As usual, the easiest way to find these sites is with a cemetery map. Run off the one provided at the end of this post, or get one from the cemetery office M-F 10-2. Whether you find the stones or not, you'll get a good walk, and perhaps see some deer, foxes, or turkeys. Keep your eyes open!
1. Peter Myers (block 32) If you take the road up the hill just to the right of the chapel, the large gray granite monument to the Myers family will be nearly at the top of the hill, on the right, behind the pretty white marble Crosby monument with the lady atop a column.
You have perhaps seen articles in the local newspaper about the recently renovated business block, "Block 42" on Janesville's Main street, but you may not have known that the building once belonged to prominent early businessman, Peter Myers, who ran a butcher shop in it.
Myers was born in France, but came to the United States with his parents as a young man, settling first in Pennsylvania. When his father died Peter moved to New York state and learned to be a butcher. After about ten years he came west and settled in Janesville, opening a butcher shop on North Main street. He did well, building a substantial brick home a block away from his shop, and later constructing the Young America Block (across from current Olde Towne Mall on South Main street), which was the site of a speech by Abraham Lincoln. In 1859 he built a new hotel on the corner of Main and Milwaukee street, and ten years later built the Myers Opera House. The Myers Opera House was a crucial part of the downtown, the heart of cultural life in Janesville. Many famous actors, musicians, and speakers performed here, including Robert Ingersoll and Mark Twain. The building burned in 1887, but was rebuilt, and much later was converted into a movie house that served the area until the 1970s. Peter Myers was also involved in building the "Armory Building" on the corner of West Milwaukee and Franklin streets - later a showroom for Leath furniture. Myers was also a charter member of the Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company and a stockholder in the Chicago & North Western Railroad and local cotton factories. In short, he was thrifty and hardworking, and a very influential person. According to the Gazette, when he died in 1888, his funeral was held the the Myers hotel, and thousands of people came to pay their respects and see his elaborate 600 pound casket.
2. Captain William Dick Cargill (block 97) Go back to the road you just took up the hill. Just a bit further along on the left you will see the massive, urn and lily topped family monument to the Cargills.
Captain William Dick Cargill was born in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, and was, by occupation a sea captain in the merchant marine. He immigrated to Long Island, New York, and there married Edna Davis. They produced two daughters and five sons, and his wife let him know in no uncertain terms that she did not want her boys to live near the ocean. Captain Cargill obliged Edna and sold off all his shipping interests and moved west to Wisconsin in 1856, settling in Janesville and engaging in farming. The family was deeply involved in the Methodist church here. He died in 1887 and his wife in 1892.
But of course today we do not automatically associate the name Cargill with shipping, unless you are talking about agricultural products. It was William and Edna's children who began and developed the company which grew into a massive multinational agribusiness corporation.
Their son, William Wallace Cargill, was the real businessman. He left Janesville and headed even further west to Conover, Iowa, where the railroad had just gone through. It was a small town, a few stores and hotels, lots of saloons, and an entire street of warehouses. Will Cargill was interested in the business potential of those warehouses. He formed a partnership with a man named Marsh and bought one. Sometimes they sold grain on consignment for farmers and sometimes they bought outright then sold at a profit when the market was favorable. Cargill went through several partners before he found one that lasted for generations, with the McMillan family. Together these two Scottish families grew the La Crosse based business, into what it has become today.
Will Cargill also gave the Janesville Methodists (First Methodist and Court Street Methodist) $10,000 for a new building. They combined operations and formed the Central Methodist church. which when the new church was finally built was called Cargill Methodist church.
3. George Kimball and Helen / Josie Bryant (block 97) These interesting monuments are in the same general area as the Cargills, just closer to the road. While I am not aware of any fascinating stories about the Kimballs, it would be a shame to pass up their markers.
George and Helen Kimball's large sarcophagus style monuments are very eye-catching. They are buried beneath them, rather than inside. George hailed from Massachusetts, and was a partner in a large and successful hardware business. He died while vacationing back east, and was returned to Janesville to be buried near his daughter Josie.
Josie's monument is also memorable. It is built in a rusticated style, with a curbed front that was meant to be filled with planted flowers. It features carved rocks, flowers, and vines, and her name is on a scroll at on the back. Be careful, because woodchucks love to dig around this monument.
4. Captain William Macloon (block 94) Keep walking up the same road, and not too far ahead on the right is the tall obelisk, parked with the image of a sailing ship with furled sails, on the right, under the trees. You can also look for the large iron planter at the base of the monument.
William Macloon was originally from Maine, the son of a sea captain, and he learned the sailing and shipping trade young. He sailed between Boston and Europe, Africa, and the West Indies, sometimes making good money and sometimes suffering great losses.
He married Christina Bennett in Boston in 1832, when he was a young man of twenty-five. Like Captain Cargill, he left life at sea and traveled west to invest in land in Wisconsin. He bought a sawmill in Janesville, built large home, and later bought land for a farm. Apparently he did well, because in 1852 he donated land for a rural one-room schoolhouse, first called Follansbee District School, later named Austin School. The following year he went into the real estate business, investing in several downtown business blocks, and becoming a stockholder in the Janesville Cotton Company.
He and his wife raised two children, William, who became a coal dealer in town, and whose wife donated money for the Women's club and Little Theater, and Helen, who married Fred Capelle.
5. Thomas Lappin (block 163) Now head back to the road and continue west until you come to a cross street, then turn right. Keep walking until just past the broad grassy area that runs up the hill. Block 163 will be on your left, and you will easily spot the Lappin family monument.
Thomas Lappin, one of Janesville's very early settlers, was originally from Ireland, born in 1812. His family came to the United States when he was a teenager, arriving first in New York, then heading to Detroit, where he apprenticed to a printer and set type for the first issue of the Detroit Free Press.
He left Michigan in 1838 and headed by steamboat to Milwaukee with a load of general merchandise he intended to use to set up a store with a partner. Unfortunately the ship was wrecked off the coast of Door county. He stored the salvaged goods near Green Bay and walked all the way south, first to Milwaukee, then on to the village of Janesville. He opened a log cabin store on Main street, which sold general merchandise such as ladies' bonnets and whiskey. Later he built a two story store on the same location, with his business on the ground level and Isaac Woodle's law office upstairs. With extra space he needed more goods to sell so he walked to Chicago to a wholesaler and purchased more goods, and was able to do a good business in the growing community. By 1843 Janesville had a population of about three hundred people, and already had a court house, and a couple hotels. Thomas married Mary Jackman, the daughter of the proprietor of the Stage House hotel, and moved to a farm on what is now North Parker Drive. Later they built a large house on St. Lawrence Avenue.
Business continue to be good for Lappin and in 1855 he began construction of a four story tall commercial structure on the corner of Main and Milwaukee streets which still stands. The first two floors were retail store and offices and the top two floors were Lappin Hall, the main public assembly hall in Janesville at the time. The Baptists and Episcopalians met there until they built their own buildings. The assembly hall was also used for concerts and lectures, and it became the hub for social and cultural life in the community. The building was sold to Dennis and Michael Hayes after Lappin's death in 1891, and they remodeled it, as have later owners.
6. Charles Henry "Harry" Anderson (block 163) Harry Anderson is buried nearby, but he has no marker.
It's a shame that some very interesting people associated with Janesville have no stone to mark their final resting place; this is true for Harry Anderson. Anderson was a black man, which was unusual in Janesville at that time, a barber, and a well known musician. Born in Ohio, he came to Janesville in 1865 and ran a popular tonsorial parlor and bathing rooms on North Main street. He was married to an Irish woman, and they were the parents of five children - all of whom did well for themselves. According to Maurice Montgomery Anderson also managed an orchestra, Anderson's String Band. Harry played the violin, and his son George played the guitar. There was also a bass viol player, cornet and clarinet player. All through the 1870s and 1880s the group played for evening dances all over the area. After his wife's death following surgery, Anderson returned to Chicago to live, but wanted to be buried with his wife here.
7. Joseph Morton Bostwick (block 160) You can walk across the grass heading west, toward the trees at the back of the cemetery. You'll reach the Bostwick monument before you get to the next road that runs north and south (Summit Ave.) The monument is under a shaded area, and is easy to spot from a distance.
J.M. Bostwick was originally from New York state, and like Thomas Lappin, he came here as a teenager with his parents. Bostwick's father had been a farmer and hotel proprietor in New York, and Joseph had some business experience before he ever came to Wisconsin. Once in Janesville the young man clerked for Bailey and Dimock's general store, and later worked for J.W. Wheelock. By the time he was twenty-two he had gone into partnership with O.K. Bennett, and later M.C. Smith, and opened a retail establishment that sold dry goods, carpets and clothing. The J.M. Bostwick store was always popular, and had a reputation for fair prices and good value over the years.
When Bostwick died in 1909 Mayor Heddles ordered city flags to be lowered to half mast, and asked downtown stores to lose for the funeral. Nearly 600 people came to the Bostwick home and there crowds lined the streets for the funeral procession to Oak Hill.
After his death his sons continued to operate the store, and renovated it several times. But shopping habits gradually changed after World War II, and when the Janesville Mall opened in 1973, the end was inevitable. Bostwick's department store closed in 1978l
By 1881 he had his own store at 16 South Main street, which was organized much like a modern department store, and he expanded more more store fronts over the years. He sold, among others things, military uniforms, shoes, children's clothing and toys, housewares, carpeting, women's ready-to-wear, and window dressings.
8. George and Anna Hatch (block 187) It may take some looking to find the modern Hatch double headstone because is isn't large, and it is in a area just north of the grassy strip that runs up the hill, in the "park within a park" area that has a circular drive.
George Hatch was born and raised in Elkhorn, and was always musical. He played the guitar and became part of the popular Johnny Smith Orchestra, and later learned the harp. To supplement his income he was a brick layer and mason. He married Anna in 1898, organized his own orchestra, and he and his wife began teaching ball-room dancing. They gave lessons in Janesville, and for a time also in Cincinnati. Hey taught dancing from around World War I until the early 1950s. Anna died in 1954, and he continued to teach until his death in 1965. In his obituary the Gazette called him the "dean of dance teachers."
