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04 May Spring 2016 Newsletter

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Address:

P.O. Box 15065
Syracuse, NY 13215

Phone:
(315) 415-2954

Email:
HOCPAOakwood@gmail.com

When we last heard of Storm V. Boyd, he had gradua

When we last heard of Storm V. Boyd, he had graduated from S.U. in 1907, started a movie career, enlisted in the army at the outbreak of World War I, contracted influenza, left the army, married Hazel Cady, become a father, and taken a job in October of 1919 that required him to be in Springfield, MA. While there he suffered a complete physical and mental breakdown. He came back to Syracuse and went immediately to his doctor, O. Howard Cobb. He stayed at Dr. Cobb’s but on Monday morning, October 13, he had disappeared. On Tuesday the 14th clothing was found at Niagara Falls that belonged to him. It was presumed that he had been swept over the falls, so a search was begun. It was not until November 16 that Storm Boyd’s body was found. He was identified by the laundry mark, “5932,” on his shirt. Hazel Boyd filed a claim with their insurance company stating that Storm’s death was accidental. The insurance company refused to pay claiming his death was a suicide. Other theories stated that he had been pushed or that that it was all a hoax and he was in hiding. The case went back and forth in court for nine years until, finally, in 1928, the insurance company settled for $7500 (about $132,000 today). Hazel Cady never remarried and died in 1960 at the age of 70. Storm and Hazel are side by side in Section 48, Lot 394 of Oakwood Cemetery.

We had a WONDERFUL turnout for this month’s tour

We had a WONDERFUL turnout for this month’s tour. Thank you all for coming. Didn’t Sue do a magnificent job?

We will see you next on October 1st at 2pm for Don Leopold‘s tree tour. 🌳

175 years ago, five women met to air their grievan

175 years ago, five women met to air their grievances at the treatment of women and startled the world by demanding the vote. Because of their bravery American women have been voting for 103 years, an anniversary celebrated on August 26. Many Oakwood women were involved in this struggle, from Cornelia Bigelow (Sect 20, Lot 22) the first woman on the board at First Trust & Deposit, Ramona Baxter Bowden (Sect 27, Lot 30) who marched down Fifth Avenue in NYC wearing a white dress and a sash reading “Votes for Women”, Dr. Anna Comfort (Sect 39, Lot 19) wife of the founder of the Syracuse Museum of Art, who aligned herself with suffragist Susan B. Anthony, Dora Sedgwick Hazard (Sect 15, Lot 39) daughter of an abolitionist who helped establish the National Woman’s Party in CNY, Julie Jenney (Sect 27, Lot 55) the first woman lawyer in Syracuse, along with her mother Marie who marched in the NYC suffrage parade in 1912, and Anna Whittic (Sect 15, Lot 6) who frequently campaigned before the legislature and obtained the right of women to serve on juries.

Although those women were well known in Syracuse, another worked actively for suffrage. Ada Mantha Hall (1861-1943) turned her attention to women’s rights in 1899 and became active in the Women’s Educational & Industrial Union with the aim of improving the lot of women and children. She launched the Employment Bureau to help find jobs for women and became involved in the NY Trades School for Girls & Day Nursery. By 1901 she was described in the press as “an ardent suffragist,” attending state and national conventions, donating $5.00 (roughly $191 today) annually. She connected with Carrie Chapman Catt and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, leading them through NY and hosting Catt at her home. She began to lecture on women’s rights and in 1903 helped organize pro-suffrage programs at the women’s pavilion at the NYS Fair. In 1905 she represented Syracuse with Ms. Harriet May Mills at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention in Portland Oregon. She withdrew from public life after her father’s death in 1912. Ada is buried in Section 24, lot 66 with her parents, step-mother and step siblings.

Our next tour is this Sunday! Guide Sue Greenhag

Our next tour is this Sunday!

Guide Sue Greenhagen will lead our tour of Section 48. Or will one of the “residents” be our guide? Anyway, the tales to be told are bound to be memorable.

These tours are presented by HOCPA board members and made possible thanks to the support of Oakwood Management.

Please use the Oakwood Main Entrance on Comstock across from the Islamic Society of CNY. Look for the Tour Sign and follow the arrows to the parking and tour meeting place. Sunday tours begin at 2 pm.

Allow two hours for the tour. Please wear comfortable shoes. All tours are free, but donations are accepted. We tour, rain or shine, but not during thunder and lightning. Oakwood souvenirs will be available for purchase at the tours. 🪦

Our next tour is this Sunday! Guide Sue Greenhag

Our next tour is this Sunday!

Guide Sue Greenhagen will lead our tour of Section 48. Or will one of the “residents” be our guide? Anyway, the tales to be told are bound to be memorable.

These tours are presented by HOCPA board members and made possible thanks to the support of Oakwood Management.

Please use the Oakwood Main Entrance on Comstock across from the Islamic Society of CNY. Look for the Tour Sign and follow the arrows to the parking and tour meeting place. Sunday tours begin at 2 pm.

Allow two hours for the tour. Please wear comfortable shoes. All tours are free, but donations are accepted. We tour, rain or shine, but not during thunder and lightning. Oakwood souvenirs will be available for purchase at the tours. 🪦

His name was Storm Vanderzee Boyd, Jr., and his st

His name was Storm Vanderzee Boyd, Jr., and his story is as interesting as his name. He was born in 1885 in Watertown and graduated from Syracuse University in 1907 with a degree in architecture. He went into the fledgling movie business in a big way using his architectural background to design movie sets. In 1912 he went to California where he joined Kalem Co., a pioneer in the movie industry. He worked there as an assistant producer in over two dozen films, and he even made his way onto the silent screen. He had parts in such classics as “Grim Toll of War” (1912) and “Darling of the CSA” (1913). He actually directed at least one film, “A Battle of Wits” (also 1912). When World War I broke out he enlisted in the army serving stateside as a personnel officer. While in the service he contracted influenza which physically debilitated him. Out of the army, he returned to Syracuse and in January of 1918, he married Hazel Cady. In November of that year, their daughter, Jeanne, was born. He began work for a private consulting firm dealing with industrial personnel, and was on location in Springfield, MA, when he suffered a complete physical and mental breakdown. The “rest of the story” is as bizarre as it gets, and we’ll be telling it at our August 20 walking tour of Oakwood Cemetery. Storm V. Boyd and his wife (who also has a story to tell) are buried in Section 48, Lot 394.

The anchor, a device used to moor a ship, has exis

The anchor, a device used to moor a ship, has existed since the bronze age. The more familiar shank and fluke version in use today appeared during the first century CE.
In the New Testament, Hebrews 6:19 describes “hope as the anchor of the soul.” The anchor was subsequently adopted by Christians as a symbol of hope for life after death. This object, often accompanied by a robust female or angel, emerged as a common element on English bas relief cemetery tablets beginning in the late 18th century. During the Victorian age until the late 19th century, sculptural figures with anchors were installed in American rural cemeteries.
Section 50 has a granite statue of a woman with right hand raised, finger pointing heavenward, left hand gripping an anchor. This memorial to local Presbyterian minister Erastus Adams and his family has an obvious Christian connotation. His widow, Almira Hebbard, maintained ties with his church and purchased this monument.
Whaling ships’ Captain Samuel Austin and his family are memorialized by an elaborately draped and weighty statue of a woman with left hand on her breast and right hand resting on an anchor This monument, in Section 36, seems to do double duty not only as a symbol of hope for heavenly reward, but as one commemorating his profession.
In contrast, coal dealer Erastus Holden’s substantial monument in Section 59 is topped by a rather lithe greco roman style figure holding her anchor with both hands. She wears a fashionable diadem and veil. The sculptor, by adding a hint of musculature to her bare left arm has achieved a sense of realism.
The elaborate Wood monument in Section 13 is surmounted by a seated sculpture of a female supporting an anchor against her left leg. Her expression is intense and inscrutable. Although the sculptors of most cemetery statuary ar unknown, we do know that Italian-American immigrant Angelo Zerbarini of the Smith Granite Co. was the artist of this piece.
Allegorical representations of the emotion “hope” unlike many other mortuary figures are consolatory in nature. They introduce a positive element to what may be contemplated as a place of only mourning and heartache.

Imagine getting the nickname “Babe” because yo

Imagine getting the nickname “Babe” because you begged for free Yankee tickets from Babe Ruth when he visited your father’s pool hall in the Bronx. That’s how it happened to Arthur Cranfield (1915-2004) who, according to a Herald Journal article, played against men named “Wimpy,” “Fats” and “Cue Ball.” His father owned a 100-table pool room in the Bronx where Yankees played nearly every day they were in town. By the age of 16 he won the Junior World Championship and then three consecutive national amateur championships. John Aiello, a professional player, commented that Babe was never a hustler; he never pretended to be worse than he was. He left the sport for 11 years to earn a living because, after 3 major tournaments and being ranked third in the world, he only had $1700 to show for it. He commented that he hated the travel, but returned to the sport hoping to win enough to put his sons through college. His 1964 match against Wimpy Lassiter, in which he sunk 1200 balls to Lassiter’s 730, sealed the World Professional Championship, during which he lost 11 pounds in the three-day tournament. He surprised everyone at that event by calling a foul on himself when he accidentally nudged the ball with his cue, unnoticed by everyone else. He wrote two books on pool with his friend Lawrence Moy and was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1997. Babe was married to Ruth Fish Cranfield (1919-2017), a longtime member of the Women’s International Bowling Congress and director of the Syracuse Women’s Bowling Association for over 30 years. She was a certified bowling instructor at the Valley Sports Center and the Erie Blvd. Bowling Center and served on the board of the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame. In 1998 she was given the NY State Service to Youth Award at the NY State Women’s Bowling Assn. She helped establish in-school bowling programs which taught not only the fundamentals of the sport but also the arithmetic reasoning used in scoring. Ruth and Arthur are buried in Section 72, Lot 239 but there is no marker for them.

On July 15, 1864, one of the worst railroad accide

On July 15, 1864, one of the worst railroad accidents in American history took place at Shohola, PA. A train carrying 833 Confederate prisoners and 144 Union guards was headed north from Point Lookout, MD. The officer in charge of the guard detail was Capt. Morris H. Church. Their destination was the newly opened military prison at Elmira. Because this train, Engine No. 171, was not a scheduled train, they fell in behind Engine No. West 21. As the two trains headed east, another train, No. 121, headed west on the same tracks. No. 121 was a coal train with 50 cars fully loaded with coal. Engine 121 reached Lackawaxen, four miles west of Shohola, pulled into a rail spur and stopped. They would wait there for the eastbound train to pass. West 21 passed by and the conductor of the coal train got out and asked the telegrapher at the station if the second train had passed. The telegrapher had not seen the troop train pass, yet he said it did. The coal train went back on the tracks and continued east. The two trains collided head-on at a curve known as “King and Fuller’s Cut.” As a result of the devastating collision 48 Confederate prisoners died and 53 were injured. Among the Union guards, 17 died and 16 were injured. Church’s official report of the Shohola train wreck, written on July 22, 1864, is succinct and factual, just two paragraphs. Prior to the Civil War, he and his wife, Maria, lived in Syracuse, and he was a tobacconist in business with his brother, Thomas. He enlisted in the 12th N.Y. State Volunteers in April of 1861, age 31. In September of 1862 he transferred to Company I of the 122d NYSV. He was wounded at Fredericksburg in December of that year and was discharged in May of 1863. By February of 1864, Church was enrolled in the 11th Veteran Reserve Corps. Church’s army career continued. He remained in the army for a time after the war. In the mid-70s, he moved to Boston. and it was there that he died on 2 November 1889. He is buried with his family in Section 15, Lot 12 of Oakwood Cemetery. He has no grave marker.

The next tour is TODAY! Section 17 is back on th

The next tour is TODAY!

Section 17 is back on the circuit. Board member, Diane Medvitz, is touring one of her favorite sections. Hear about folks you might know well, and some maybe not so well.

These tours are presented by HOCPA board members and made possible thanks to the support of Oakwood Management. Stay tuned for more tour dates and events later this summer!

Please use the Oakwood Main Entrance on Comstock across from the Islamic Society of CNY. Look for the Tour Sign and follow the arrows to the parking and tour meeting place. Sunday tours begin at 2 pm.

Allow two hours for the tour. Please wear comfortable shoes. All tours are free, but donations are accepted. We tour, rain or shine, but not during thunder and lightning. Oakwood souvenirs will be available for purchase at the tours. 🪦

Wreaths have been associated with funerals and cem

Wreaths have been associated with funerals and cemeteries since classical times. Laurel wreaths were draped over Roman soldiers’ graves as a tribute to their bravery if they died in battle. As this cultural symbol progressed and changed over time, elaborate flower garlands were used in addition to laurel during funeral rites. Other citizens besides fallen warriors could have been so honored. Visitors to cemeteries often bring wreaths to decorate graves of their loved ones. As such, the wreath has become a general symbol of remembrance. During the mid-19th to early 20th century, sculptures of female figures in pensive poses holding wreaths appeared on monuments to the wealthy as a personification of “Memory.” The marble statue of a seated figure on the monument to the Stowell family in section 39 emanates an air of quiet strength. Attired in an elaborately folded garment, she seems to look directly at passers by, prompting them to examine the names on the plinth and remember those buried there.The Gray family lot in section 50 is marked by a standing granite figure garbed in an exceptionally detailed tunic and mantle. Unlike most cemetery statuary, she is not particularly solemn. Lost in thought, left thumb under her chin and index finger alongside her cheek, she holds her wreath almost casually in her right hand. Her posture appears relaxed because of her visibly flexed right knee. She reminds us that not all memories are melancholic. Poised on the ridge overlooking the City in section 4, a granite figure atop the Walch family monument gazes perpetually into the setting sun. Seated on a rock wall, she holds her head in her right hand, a wreath draped almost languidly over her left wrist. This sculpture conveys an air of immense weariness. In section 3 is an imposing granite figure commemorating the Burns family. Her elaborately curled hair and crossed leg posture are visually striking. Although in repose, she remains strong, substantial, and not overwhelmed by memory. It has been said that no one truly dies as long as someone remembers them. While these monuments exist the families interred beneath them will “live.”

The next tour is this Sunday! Section 17 is back

The next tour is this Sunday!

Section 17 is back on the circuit. Board member, Diane Medvitz, is touring one of her favorite sections. Hear about folks you might know well, and some maybe not so well.

These tours are presented by HOCPA board members and made possible thanks to the support of Oakwood Management. Stay tuned for more tour dates and events later this summer!

Please use the Oakwood Main Entrance on Comstock across from the Islamic Society of CNY. Look for the Tour Sign and follow the arrows to the parking and tour meeting place. Sunday tours begin at 2 pm.

Allow two hours for the tour. Please wear comfortable shoes. All tours are free, but donations are accepted. We tour, rain or shine, but not during thunder and lightning. Oakwood souvenirs will be available for purchase at the tours. 🪦

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Historic Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association - Syracuse, NY

2 weeks ago

Are you ready for “the rest of the rest of the story?” George Wiltse did more than just pitch and play the field. He occasionally coached first base, which he was doing on Sept. 23, 1908, against the Chicago Cubs in the Polo Grounds. This was a fierce, down-to-the-wire battle for the National League pennant. It was the bottom of the ninth, two out, with Giant runners at first and third, the game tied. Unfortunately, the runner on first was Fred Merkle. When the batter hit what seemed to be a game-winning single, Fred, later nicknamed “Bonehead,” failed to run to second base. Thinking the Giants won, the fans mobbed the field. The Cubs 2nd baseman, Johnny Evers, called for the ball, tagged 2nd base, and the home plate umpire called Merkle out. The game was declared a tie. If George could have just sent Merkle all the way to second… The Giants were thus forced into a playoff with these same Cubs. The Cubs beat them and went on to win the World Series. BTW, the Cubs wouldn’t win another World Series for 108 years. Hooks’ major league career ended in 1915. He played some minor league ball, then came back to central NY where he coached and managed local amateur teams. In 1957, a new league was formed for 16-18-year-old players. There were eight teams, and it was named the George “Hooks” Wiltse Baseball League. Because of his achievements in professional baseball, his contributions to youth baseball, and his qualities as a sportsman and a gentleman, there was a serious effort to have him inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It did not happen and even the Old-Timers Committee seems to have forgotten him. He was, however, in 1990, inducted into the Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame. “Hooks” Wiltse died in 1959 and was interred in Section 72, Lot 223 of Oakwood Cemetery. His wife, Della, passed away in 1965 and rests beside him. And that, folks, is the rest of the rest of the story. ... See MoreSee Less

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