Sunday cemetery tour features Boxwood in Medina

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 August 2026 at 9:28 am

File photo by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – A cemetery tour on on Aug. 27, 2023 at Boxwood Cemetery in Medina included a stop by the grave of May Howard, a survivor of the Titanic sinking on April 15, 1912.

Howard was 27 when she was on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Howard, a native of England, was headed to visit her brother in Toronto and then her sister in Albion. She traveled as a third-class passenger and secured a spot on a life boat. May lived locally until she died at age 68 in 1958. About 1,500 passengers died after the Titanic hit an ice berg. Howard was one of about 700 survivors.

Village of Medina Historian Todd Bensley will lead another tour of Boxwood this Sunday beginning at 6 p.m.

Boxwood Cemetery opened in 1850. About 5,000 people have been buried at the site north of the village on North Gravel Road (Route 63).

Sunday is the second of the Orleans County Historical Association’s tour of cemeteries on Sunday evenings in August.

County Historian Catherine Cooper led the first tour this past Sunday at the Maple Ridge Cemetery in Shelby. Nearly 40 people attended that tour.

Other tours after Boxwood include:

August 16 – Beechwood Cemetery, Kendall with Dave Gaudiso, Lydia Richardson and Former Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin (1523 W. Kendall Road & Woodchuck Alley, Kendall)
August 23 – Otter Creek Cemetery with Town of Gaines Adrienne Kirby (13252 Ridge Road, Gaines)
August 30 – Mt. Albion Cemetery with Former Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin and Village of Albion Historian Sue Starkweather Miller (Rt. 31, Telegraph Rd, Albion, NY 14411)