Wind-whipped leaves and unsettled autumn nights mean only one thing: We’re creeping into the spookiest time of year. What better time for a graveyard trek?
If you like a good graveyard ramble, you probably know all about Cleveland’s historic Lake View Cemetery with its famous residents, interesting monuments and garden setting. Here are a few others to explore:
Medina County
Two circus giants and their infant son are buried in Seville’s Mound Hill Cemetery (4529 Seville Road/East Main Street). Capt. Martin Van Buren Bates was 7 feet, 9 inches tall. His wife, Anna Bates, stood at 7 feet, 11 inches. They toured with P.T. Barnum in the late 1800s, married and eventually settled in Seville. They’re buried, along with their newborn son, beneath a huge statue of Anna.
Summit County
Survivors of the Titanic are buried in Akron’s historic Glendale Cemetery. One of them is Ellen Wilkes, who boarded the ill-fated boat at age 47 on her way to Akron. She lived there until her death at age 90. The cemetery has several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. You can find it at 150 Glendale Ave.
Portage County
Ravenna’s Maple Grove Cemetery, 6698 N. Chestnut St., was established in 1813 and later became a social center of the small city with winding paths, lakes and hundreds of trees and flowering shrubs. A local historian described it as an “outdoor public sculpture gallery,” with monuments dating from the mid-19th century.
Lake County
While not beautifully landscaped or even very cemetery-like, you’re welcome to pay your respects at a plaque marking the Willoughbeach mass grave in Willowick. Across from Shoregate Shopping Center, 29700-30450 Lake Shore Blvd. was the mass burial site of almost 100 unidentified people who died in the worst disaster in Lake Erie history.
The steamboat G.P. Griffith burned and quickly sank just offshore in 1850. About 300 European immigrants were on board; only a few dozen survived. Much of the mass grave eroded into the lake, while other portions were covered by the Willoughbeach amusement park and later, houses.
