on upright tablet with urn

23. Diademia and Frances Childs (block 69) Rusticated monument with stones, tree, ivy, roses, knotted rope

24. James and Melvina Biddles (block 69) Truncated obelisk with draped pall, clasped hands

25. Stephen Spaulding (block 75) Shock of wheat

Sad Sight

One of the things I can't help noticing while walking around Oak Hill is the sad sight of broken headstones and toppled monuments. I'm not even going to mention those stones and monuments that are so weathered or covered with moss and lichens that they have become unreadable.

People on my tours often assume that broken and toppled stones are the result of vandalism or damage by mowers, and while malicious or careless damage does occasionally happen, most of the causes are natural.  Here in Wisconsin, with annual freezing and thawing cycles, headstones shift a bit every year.  Blame part of the problem on winter.  Then there are those shady mature oak, hickory, maple trees whose roots interfere with headstones, sometimes whose trunks actually encase small stones.  Not so long ago I saw a monument toppled after a summer storm broke a large tree limb free, and it fell on one of those old vertical stones.  Some of the stones are not set on secure bases, so they gradually shift. In the oldest parts of the cemetery, where  burials did not involve a cement vault, the wooden coffins deteriorate, the ground sinks, and the stones move.  This is especially true at Oak Hill, where many burials are set into the side of the hill. Then there are burrowing critters, mostly woodchucks, but also skunks and foxes, who destabilize the ground.

The cemetery, which is now run by the City of Janesville Parks department, is not responsible for repairing or resetting old stones, which are the property of the grave site owners.  Unfortunately, often there are no living family members to assume responsibility for the fallen or broken headstones.  Technically plot owners are also responsible to keep old stones from being dangerous.  A quick Google search will illustrate accidents where both adults and children were killed by falling monuments.  One wonders about liability in such cases. Some of the old tall stones at Oak Hill lean perilously, and I wouldn't want to stand under them too long for fear of staying permanently.

 I think the caretaker occasionally works with local monument seller/installers to right historic stones, and I have spoken to people who have hired the work done, though it is not inexpensive. I don't know what the solution is to this problem.  Perhaps there could be a friends group who adopts a block and helps to do or finance expert repairs, or perhaps there are grants for such things. 

 But it is sad.

What's In a Name?

Joe Blow block 212

One of the little pleasures I get from recording burials at Oak Hill on the Find a Grave site, is occasionally finding interesting names.  Sometimes it's just that the name is old-fashioned, or foreign sounding, or alliterative, and sometimes it's something else.  Recently I found headstones for the Blow family, including Joe Blow.  I wonder if he was just an ordinary guy.

Preserved Albee block 73

Another name that always makes me scratch my head a little is Preserved Albee, who apparently was a well respected farmer, originally from New York state.  I suspect the name has religious connotations, "preserved" as in "saved."  But one cannot help considering other meanings for the name.

Electa Bangs block 16

One of the earliest names I recorded was that of Electa Bangs, which always sounds rather electric, or possibly explosive.  She also was born in New York state, as were many early Rock county settlers, and her son George was a US Postal Service official who developed a railroad mail car, and made the idea of quick mail delivery a reality. 

Frances Paris block 61

Orlando Florida block 101

These names are geographic,  Mrs. Paris may or may not have traveled to the City of Light, but I do know she passed away in 1955. It's surprising how many stones lack a date of death - I found her obituary in the archives of the local newspaper.  Mr. Florida was a farmer and cheese maker. One of the men who mows lawn for the city parks department confided to me that when his supervisor asked how far he got in mowing the cemetery, he said he got as far as Orlando Florida.  

Ithamar Conkey Sloan vault near the chapel

Finally there is Mr. Ithamar Conkey Sloan, who despite his unusual and multi-syllabic name, was a US congressman in the Lincoln administration, and also served to represent Wisconsin's second district in the House of Representatives.  Unusual names ran in that family. His grandson carried the same moniker. His wife was Celestia, and another son was named Horace Greeley Sloan.

There are other name I enjoy at Oak Hill, but this is a fair introduction to some of my favorites.

Kathy in the Office

Kathy Greenwell - Oak Hill cemetery office manager

I have been wandering around Oak Hill, looking for and photographing headstones, recording old burials on Find a Grave, for the past five or so years.  I use all sorts of aids to help me find my way around and figure out who is who.  There is the library copy of the Rock County Genealogy Society's Guide to Oak Hill Cemetery, which covers burials up to 1996, archives of the Janesville Gazette, books written by the former director of the Rock County Historical Society, Maurice Montgomery, and so on.  But when I get really stuck I go to see Kathy in the cemetery office.

Kathy answers the telephone, sells plots, and is mistress of the huge old card file that contains handwritten records of all the old burials going back to 1851.  She also has old books with charts detailing each block, family plot, and individual burial space.  Want a map or a list of all the cemetery rules and regulations? She is your woman. I hate to pester her, but when I need to find answers, she is endlessly patient and helpful.

If you have questions that she might be able to answer you can visit the cemetery office Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.  You can also call 608-754-4030.