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Warren Gard (1873-1929), son of Samuel Z. Gard and Mary Duke, was born in Hamilton, Ohio. He established his practice in Hamilton after graduating from Cincinnati Law School and being admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1894. Gard served as Butler County Prosecuting Attorney from 1898-1903, and as a judge on the Court of Common Pleas from 1907-1912. In 1910, he married Pearl Zuver Woods (1875-1946). In 1912, he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1913-1921. Gard delivered a eulogy for his friend, Warren G. Harding, on August 8, 1923, the national day of mourning for the deceased president. Gard had been a 35-year member of the bar when he died. He is buried next to his wife in the Gard plot in Greenwood Cemetery. (Continued on other side)
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Founded in 1876 by a group of Toledo businessmen, Woodlawn Cemetery was designed in the tradition of the country’s “rural cemetery” movement, which was first popularized in Europe in the 1830s. This movement reflects the change in American burial practices in the nineteenth century as attitudes of death changed from grim to sentimental. The cemetery’s landscape emphasizes nature and art. Besides being a burial place, the cemetery is an arboretum, bird sanctuary, outdoor museum, and historical archive. Woodlawn also became a fashionable park for Toledo’s residents to escape the commotion of the city. The cemetery chronicles the growth of Toledo and northwest Ohio, and is an important cultural and historic landmark in regards to community planning and development, and landscape and building architecture. Historic Woodlawn Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
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Black soldiers played a major role in the Civil War and more than 5,000 free Black Ohioans served in Union forces. While prejudice marginalized the Black man’s ability to serve early in the war, an 1862 Act of Congress authorized their admission into the Union Army and Navy. President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation welcomed all freed men to join the fight. About 300 Black Ohioans joined the 54th and 55th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteers – the first all-Black regiments raised in the North. Although offered $13 per month, the new recruits had to wait eighteen months to receive equal pay. In June 1863, Ohio’s Governor David Tod authorized a regiment of Black soldiers. The 127th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI), the state’s first Black regiment, became known as the 5th U.S. Colored Troops (USCT).
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Ice Age glaciers formed the distinct landscape of the Oak Openings Region, which is dominated by rolling sand dunes and wet prairies interrupted by clusters of oak trees. Although the sandy soil did not support agriculture well, the early settlers of Springfield Township and the Village of Holland raised cranberries and other fruits. Encompassing nearly 130 square miles, the Oak Openings Region was designated as one of America’s “Last Great Places” by The Nature Conservancy and is home to over 180 rare and endangered species. Local legend holds that prior to the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket passed through the Oak Openings and met at a council with Wyandot chiefs on the hill near the Springfield Township Cemetery.
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Born at Richford, New York, John D. Rockefeller moved to the Cleveland area with his family at age 14. He began his business career as a bookkeeper in 1855. From modest beginnings he became one of the richest men of his era by developing the world’s largest oil corporation, the Standard Oil Company, which was founded here in the Flats of Cleveland. Rockefeller moved to New York City in 1884 but maintained two homes in Cleveland, returning often with his wife Laura (1839-1915). Although he was a controversial businessman, Rockefeller donated millions of dollars to Cleveland charities and institutions, and land for Rockefeller and Forest Hills parks. John and Laura Rockefeller are interred in Lake View Cemetery.
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Mesopotamia Village District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on December 24, 1974. Many consider it to be “the most unspoiled nineteenth century central green type of village in northeastern Ohio.” The district includes houses, commercial buildings, a town hall, churches, and a cemetery. Surrounding the 1600-foot-long public green these structures represent Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, Italianate, and vernacular architectural styles constructed between 1820 and 1902. One of the oldest buildings in the district is the colonnaded Greek Revival commercial building at the southwest end of the green. Built in the 1820s for early resident Isaac Clark, it was operated as a store by F.C. Peck. Over the ensuing centuries it has served as a barber shop, post office, and an undertakers. (Continued on other side)
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Frances Payne Bolton (1885-1977) was the first woman from Ohio to serve in the United States Congress. Elected in 1940 to complete the term of her late husband, Chester C. Bolton, Mrs. Bolton represented the 22nd District for 28 years. Her life long advocacy of nursing education is reflected in both her philanthropy and the legislation she supported. Her gift to Western Reserve University in 1923 enabled the school to set up one of the first college-based nursing programs in the country. The school was renamed the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in her honor in 1935. The Bolton Bill she supported in Congress created the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps to address the critical shortage of nurses during World War II.
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This burying ground was the first public cemetery located within Akron’s boundaries. It was also known as the “Old Cemetery” and the “Newton Street Cemetery.” Deacon Titus Chapman donated this land in 1808 as a burying ground, and he was probably the first person interred here when he died later that year. Early Akron settlers and their descendents, including veterans of the American Revolution, are buried here. Some of the gravestones were among the finest brought to the Western Reserve from Connecticut. The Middlebury Cemetery was used until 1853.