The Historic City Cemetery

 Turned over in grave

 Daughters Lena, Lydia, Ella Ella and Lena operators for bell dog barking story  telephone system and choosing phone companies couldn't call from other service g j stackhouse manager

 Lightening trampled upon panic of other passengers Olcott picnickers kicked and buried under a carload passengers 

 LeVern Graff 1900- LeVent Graff 1900- Twin brothers who both drowned on tug boats

 Louis Borko 1877-1915 Sections G131      Louis Borko, AKA Lajos Borko, was born in Hungary in 1877 and is among the many immigrants that swarmed into this area from Eastern Europe at the turn of the last century – passing thru the famous Ellis Island immigration depot in New York City. Louis and his wife Julianna arrived here about 1902 but Julianna died a few years later in 1908.      Louis ran a saloon / hotel at 221 Fillmore Ave in Gastown – Gastown being the area many of our Hungarian immigrants settled. In 1915 Louis fell ill and was taken to the Ernest Wende Hospital in Buffalo where he died shortly after.      One last tragedy is connected with Louis. When funeral director Wattengel was transporting Louis’ body back to Tonawanda in his ambulance / hearse, he accidentally hit and killed a young bicyclist. As with many gravestones in the Twin City’s cemeteries, the inscription is written in the language still spok...

Ralph Clench Section C7      Ralph J Clench was one of the Tonawandas’ first resident photographers, setting up a studio here on South Canal Street in the 1870s. In the 1890s he moved it to Webster Street – both sites being located in the very heart of the growing villages. Ralph’s much older brother Frank B Clench had set up his own studio in Lockport in 1864 when the science and art of photography was in its infancy.      Brother Frank is now most famous locally as the photographer who took a photograph of lock-keepers at Lockport, NY which was reimagined as a twelve-character bronze sculpture by Susan Geissler unveiled in Lockport in 2023.      Ralph is buried here with no marker alongside the family of his wife Sophia Tay, one of three daughters of Joachim and Fredericky Tay. Brother Frank B Clench Flight Of Five Sculpture depicting Frank taking the photograph

Reuben Wythe 1887 - 1944    B111 B113      Not every cemetery story is about a hero. Some are about scandal, desperation, and the way a small community could become captivated by a single family tragedy. The Wythe family of Tonawanda became front-page news in the early 1910s when a young bride named Ruth Cleveland Wythe found herself at the center of a sensational forgery case that spread from Buffalo to Tonawanda.      Ruth Cleveland was still in her teens when she first appeared in the newspapers after being arrested for stealing a diamond ring from The Levlyn Jewelry Store in Buffalo. Convicted but released on probation, she soon married local roller-skating celebrity Reuben Wythe in the spring of 1911. Reuben was well known across Western New York and Pennsylvania for his speed skating races, often competing before packed roller rinks in Tonawanda, Lockport, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh.      The young couple moved into the home o...

Rose Family Lorenzo Rose  1819-1901 Ira Rose 1847-1934 Henry Rose 1847-1903 D119-D122      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 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, 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  served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He enlisted as ...

 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 Gipp’s beloved wife, Susie, died in 1900. It was rumored she was buried with valuable jewelry. These rumors may have been what led to what happened in April of 1910, when unknown thieves decided they wanted the dead woman’s jewels.  In the dark of night, thieves battled the crisp air as they set out to make a profit off the bones of Mrs. Gipp. They chiseled away at the lock before prying open the heavy metal doors of the vault. Once inside, they dragged her casket up the stairs onto the grass outside the vault. There, they smashed open the top of the wooden coffin, revealing the remains of Susie, which at this point were only dust.  The ghoulish thieves could have had the choice of nine other graves, but specifically took Susie. It seemed as though they knew what they were looking for as the coffins had been marked with nameplate...

 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...

               In the summer of 1852, Tonawanda was struck by a cholera epidemic that claimed the lives of many residents in a short period of time. Cholera is a severe intestinal disease caused by contaminated water or food. Before modern sanitation and water treatment, outbreaks could spread rapidly through a community, often proving fatal within hours or days.      Among the victims were members of the Anguish family, descendants of one of Tonawanda's earliest pioneer families. Mary (Bacon) Anguish, wife of William Anguish, died on August 3, 1852, at the age of 51. Three days later, her two-year-old grandson, Albert B. Bartlett, died. On August 10, Mary's daughter, Wealthy Anguish, age 21, also succumbed to the disease. Their deaths, occurring within a single week, illustrate the devastating impact cholera had on local families.      Mary and Wealthy were originally buried in Tonawanda's River Cemetery, the co...

          Anna Neal  1858 - 1940 Section: B86      Mrs. Anna Neal dedicated her whole life to the promotion of American Patriotism and especially the remembrance of our Civil War veterans. She was born in North Tonawanda just before the Civil War. In 1877, at age 19, she married the 44-year-old Civil War veteran John Schwartz. From its very start, Anna was involved with the local branch of the Ladies Relief Corps, an auxiliary of the Civil War Veterans Organization – the G A R. As the Patriotic Instructor of that organization, she visited schools, Boy and Girl Scout Troops, and other organizations promoting the importance of the American Flag.      In 1894, Anna’s husband John Schwartz was seriously injured when he was struck by a train on Main Street in Tonawanda. He died a few days later, never regaining consciousness. Two years later Anna married her neighbor George Neal, becoming Mrs. Anna Neal, a name by which she was...

GAR Monument Dedicated: Memorial Day 1910      The GAR monument that stands before you was the product of many groups coming together in 1910. The Winfield B. Scott GAR Post of Tonawanda, The Winfield B. Scott GAR Post Women's Relief Corps, and the Ladies Auxiliary raised money, organized, and planned the erection and dedication of this twenty plus foot monument. The statue of a Union soldier at the top alone cost $450. The base would have cost about the same. It was made by the White Bronze Monument Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The groups raised just over two thousand dollar, which would be around seventy-thousand dollar's today.       The monument was designed to memorialize the names of over two-hundred members of the Winfield B. Scott GAR Post living and dead at the time. It also recognized the other groups who helped make the monument possible.       Miss Onelee Edmonds was supposed to dedicate the monument after a grand...

                                                              Chester Fitzgerald 1896-1918 Section G115      The death of a child can change the course of a parent's life forever. This is the case when it comes to Chester Fitzgerald and his mother. Chester entered the military during WWI at the age of 22. He was assigned to  Co I of the 125 Infantry. He was sent to France to fight in the first World War. Chester was killed at the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The war ended a month after his death, but Chester's story didn't.       Soldiers returning home from war told Chester's parents that he had not died. They claimed to have seen him in a hospital in France.  His parents contacted the Red Cross to find out if Chester was in fact alive. It wasn't long before word ...

Fred Louth 1839-1917 Section: E3      Fred Louth served thirty years in the United States Military from 1861 to 1891. He started his career in the army at the start of the Civil War. He enlisted May 7th, 1861 at the age of twenty-two. He served in the war from start to finish. He was likely involved in the First and Second Battle of Bull run, as well as  the Battle of Yorktown. By the time he mustered out he was a seasoned veteran.       Fred wasn't ready to put away the uniform at the end of the war. He reenlisted  December 10, 1866 in St. Louis, Missouri. The war may have been over, but tensions were still high in the South. His job was peacekeeping in hostile territory. He would also have been tasked with protecting freedmen, policing, and making sure the government maintained control.       Fred's next assignment out west was during the Indian Wars. Fred was serving at Fort Buford in 1881 when Sitting Bull and Lakota f...

Mayott Family Isaac Mayott 1841-1915 Wealthy Rose Mayott 1849-1929 Elmer Mayott 1883-1921 William Mayott 1867-1893 Cora Mayott ?-1880 abt 15 years old Section A7      Isaac and his family lived and died by the water. As a young man Isaac worked as a boat man. This job put him out on the waterways of the Tonawandas almost daily. When the Civil War broke out he joined the Navy at the age of 23.     As a Quartermaster, he stood at the helm of ships like the USS St. Clair and USS Great Western, helping guide them through northern waters during the Civil War. After the war he returned home and continued his life on the water.       His son Elmer almost lost his life when he was employed as an ice cutter for The Rose Ice Company. He fell into a hole plunging him into the icy waters of Ellicott Creek. He was saved by a fellow employee.       Isaac's son William wasn't as lucky as his brother. He was killed in a tragic accident. ...

Jacob Summers 1830-1905 Section: GAR Plot      At the age of 16 Jacob enlisted to serve during the Mexican–American War  in Company K of the 2nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment . Mexico and the United States both claimed to own Texas. This led to the start of the Mexican American War. For soldiers like Jacob, the war meant long marches, extreme heat, and disease. His regiment saw considerable fighting and at the close of the war Jacob received a medal for his excellent conduct and bravery.       Jacob was just eighteen years old when the war ended, a seasoned veteran before he even had a chance to live. He returned north and married the girl next door, Elizabeth Walters. He establishes the Excelsior  House, which was located in the center the developing the Village Of Tonawanda.  This was an important hub in the community, which hosted events and meetings. The first village elections were even held there.       ...