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Current Month

march, 2023

Preservation Committee

07mar5:00 pm6:00 pmPreservation Committee

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(Tuesday) 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm ET

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Events Committee

08mar5:30 pm6:30 pmEvents Committee

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(Wednesday) 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm ET

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Communications Committee

09mar5:00 pm6:00 pmCommunications Committee

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(Thursday) 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm ET

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HOCPA Board Meeting

21mar8:00 am9:00 amHOCPA Board Meeting

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(Tuesday) 8:00 am - 9:00 am ET

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Address:

P.O. Box 15065
Syracuse, NY 13215

Phone:
(315) 415-2954

Email:
HOCPAOakwood@gmail.com

If you are reading this while enjoying your daybre

If you are reading this while enjoying your daybreak cup of joe you can thank Marcellus native Ella Barber deLima (1856-1934) for that delicious morning ritual. The daughter of Gay Barber who owned Marcellus Falls Clock Factory and brought the first Singer sewing machine to Syracuse, and his wife Diantha Clark Barber, she was educated in Syracuse city schools. At Syracuse University she met Jose C. Alves deLima of Brazil and married him in 1878, immediately travelling to his family’s coffee plantation, where they remained for ten years. It was here that their four sons were born. Jose then became Consul General in Montreal and that is where their daughter was born. They travelled extensively because he represented the Brazilian government but Ella found diplomatic life boring and took two of her sons for a visit to Syracuse. She brought coffee beans with her and began roasting them in her kitchen on Highland St., grinding them by hand and using her sons to deliver orders to local businesses, naming it the deLima Brothers Coffee Company. Customers were warned that if they did not serve Ella’s coffee properly, she’d take it away from them, a promise she made good on, more than once. It became one of first commercial businesses developed and managed by a woman. In 1915 her son Paul bought out the business and renamed it “Paul deLima Coffee.” Interestingly enough, she made no provisions for her husband in her will, but left the estate to her daughter Maria and her son Fred. More than 100 years after she started her business the company launched a line named for her to ‘pay homage to women throughout the coffee industry.’ One legend says that she sat atop a bicycle that was rigged to a rotating vat, spinning the beans as they roasted. This is why a bicycle is pictured on the Ella bags of coffee. She is buried in Morningside Section C, lot 46 with 4 of her children.

We call her “Elusive Lucy,” but her real name

We call her “Elusive Lucy,” but her real name is Lucy Blanchard. For ninety-nine years, ever since her death in April of 1911, Mrs. Blanchard rested in an unmarked grave in Section 5, Lot 123 of historic Oakwood Cemetery. Born on August 2, 1820 in Cattaraugus County, the daughter of John and Polly Holdridge, Lucy Holdridge came to central New York in the late 1840s and in 1860 was a teacher at the Onondaga Orphan Asylum. On May 11, 1862, she married William H. Blanchard. In 1863 she volunteered as a nurse under the supervision of Dorothea Dix and was active attending Union casualties at the Battle of the Wilderness in May of 1864. She returned to civilian life in 1865, but it was not until 1890 that she received a government pension for her service. When she died in 1911, she was a resident of Fenton, Michigan, and although her remains were returned to Syracuse for burial in Oakwood, no headstone was put on her grave and the memory of her life and service began to fade. In 2010 an historian from Swartz Creek, Michigan, Len Thomas, had found out that the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War had established the Lucy J. Blanchard Tent #25 in Fenton in 1924. Thus began Mr. Thomas’ quest to seek out the complete life story of the “elusive Lucy.” On a research visit to Syracuse Mr. Thomas happened to meet two members of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Darothy DeAngelo and Sue Greenhagen, at the office of Oakwood Cemetery who took Mr. Thomas to Section 5. There it was determined that Blanchard was in an unmarked grave. An application was made for a veteran’s government headstone, which, when it arrived, was placed over Lucy’s grave. It was decided that something special should be done to honor this woman’s service to her country, so the Daughters organized a dedication ceremony for November 13, 2010. Assisting at the event, hosted by the Daughters, were local Civil War reenactors who stood sentry at the grave, fired a volley and played taps. Len Thomas and his wife, Sharon, came all the way from Michigan to take part. Now we can proudly say, “Elusive Lucy” has been found.

In the year 1935, If you tuned your radio to WFBL

In the year 1935, If you tuned your radio to WFBL Syracuse on Tuesday at 11:45 am, sandwiched between the “ Good News Hour" and the “Women’s Newspaper of the Air”, you would hear the remarkable soprano voice of Marion Lemira Clark Gere. Marion began her musical career as a soloist during services at the Onondaga Valley Presbyterian Church. She was encouraged to continue her musical education and attended classes under the direction of Helen Riddell Holcomb at Syracuse University. In 1915, Marion married Monroe Gere–the marriage would last until his death in 1976. While their three daughters were young, Marion’s singing was confined to home and the choir of the Geddes Congregational Church. By 1935, two of Marion’s daughters were attending Syracuse University and the third was a teenager, giving her time to renew her singing career. Marion auditioned for radio and was hired by producer Thelma MacNeil. She also returned to performing with Helen Holcomb’s ensemble.
Born in 1892, Marion was the daughter of Frank and Grace Searle Clark. Her paternal great- great grandfather, Jonathan Emmons III, was a Revolutionary War soldier and an early settler of the town of Lafayette. Her maternal great grandfather, Nathaniel Searle, came to Onondaga Valley as a vegetable farmer, and built the historic gothic revival cottage at 5323 S. Salina St.. Marion’s father Frank was also a farmer and he and his family maintained vegetable and fruit farms south of Syracuse throughout the 1920’s. Monroe Gere was an automobile dealer, selling Studebakers and the rare Graham-Pierce. The original Spanish style building still exists at 829 W. Genesee St.. Marion would eventually become a full partner in the business, listed as Secretary-Treasurer. In 1930, Marion acted as general contractor and built a house specifically to sell in Westvale. The project was so successful, she built another on Parson’s drive, in which she lived until her death in 1977. Vocalist, mother, radio star, builder, and automobile dealer, “life must have some point-some interest- to keep it attractive” Marion was once quoted. She is buried in the Gere family plot, section 17, lot 35.

Our Crypt Keepers from @suny.esf. ❤️⛄️ Bu

Our Crypt Keepers from @suny.esf. ❤️⛄️

Building snowmen and removing buckthorn!

Raised in an activist family, Emma Merrick (1855-1

Raised in an activist family, Emma Merrick (1855-1931) had no choice but to become an activist herself. Her grandfather Sylvanus, a veteran of the War of 1812, uncle Charles and father Montgomery were intimately involved in the Jerry Rescue and the Underground Railroad. They were immersed in the planning and storming of the jail where Jerry was held and established a secret depot from which slaves were transported. Charles, Montgomery and sister Chloe were members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, a biracial abolitionist congregation and a major center of the URR, organized in 1843. It is still standing at Columbus Circle and is known for the clay faces found in the basement. We can imagine that Emma witnessed many acts of defiance from an early age. On the 80th anniversary of the church Emma attended the ceremonies, the only representative of the founding families. Active in suffrage work, she participated in the Flower Fete in 1916. Automobiles were decorated with suffrage colors and parked in front of City Hall, the Court House, hotels, depots and terminals. From these 26 autos the occupants sold flowers, raising $500 “for the cause.” For this event Emma was in charge of the suffrage headquarters at 550 S. Salina with Dora Hazard, Fannie & Harriet Goodyear of the Goodyear-Burlingame School and others. In 1917 she covered the polls when the referendum for suffrage was taken, resulting in “victory for American womankind.” Following her retirement from teaching for 42 years at Putnam School, she became the director of the Sagola Home for Friendless and Homeless Girls. Emma was buried from that Wesleyan Methodist church and interred in Section 36, lot 77 with her parents and siblings.

Abolitionist, orator, and educator, the man we rem

Abolitionist, orator, and educator, the man we remember today as Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen was born a slave in Davidson County, Tennessee, about 1814. He was the son of farmer David Logue and a slave mother named Cherry. Loguen, whose slave name was Jarm, had 3 sisters and a half-brother.

The family, originally promised freedom, was sold by David to his brother Manasseh to pay off debts. Like many slave owners at that time, Manasseh ran a small farm of 140 acres, his primary product being whiskey. Cherry and her children were expected to run the distillery and raise the corn needed. By all accounts, Manasseh was a drunken and cruel man, administering beatings on a whim and selling his human chattel for ready cash.

In 1834, Loguen took one of the horses and left, eventually reaching Hamilton, Ontario, by traveling through Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, eventually crossing over to Canada through Detroit, Michigan, often pretending to be a freeman with fake travel papers. The journey was harrowing; his survival and avoidance of capture was a combination of help from kind strangers (mostly free African Americans) and luck.

Knowing illiteracy is a significant handicap to achievement, Loguen began to attend Sunday School classes after his job chopping wood in Canada. A diligent 6 months later he graduated as a “Bible reader.” Once he learned to recognize letters, he realized he had been holding many newspapers he had been pretending to read upside down.

Loguen continued his education at the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro under the tutelage of staunch abolitionist Beriah Green. During all his many years as minister of the AME Zion Church and principal agent for the Underground Railroad in Syracuse, Loguen never forgot his commitment to education, often combining “teaching with preaching.” He was responsible for setting up schools for African Americans in Utica, Syracuse, and Binghamton as well as teaching in the South during Reconstruction. All his children and grandchildren were well-educated and many went on to professional careers.

Jermain Loguen is buried in Section 6 with his family. A tablet erected by the United Methodists marks the location in Lot 55.

February is filled with special days with the Feb.

February is filled with special days with the Feb. 20th federal holiday celebrating George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Probably the best-known painting by Oakwood resident Peter Baumgras (1827-1903) is a portrait of Lincoln who often visited Baumgras’ studio in Washington D.C. Completed after his assassination, the painting now hangs in the John Hay Library at Brown University, a gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Hay was one of Lincoln’s secretaries during his time in office and an alum of Brown. Born to the son of the royal jeweler of the Bavarian Court, Baumgras came to the US in 1853, settling in Syracuse where his two brothers lived. He became one of the founders of Turn Verin, a German club for gymnasts to encourage a spirit of patriotism, and was the first president. He married artist Mary Brainerd Thomson of Syracuse in 1859 and had five children.

He then moved to D.C. to assist in decorating the Capitol Rotunda and when the Civil War broke out volunteered. He served as a surgical draughtsman, drawing battlefield wounds and surgeries in the era before photography. Following the war, he taught at the precursor to Gallaudet University, made botanical drawings for biologist Louis Agassiz and was Assistant Professor of Drawing at the US Naval Academy.

By 1877 he settled in Chicago and became Professor of Art at the University of Illinois. In 1900 he applied to be curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in D.C. Although best known for his still life work, he captured in paint abolitionist Wendell Phillips, early Syracuse settlers Col. Henry Perry and Eliza Young Adams, and James & Lucretia Garfield. Their portraits hang in the reception hall in the Garfield home. He was friends with Henry Arthur Elkins and Albert Bierstadt and his obituary mentioned that one of his portraits hung in the White House.

Many of his works are unaccounted for and some come up for auction even to this day. He is buried in Section 58, lot 109 with his sister-in-law Martha Thomson and her husband Professor Ernest Held.

Henry Alvin Washington, M.D., is credited with bei

Henry Alvin Washington, M.D., is credited with being the first Black doctor to practice in the city of Syracuse. He was born in 1906 in Nashville, TN where his father was a teacher in a public school. After graduating high school, Henry attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., and in 1929 graduated from their School of Medicine. He moved to Cleveland, OH, to set up his first practice. There he met Miss Evelyn Green whom he married in August of 1929. After moving to Syracuse in 1939, his house at 818 E. Fayette Street served as a home and an office. Dr. Washington would serve the Black community for the next 51 years, retiring in 1980. Known as “Doc Washington,” he was loved by his patients. He was a doctor who would make house calls, and if money was tight, not charge his patients. He was a veteran of World War II, attaining the rank of Captain in the Medical Corps. In 1950 the Washingtons hosted a reception at their home for Marian Anderson. After his retirement, Dr. Washington received numerous awards, including the NAACP Freedom Award in 1989, the Mayor’s Community Service Award in 1990, and the Urban League’s Harriet Tubman Award in 1991. Mrs. Washington passed away in 1981, and Dr. Washington died in 2001. He is buried in Sec. 102, Lot 30. He does not have a headstone.

Ada Knight Prettyman was born in Detroit Michigan

Ada Knight Prettyman was born in Detroit Michigan in 1914. Her mother Octavia Payne had married a man named Edward Knight and moved with him from Elmira, New York after 1910. By 1918, Octavia had lost a daughter, Gwyndoline, to pneumonia and Edward to pulmonary tuberculosis. Octavia moved her remaining three children to Syracuse, New York into a lodging house on Washington Street.

January 16, 1920, Ada, brother Arnold, and sister Jean, were baptized at St. Philip's, an Episcopal Church organized in 1897 by the Reverend H. Coddington specifically as a ministry to the black population of the 15th Ward.

After graduating from Central High, Ada was admitted to the Lincoln Hospital School for Nurses, Bronx, New York, living with other African American students in group housing during 1940. Although St. Joseph’s and Good Shepherd hospitals in Syracuse had nursing schools at that time, racial discrimination was rife and strict admission quotas were observed for Jewish women and African Americans. Lincoln School was one of only two New York City institutions that would teach African Americans. This school trained over 1800 nurses from the U.S., the Caribbean, and Africa, but regardless of competency, “non white” nurses were often denied jobs and membership in professional organizations.

During World War II, however, severe nursing shortages necessitated a rethinking of both de facto and legislative segregation policies. Ada was hired as the first African American nurse at the Good Shepherd Hospital (University Hospital) in 1944.

During her career, Ada was appointed Head Nurse and clinical instructor. Her expertise was such that she was asked to chair the first eastern conference on the care, management, and restoration of stroke patients in Rome, New York, May 1969. Her successful professional life as an African American Registered Nurse displays a great deal of resolve, considering desegregation in hospitals was never mandated until 1964.

During her lifetime, Ada Prettyman maintained ties to her church and community, transferring from St. Phillip’s when that church closed in 1957 to Grace Episcopal. She is buried in section R, Lot 94 Oakwood Cemetery.

Nothing had a less auspicious beginning than the E

Nothing had a less auspicious beginning than the Everson Museum of Art. Named for Helen S. Everson (1859-1941), daughter of Giles and Sophia Brown Everson, it began as the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts on the second floor of the Carnegie Library at Columbus Circle. Founded by Dr. George Fisk Comfort (Section 39 lot 19) it lacked storage and exhibition space and the board announced plans in 1937 to raise funds to purchase property at James and State Streets to “take art out of the attic.” It formally opened in October of that year and had 53,000 visitors during its first six months. Neither Helen nor her brother Charles (1856-1925) liked the building and planned a new venue for the museum. Charles died first and left his estate, valued today at about $11 million, to Helen, his only heir. Helen made her will in 1927 and intended to follow her brother’s wishes for the museum. Several plans for the museum were found in her home although nothing was done at the time. Although she had no heirs and her will bequeathed $1 million for the “purpose of founding, erecting and maintaining a Museum of Art to be known as the ‘Everson Museum of Art’“ in the city of Syracuse, 27 distant relatives contested the will, and lost. Then the Syracuse Museum of Art claimed the money rightly belonged to them; they lost. It wasn’t until nearly 10 years later that a location was discussed. Syracuse University campus and Thorndon Park were floated as sites but dismissed as being too far from downtown. 28 years after her death the two organizations combined and worked toward one goal. The I.M. Pei building finally opened Oct 27, 1968. Helen is buried in the family plot (Section 23 lot 1) with her parents and two brothers.

This post comes via the Red-Tailed Hawks Tales Fac

This post comes via the Red-Tailed Hawks Tales Facebook account.

“😭THE ULTIMATE DEVASTATING NEWS 😭

Our breathtakingly handsome Otto has also tragically passed away. A Red-Tailed Hawk was found dead on the ground in Oakwood cemetery on January 19 around 2:00pm by ESF students who messaged me on Red-Tailed Hawk Tales. I drove to Oakwood and confirmed it was Otto. Needless to say, it was a devastating shock but I am so grateful to the ESF students who contacted me.

I took SU-Sue and Otto’s bodies to Cornell University Veterinary Medicine’s Animal Health Diagnostic Center in Ithaca, NY for necropsy and special testing to determine the cause of each of their deaths. The results are pending and I will post an update here when available; I have no other information at this time.

This is the ultimate tragic loss for SU-Sue and Otto’s admirers at Syracuse University, in the local community, and around the world who have followed Sue and Otto and their 28 progeny since they began nesting at SU in 2012, via the SU Hawk Nest Cam since 2017, and on Syracuse Hawk Chatters and Red-Tailed Hawk Tales.

I’ve been so very touched by the massive outpouring of grief, comfort and love from around the world. One reader talked about her surprise that the passing of these hawks, who didn’t know the joy they brought us, would affect us so intensely. I believe they allowed us to deeply connect to the awesomeness of nature and the circle of life. One of my favorite quotes by ecologist Carl Safina is: “When someone says you can’t attribute human emotions to animals, they forget the key leveling detail: humans are animals.” We are ALL connected and Sue and Otto gave us many lessons in how to love, parent, teach, and care for each other and their family. We owe them so much gratitude for their gifts.

As we collectively grieve the loss of this magnificent pair, shared grief makes the pain somewhat easier to bear. Eventually, our hearts will get used to the pain and find joy in the cherished memories that remain.

May SU-Sue and Otto's Spirits Soar High and Free, Together for Eternity. They have taken Pieces of Many Hearts with Them. 💔”

Great learning opportunity this Friday!

Great learning opportunity this Friday!

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Historic Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association - Syracuse, NY

1 day ago

If you are reading this while enjoying your daybreak cup of joe you can thank Marcellus native Ella Barber deLima (1856-1934) for that delicious morning ritual. The daughter of Gay Barber who owned Marcellus Falls Clock Factory and brought the first Singer sewing machine to Syracuse, and his wife Diantha Clark Barber, she was educated in Syracuse city schools. At Syracuse University she met Jose C. Alves deLima of Brazil and married him in 1878, immediately travelling to his family’s coffee plantation, where they remained for ten years. It was here that their four sons were born. Jose then became Consul General in Montreal and that is where their daughter was born. They travelled extensively because he represented the Brazilian government but Ella found diplomatic life boring and took two of her sons for a visit to Syracuse. She brought coffee beans with her and began roasting them in her kitchen on Highland St., grinding them by hand and using her sons to deliver orders to local businesses, naming it the deLima Brothers Coffee Company. Customers were warned that if they did not serve Ella’s coffee properly, she’d take it away from them, a promise she made good on, more than once. It became one of first commercial businesses developed and managed by a woman. In 1915 her son Paul bought out the business and renamed it “Paul deLima Coffee.” Interestingly enough, she made no provisions for her husband in her will, but left the estate to her daughter Maria and her son Fred. More than 100 years after she started her business the company launched a line named for her to ‘pay homage to women throughout the coffee industry.’ One legend says that she sat atop a bicycle that was rigged to a rotating vat, spinning the beans as they roasted. This is why a bicycle is pictured on the Ella bags of coffee. She is buried in Morningside Section C, lot 46 with 4 of her children. ... See MoreSee Less

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