Boxwood tour highlights Medina’s historic cemetery
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – A cemetery tour on Sunday evening 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.
The tour highlighted many of the architectural features of the cemetery and the symbols on the grave stones. The George A. Beach Mausoleum includes the symbol of an Egyptian winged globe, which retired Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin said signified “divine protection.”
Mr. Beach was a manufacturer of iron goods.
Village of Medina Historian Todd Bensley led the tour of Boxwood. He is shown here at the chapel at Boxwood, which was built with a $22,000 donation from the late Silas Burroughs, who was influential in the pharmaceutical industry. His father also served in Congress.
A stained-glass window is being repaired in the chapel and is expected to be installed soon.
Bensley has written a 314-page book, “Boxwood Cemetery: Where the Past is Present.”
He also helped the cemetery secure a designation on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
The cemetery opened in 1850. About 5,000 people have been buried at the site north of the village on North Gravel Road (Route 63).
The 20-acre site is a distinctive example of several cemetery movements. It was originally established in the Rural Cemetery manner in 1850. The cemetery initially was focused on a hill. The later sections were added in the Lawn Park and Memorial Park styles.
Todd Bensley, far right, tells a group of about 50 people this spot offers his favorite view of Boxwood Cemetery.
Boxwood reflects the changing and developing tastes in cemetery design from the mid 19th Century to the late 20th Century.
Drawing from contemporary English romantic landscape design ideas, rural cemeteries such as Boxwood utilized varied topography, curving drives for carriages and separate pedestrian pathways.
Bensley said the winding pathways proved a challenge to maintain. Boxwood shifted to a simpler design after about the 1890s to make it easier to mow the grass and take care of the gravesites.
“It all looks very nice, and it is very nice,” Bensley told the group about the cemetery section on the hill. “But it’s a nightmare to maintain.”
The Friends of Boxwood Cemetery will be hosting an evening tour of the cemetery on Sept. 30. Proceeds from last year’s event helped pay for the stained-glass repair.
Bensley said the Friends of Boxwood would like to have a memorial with the names of 107 people buried in a potter’s field. Many do not have gravestones with their names on them. Once the stained-glass window is complete, Bensley said the group expects to work on the memorial for the people in the potter’s field.
Bill Lattin, center, describes some of the symbols for the monument for the L’Hommedieu family.
Lattin gave his first tour of a cemetery in 1994 at Mount Albion. There were about 300 people at the that tour. Lattin said the cemeteries are popular with many local people who walk or jog by the gravesites.
He started giving the tours because he thought it was a way of sharing local history, and helping people to know about the symbols and architecture at the sites.
The Boxwood tour capped the local cemetery tours organized by the Orleans County Historical Association. The group typically has cemetery tours on Sunday evenings in August. Other tours this month included Hillside Cemetery in Holley/Clarendon, Mount Albion and the old St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Albion.
George Ambrose Bowen (1867-1945) was featured on the cemetery tour. He was instrumental in development of Medina Memorial Hospital. He was a president of the S.A. Cook & Co. and was chairman of the board of the hospital for nearly 35 years. He was largely responsible for the hospital being built in 1924, Bensley said.
The Swett family monument includes the burial site for Albert Swett. He created Glenwood Lake and Lake Alice to generate power. (He built Glenwood Lake next to Boxwood Cemetery from 1903 to 1905.) He ran Swett Iron Works in Medina. Some sewer grates and manhole covers from a century ago continue to be used. Sweet named Lake Alice in Carlton in honor of his daughter Alice, who died of scarlet fever at age 11.
Mr. Swett lived from 1850 to 1924. His daughter died in 1884.
Swett’s sister, Dr. Emily Sweet, practiced for 30 years and was a member of many medical societies. She returned to Medina in 1918 to help the community during a major flu outbreak.
