Saturday, February 7, 2009

Woodlawn Cemetery

When the snow's gone I'm going to go hog wild in this place.



David Ross Locke, AKA Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby, Abraham Lincoln's favorite humorist.


Does anyone know why this one has a chair in it?


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5 comments:

irene said...

I suggest that the chair is there so that the shade of Ludwig can rest while waiting his turn before St. Peter.

I'm glad you are going to give some attention to this beautiful place. You can find many of my ancestors there -- those who are younger than the ones in Forest Cem. It will be fun to see whether their markers make it into any of your images.

February 9, 2009 at 9:24 PM
irene said...

But it looks its best in the snow.

February 9, 2009 at 9:26 PM
Dorene from Ohio said...

I am curious about the chair too!
Is this cemetery in Norwalk, Ohio?

February 10, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Anonymous said...

I think this is the story of the chair:

Just inside the entrance gates is another unusual monument, erected for Bessie Ludwig. It features a granite replica of the easy chair upon which she spent the last twenty-five years of her life. After the death of her husband, Putnam County recorder and successful oil businessman LeRoy McIntyre Ludwig (1846-1905), she became a familiar sight resting in her easy chair. Supposedly she slept sitting up because she feared that if she lay down she would never get up again. When Ludwig died in 1930, relatives shipped her chair to a Vermont quarry to ensure the carving of an exact replica. Once finished, the chair made its journey to Toledo by rail and was then transferred onto a special car that carried it down the Central Avenue trolley line. Tracks laid into the cemetery allowed the monument, designed by the Lloyd Brothers, to be transported to its final resting place.

from: http://www.historic-woodlawn.com/historylong.html

February 10, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Jeffrey Smith said...

Thank you. Oddly, the grandmother of an old friend, in Pennsylvania, had a cast iron lawn chair for a grave marker. Her first husband had died in about 1910 and she kept it beside his grave so she could visit every day. Left instructions that it should be used to mark her grave.
Doreen: It's in Toledo. I'll be linking to your blog tomorrow. Not enough energy to deal with links tonight.

February 10, 2009 at 8:55 PM

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