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04 Nov Fall 2015 Newsletter

Posted at 20:04h in Uncategorized by hocpasyr 0 Comments

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Address:

P.O. Box 15065
Syracuse, NY 13215

Phone:
(315) 415-2954

Email:
[email protected]

I always like the stories of people who, during th

I always like the stories of people who, during the holiday season, give back to others. One such person is a resident of Oakwood Cemetery – James A. Allis. Born in Cazenovia in 1840, James attended Union College in Schenectady, Class of 1864. His education was interrupted, however, when the Civil War broke out. He dropped out of college and enlisted in the 3d N.Y. Cavalry. Good fortune was with him as he mustered out of the service, unharmed, in November of 1865. Although he had risen to the rank of Brevet Major, he insisted on being called by his service rank of “Captain,” or just plain “Cap.”In 1873 he married Ellen E. Moore and they had four children. Civil War veterans were given priority in government jobs, and Captain Allis found a job with the Syracuse Public Works Department and was also clerk for the Fire Commission. The job that meant the most to him was that of Custodian of the Veterans’ Relief Fund. By the late 1800s onward, the veterans were dying off leaving widows with families to fend for themselves. The Relief account, which was funded by the city, never seemed to have enough to care for all who needed help. In December of 1907, for example, the fund was down to $18.75 (about $580 today) with over 200 families to care for. A story was told in Captain Allis’ obituary about one Thanksgiving when he received a letter in the mail with a $20 bill enclosed. The unsigned letter said Allis had once bought the writer a turkey dinner and being in better circumstances, he wanted to show his appreciation and repay the favor. Allis was asked what he would do with the money. “Going to buy turkeys,” was his reply. “There’s 8 or 10 widows that haven’t seen a turkey in a month of Sundays.” When James Allis died on October 30, 1920, he was still custodian of the Fund. He’s buried in Section 22, Lot 61. This good and kind man does not have a headstone.

REMEMBER the Fallen. . . HONOR those who Serve. .

REMEMBER the Fallen. . . HONOR those who Serve. . . TEACH our children the value of Freedom.

On December 16, 2023 at 11:00 am (Wreath Placement Immediately Following Ceremony), Wreaths Across America will be at Oakwood Cemeteries Inc. to Remember and Honor our veterans through the laying of Remembrance wreaths on the graves of our country's fallen heroes and the act of saying the name of each and every veteran aloud.

Please help our location lay wreaths at as many graves as possible by clicking the red "Sponsor" button. Or, if you would like to volunteer to participate in the wreath laying ceremony, please click the “Volunteer” button next to the cemetery name below, and don't forget to click the "Invite" button to invite your friends and family to join you.

Thank you so much for supporting Oakwood Cemeteries Inc. and Wreaths Across America! Link in bio! 🔗

World War I began in August 1914. Most Americans,

World War I began in August 1914. Most Americans, including New Yorkers, agreed with Woodrow Wilson in maintaining neutrality. The US was officially a non combatant, however, some training camps were set up across the country in 1915 as the federal government adopted a policy of “just in case” military preparedness. Attacks on American ships, including the sinking of the Lusitania by the German Navy, and fear of sabotage resulted in the US finally entering the war on April 6 1917.

Additional training camps were organized, including one in Syracuse at the State Fairgrounds, home to almost 35,000 soldiers. Into Camp Syracuse late April 1917 came a young man from Meriden, Connecticut named Joseph Gilbert Cyphers. On July 13, 1917, Joseph married Mildred Bloss in Syracuse after a decidedly whirlwind romance. When Joseph was transferred to Camp Merritt, Hoboken, New Jersey, the point of embarkation for soldiers headed to the European front, his young wife accompanied him and was able to see him off when he was finally sent to France in 1918, a private in Company H, 38th infantry. According to the Syracuse Herald, in late July 1918, Joseph and his comrades were guarding an advanced post, hiding in a shell hole near Chateau-Thierry. They were attacked by Germans throwing hand grenades, killing two of the Americans instantly. Although Joseph and the others were able to return fire, they were outnumbered and retreated back to the lines to warn the soldiers. Sadly, Joseph was wounded by machine gun fire and died of his injuries August 19, 1918. It was many months before Mildred learned the details of her husband’s death–fortunately, the couple was able to exchange letters and Joseph, who wrote to her from the hospital August 7, was aware his wife was pregnant. His son, Howard Nelson Cyphers, was born March 15,1919. He served as a chief motor machinist's mate in the Navy during World War II. Howard’s son Thomas, Joseph’s grandson, served in the Navy from January 1961 to January 1967. Joseph’s body was repatriated from France and buried in Oakwood cemetery January 15, 1921, Section H-2, Lot 373, the name on the marker misspelled “Gyphers”.

Happy Veterans Day. The 🇺🇸 flags are in for

Happy Veterans Day. The 🇺🇸 flags are in for tomorrow’s event.

Please come honor these individuals tomorrow, Sunday the 12th at 1pm in the Civil War Soldiers Lot.

Our historian, Sue Greenhagen, will give a presentation on a few notable Veterans in the section.

The Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War will present a wreath laying ceremony.

Please bring a chair to sit for the event. We hope to see you there.

REMEMBER the Fallen. . . HONOR those who Serve. .

REMEMBER the Fallen. . . HONOR those who Serve. . . TEACH our children the value of Freedom.

On December 16, 2023 at 11:00 am (Wreath Placement Immediately Following Ceremony), Wreaths Across America will be at Oakwood Cemeteries Inc. to Remember and Honor our veterans through the laying of Remembrance wreaths on the graves of our country's fallen heroes and the act of saying the name of each and every veteran aloud.

Please help our location lay wreaths at as many graves as possible by clicking the red "Sponsor" button. Or, if you would like to volunteer to participate in the wreath laying ceremony, please click the “Volunteer” button next to the cemetery name below, and don't forget to click the "Invite" button to invite your friends and family to join you.

Thank you so much for supporting Oakwood Cemeteries Inc. and Wreaths Across America! Link in bio! 🔗

This Sunday, 11/12 1-3pm in the Civil War Soldiers

This Sunday, 11/12 1-3pm in the Civil War Soldiers Lot.

Our historian, Sue Greenhagen, will give a presentation on a few notable Veterans in the section.

The Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War will present a wreath laying ceremony.

Please bring a chair to sit for the event. We hope to see you there.

Next Sunday, 11/12 1-3pm in the Civil War Soldiers

Next Sunday, 11/12 1-3pm in the Civil War Soldiers Lot.

Our historian, Sue Greenhagen, will give a presentation on a few notable Veterans in the section.

The Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War will present a wreath laying ceremony.

Please bring a chair to sit for the event. We hope to see you there.

164 years ago, amid the rural cemetery movement, l

164 years ago, amid the rural cemetery movement, local citizens formed a new cemetery because smaller ones such as Rose Hill on Willow Street were either at capacity or in the way of development. A committee was formed in 1859 and a new name was presented, including Memory Vale and Mount Rest. The top vote getter was Oakwood, given that 3/4 of the trees in the cemetery were oak. The area along the railroad tracks would be denoted third class grounds costing 8¢ per square foot. The area on the west ridge would be first class grounds and cost 16¢ per square foot. The balance of the grounds would be second class at a price of 12¢ per square foot. A standard lot would be 200 square feet and these lots would be sold at auction the following week. The first person to buy was Mayor Elias Leavenworth, with the earliest lots chosen to the east of Dedication Valley behind the current chapel. Superintendent George Gardner was adamant in pursuing people that stole flowers from graves in the cemetery. But the most unusual case appeared in the Buffalo Express deriding the citizens of Syracuse for being “rigidly righteous and painfully virtuous.” In 1865 a husband and wife were visiting the cemetery when they became tired. When sitting down Mrs. B. “put her arm around her husband’s waist in an affectionate manner.” They were ejected from the cemetery and brought before Police Justice who decided against the couple. We don’t know if they ever returned. In 1867 Elias Leavenworth laid out a proposal to name the avenues after trees and the paths for shrubs, vines, and flowers. What would not be allowed were the names of persons and places. These names can be seen on the maps of the older sections. Three days after the Nov. 3 opening Nellie G. Raleigh Williamson (Sect 5, Lot 52) became the “one solitary sleeper.”
“Thus has been consecrated to the dead, a lovey spot, that will be hallowed by us now living, as the resting place of those who shall have gone before us, and generations yet unborn, as that boundary line which seperates [sic] us and them from the beautiful City of the New Jerusalem.” --The Syracuse Central City Daily Courier, November 10, 1859.

A high relief stone portrait decorates the monumen

A high relief stone portrait decorates the monument to Dr. Nelson Powers in Oakwood. Dr. Powers, born in 1815, was a prominent physician, practicing in Madison county for several years before moving to Syracuse around 1855. Although he eschewed politics, he was a friend of abolitionist Rev. Samuel May. Dr. Powers’ name also appears on a document produced by the Republican party condemning slavery. Near the end of a successful career, in 1875 the much loved doctor died of cholera. He had become ill with diarrhea on August 12. After taking narcotics (still used in treating intractable diarrhea today) the condition did not resolve. He became moribund the afternoon of August 14, and despite treatment with a galvanic battery, died that night. The Syracuse Daily Courier attributed his death to “congestion of the brain from the use of narcotics”, although vascular collapse from the cholera infection was the likely cause.
A wealthy man (his estate was valued at $100,000, approx. $2,700,000 today), Dr. Powers’ family was expected to provide him with an elaborate funeral. Per custom, payment of last respects by invited guests and the final service was performed in the family home on Warren St., in which all portraits were covered to prevent possession by the spirit of the dead. The Rev. Calthrop of the Unitarian Church gave a eulogy and led the group in prayers around the elaborately adorned open coffin in a room full of flowers. A quartet performed hymns, and Dr. Powers’ Masonic brothers sang the “Dirge” (most likely Pleyel’s Hymn). After the services the 6 pallbearers carried the coffin out head first through the black crepe draped front door to prevent the descedents’s spirit from reentering the house. The funeral cortege consisted of twenty five carriages drawn by gray horses, the first carrying the remains. Uncountable numbers of citizens followed the procession on foot.
At the gravesite, Rosa Hoyt, wife of the undertaker Austin Hoyt, had lined the edges of the burial pit with moss and ferns, placing a large jar of ferns at the head– a perfect backdrop to the solemn Masonic service. Dr. Powers and family are buried in Section 47, Lot 1.

What do you do when the federal government claims

What do you do when the federal government claims you do not exist? You make the best handmade chocolates in Syracuse. Gladys Ronsvalle (1909-1993) is how we know her, but her name may have been Bessie and she was not sure where or when she was born. She believed her parents were a German woman and an English man who left her in Connecticut when she was 1 ½ years old and never returned. Living with one woman, she was then taken in by Mildred and Morris Conklin who lived across the street and lost two young daughters to pneumonia. She knew from the age of 5 that she was ‘adopted’ although it was not a formal arrangement, but the Conklins never revealed the names of her birth parents. In 1980 she applied for a passport and learned she was not a citizen because she did not have a birth certificate, although she had been voting since she was 21. Because she had lived in the US prior to 1915 she was granted permanent residence status under an immigration act of 1952, and was sworn in as a citizen in 1985. She began selling candies in the parking lot of US Rubber Co. where she worked but when her hours were cut during the Depression, she went full time into the business. First making fudge, she dumped everything together without a recipe. It became so successful that men working nearby gave up their 5¢ glass of beer for a 5¢ bar of fudge. She first sold in Smith Drug Store at the corner of Clinton and Salina, eventually supplying 15 pans a day. After her marriage to Salvatore Ronsvalle in 1937, she sold the business, restarting during WW II, making candy for officers at Sampson Air Force Base. The Bennett’s Drug Store owner suggested she sell in his store and the Old-Fashioned Homemade Chocolates label was born. She unveiled her trademarked chocolate covered potato chips in 1974 at a convention in Chicago. When a judge called her idea ‘silly’ she ended up winning an award for “highest quality” from the Retail Confectioners Intl. Organization. She shipped candy to Korea, Japan, France, Switzerland, Italy and 48 states. When she died in 1993 the recipes, which had remained secret, died with her. Gladys Ronvsalle is buried in Section 81, Lot 81.

One of the greatest hoaxes in American history was

One of the greatest hoaxes in American history was perpetrated right here in Onondaga County on October 16, 1869. It was on that day, in the Town of Lafayette, south of Syracuse, that the Cardiff Giant was “discovered” on the farm of William C. “Stub” Newell. It was eventually determined to be a hoax, and some, like Dr. Samuel Calthrop, challenged the giant’s authenticity almost immediately. By 1873, the hoax was over – the giant was proved to be a fraud. So what’s the Oakwood connection? The idea, conceived by Newell’s brother-in-law, George Hull of Binghamton, was to make money by foisting the giant on a gullible public as “prehistoric.” On Monday, October 25, over 2500 people paid 50 cents each to catch a glimpse of the giant, still in his “grave.” Hull needed investors to the tune of $30,000 to get his enterprise going. Among those who bought into the scheme were Amos Westcott, Alfred Higgins, and Amos Gillett, all residents of Oakwood Cemetery. Not much is known about Amos Gillett (Sec. 14, Lot 166). In census records and city directories he is described variously as a speculator, horse dealer, gentleman, sporting man, and banker. His net worth in 1860 was $21,500 ($700k today), but by 1870 it was $5,500 ($130k today). Alfred Higgins (Sec. 3, Lot 45) was employed by the American Express Company for 57 years. When he died in 1915, his personal papers concerning the Cardiff Giant were donated to the Onondaga Historical Association. Lastly, there was Amos Westcott (Sec. 13, Lot 53). Westcott was a renowned dentist and former mayor of Syracuse, and a well-respected citizen. When the fraud was revealed, it had to have affected him severely. On top of the humiliation, he suffered serious injuries in a carriage accident a day after being thrown from his horse. On July 6, 1873, Dr. Westcott committed suicide. In 1947, the Cardiff Giant found his final resting place on display at the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown.

Every now and then a person comes along, a regular

Every now and then a person comes along, a regular person, nothing fancy, who in later life reveals a truly unique persona. We have one of those people in Oakwood Cemetery. His name is Otis Baker Cowles. He was born in Otisco in 1831, attended school until age 13 when he quit. Fortunately he had an aptitude for mathematics to the point he was asked a few years later to teach math at the Case Settlement in South Onondaga. In 1856 he married Mary Cordelia Bardwell, and in 1857 he quit teaching. He went from manufacturing brooms, to a grocery business until he found his true calling, manufacturing water pumps. He established a business on E. Water Street, and he was on his way. On his way to what? He was on his way to a life just three months short of 102 years. Oh, but what he did in those later years. He still worked at his pump company at age 90. Known as the “Windmill Doctor,” he made calls for mills that needed repair, often climbing dangerously high for a man his age. At age 100 he took his first airplane ride. He drove a car until age 90. In 1930, at age 99, he met Admiral Byrd on the latter’s visit to Syracuse. In 1931, he threw out the first pitch at a Syracuse baseball game (it was a perfect strike, of course). That got his picture in newspapers all over the US from NY to California. He certainly wasn’t camera shy. What he was most proud of, though, was the fact that he cast his first ballot for president in 1852 when he voted for the Whig candidate, General Winfield Scott. Since that election he voted 21 times in presidential elections. He was photo worthy as he voted in 1928’s election, being 96, but he really hit his stride four years later at age 101 when he voted for Herbert Hoover in the 1932 election. 1933 brought the end for Otis B. Cowles, but he still managed to make the news. On August 17, at the dedication of the Onondaga Lake Parkway, he rode in a cart drawn by oxen. On August 27, he attended the South Onondaga Old Home Days, and claimed the prize for the oldest person there. Otis died 3 days later. He rests with his wife in Section 37, Lot 41, although neither has a gravestone. His was a life well lived.

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Historic Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association - Syracuse, NY

1 week ago

I always like the stories of people who, during the holiday season, give back to others. One such person is a resident of Oakwood Cemetery – James A. Allis. Born in Cazenovia in 1840, James attended Union College in Schenectady, Class of 1864. His education was interrupted, however, when the Civil War broke out. He dropped out of college and enlisted in the 3d N.Y. Cavalry. Good fortune was with him as he mustered out of the service, unharmed, in November of 1865. Although he had risen to the rank of Brevet Major, he insisted on being called by his service rank of “Captain,” or just plain “Cap.” In 1873 he married Ellen E. Moore and they had four children. Civil War veterans were given priority in government jobs, and Captain Allis found a job with the Syracuse Public Works Department and was also clerk for the Fire Commission. The job that meant the most to him was that of Custodian of the Veterans’ Relief Fund. By the late 1800s onward , the veterans were dying off leaving widows with families to fend for themselves. The Relief account, which was funded by the city, never seemed to have enough to care for all who needed help. In December of 1907, for example, the fund was down to $18.75 (about $580 today) with over 200 families to care for. A story was told in Captain Allis’ obituary about one Thanksgiving when he received a letter in the mail with a $20 bill enclosed. The unsigned letter said Allis had once bought the writer a turkey dinner and being in better circumstances, he wanted to show his appreciation and repay the favor. Allis was asked what he would do with the money. “Going to buy turkeys,” was his reply. “There’s 8 or 10 widows that haven’t seen a turkey in a month of Sundays.” When James Allis died on October 30, 1920, he was still custodian of the Fund. He’s buried in Section 22, Lot 61. This good and kind man does not have a headstone. ... See MoreSee Less

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