Cemetery tour at Boxwood highlights monuments, key contributors to Medina

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Village Historian Todd Bensley led a tour of Boxwood Cemetery in Medina on Sunday evening for about 30 people. The group is shown near the grave for Robert H. Newell who ran a high-end shirt business in Medina on West Center Street. The business at one time had 100 employees on three floors.

The tour was part of a series of cemetery tours on Sunday evenings in a fundraiser for the Orleans County Historical Association. The tours starts at 6 p.m.

Upcoming tours 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 Historian 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, Albion, NY 14411)

Bensley and the group at Boxwood stop by the monument for the L’Hommedieu family. It marks the resting place for former New York State Senator Irving L’Hommedieu and family members. L’Hommedieu as state senator originated the idea of registering cars.

This monument is in the “white bronze” style with a distinctive blue-gray color. It has a high resistance to moss and lichen growth.

The group is by the Skinner monument for LeRoy Skinner who served in the Spanish-American War and was a commanding officer in World War I, Bensley said. Skinner was one of the first people to own an automobile in medina, and helped start the Medina Automobile Club.

The tour went on the top of the cemetery. Boxwood opened in 1850 on a hill north of the village of Medina. A year earlier, David Card expressed a dying wish to be buried on the hill. It was the inspiration for Boxwood Cemetery, which now has about 5,000 burials.

A Revolutionary War solider is buried at Boxwood. Daniel Samson is buried on the hill. The gravestone is in pieces. He is the only known Revolutionary War soldier at Boxwood.

Bensley highlighted Edmund Fuller who served three years in the War of 1812. He was from Massachusetts and was headed west to claim land in Illinois. But Fuller stopped in Medina while traveling along the Erie Canal.

He liked the community and stayed, and several generations of the Fuller family have since been contributors to Medina.