The Historic City Cemetery

     The Rose family was active in the commercial and transportation industries of the Tonawandas during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Three members of the family buried in City Cemetery contributed to the area's economic development through business, canal transportation, and military service.      Lorenzo P. Rose (1819–1901) operated a flour and feed business in Tonawanda for many years. He was also affiliated with the Prohibition Party during the late nineteenth century.      His son, Ira M. Rose (1847–1934), began working on the Erie Canal as a boatman at the age of seventeen. He later became a builder of canal boats and established the first express delivery service in the Tonawandas, transporting freight and packages throughout the community.      Henry A. Rose (1847–1903) served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He enlisted as a private in Company F, 10th New York Cavalry, on February 20, 1864. On J...

 In 1898 georges house in Tonawanda was hit with a tornado. His porch stairs flew over a mile ending up on the shores of the creek. 

 George Rogers ? - 1840 Florence Rogers ?-1820 Edward H Rogers 1835 - 1909 William Rogers ?-1892 William J Rogers 1862-1917 Fannie Rogers ? - 1917 Anna Oldenburg Rogers ?-1917

 In the early 1900's, a Tonawanda woman, Mrs. Rudolph Ismer, became central to a series of events that revealed how uncertain death could be.  In 1907, believing she recognized the description of a suicide victim found on a train in Nebraska, Mrs. Ismer identified the body as that of her son, Arthur Perry. The remains were brought back and buried in the family plot in Tonawanda. But the identification was wrong. Perry later returned alive, revealing that another man had been buried under his name. By that time, his wife, believing him dead had already remarried. That experience shaped everything that followed.  In 1910, when a body was recovered from the Niagara River and thought to possibly be her husband, Mrs. Ismer was asked to identify it. This time, she hesitated. Newspapers reported that she examined the body carefully but refused to make a definite identification, fearing she might repeat her earlier mistake. The body was buried as unknown. Soon after, another twis...

 River Cemetery