Cemeteries Worth the Visit - Waldheim Jewish Cemetery, Chicago

Map of Cemeteries

Waldheim Jewish Cemetery

Waldheim Jewish Cemetery began in 1870 in Forest Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.  The cemetery is actually made up of over 250 different cemeteries representing various synagogues, associations, and landsmanshafts. 

Photo on Stone

Immigrants

Establishing a cemetery is one of the first priorities of a new Jewish community. The first burial in Waldheim was held in 1873.  Jewish faith dictates for burial to be held within the first 24 hours of death.  Funerals are prohibited on the Sabbath (Saturday) and Jewish holidays.  Tradition calls for a wooden casket without metal parts to allow the natural processes of nature.

Waldheim Cemetery

Photos on Stones

Waldheim Cemetery is the largest Jewish burying ground in Chicago, comprised of over 200 acres. Over 175,000 are interred in these densely designed, but beautiful grounds.  At one time, gates and fences divided each cemetery from its neighbor, and each of the 250 cemeteries had its own rules, regulations, and caretakers. 

A Walkway through the Cemetery

Stones Among the Trees

By the 1970’s, the few remaining founding organizations and caretakers were consolidated into the Waldheim Cemetery Company.  The various cemeteries were renovated and returned to a dignified traditional Jewish cemetery. Waldheim is one of the oldest and largest, still active Jewish cemeteries in the country.

Hebrew and English

Deer in the Cemetery

Today, over 100 gates still stand.  Narrow walks may divide the cemeteries, but few fences remain.  Tombstones usually have an inscription in Hebrew and English, or Hebrew and German. Wild life can be found near the forest preserve and the Des Plaines River.

Stones with Photos

Covered Photo

Hundreds of cemetery stones bear photos of a past age, immigrants new to the country, but very traditional in their dress and customs. Many photos are protected with a bronze hinged covering.  The cover may be lifted to view the photo. 

Detailed Tree Stone

Catalog Tree Stone

Tree stones abound in Waldheim.  Many are hand carved with exquisite details.  Some are catalog-ordered in granite or limestone.  All are beautiful and intriguing.

Glasser Mausoleum

Schwenk Mausoleum

There are also many mausoleums.  According to Jewish law, you must be buried in the earth. In order to comply when burial is in a mausoleum, the deceased may be buried in the ground and the mausoleum built above, or earth may be placed in the wooden coffin.  Many times, cemeteries require concrete vaults.  For this, earth is put in the liner and then the casket is placed on it.

Balaban-Katz Mausoleum

Stained Glass Window

This mausoleum is the largest private crypt in the cemetery.  Built with an Egyptian-influence, it is dedicated to the memory of Ida Balaban-Katz.  The stained glass mausoleum windows throughout the cemetery are gorgeous.

Peller's Grave

Clara Peller

A couple of well-known people are buried in Waldheim.  Clara Peller, who became famous for her line “Where’s the beef?” in commercials for Wendy’s fast-food restaurants is interred here.  Peller was 81 when she did the ads.  She died August 11, 1987, one week after her 85^th birthday.

Mike Todd & Elizabeth Taylor

Todd's Grave

Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen, who took the name Michael Todd, was a theatre and film producer known for his motion picture, Around the World in Eighty Days.  He also co-developed a wide-screen film format called Todd-AO (with American Optical) that was used for Oklahoma, Around the World in Eighty Days, South Pacific and many other films shot during the 1960’s.  Todd was married to Elizabeth Taylor on February 2, 1957.  He died in a plane crash on March 22, 1958 and was buried here.

A Stained Glass Window

Waldheim Cemetery

Waldheim Jewish Cemetery is located at 1400 Des Plaines Avenue in Forest Park.  The cemetery is open Monday through Friday, and Sunday from 8:30 A.M. to 4 P.M. The cemetery is closed on Saturday for Shabbat and also on all major Jewish holidays.  The phone number is (800) 222-4541.  Visit their web site at http://www.waldheimcemetery.com for directions and genealogical information.

Photo and Hebrew on Stone

Many Different Stones

If you are a cemetery buff, this is one you will not want to miss!  Plan at least half a day, if not more. Once you begin wandering among the stones, gazing at photos and carvings, you’ll forget the busy city outside the gates…lost in time and nature.

~ Joy

Cemeteries Worth the Visit - Bardstown Cemetery, Bardstown, Kentucky

Location in Kentucky

Bardstown Cemetery

Bardstown City Cemetery in Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky was established in 1852 with land purchased from Joseph Hart and James Doom.  The current City Cemetery is comprised of 15.5 acres and located in the northern section of town.  Over 3,100 people are interred here.

Bardstown Cemetery

Fenced Plot

Bardstown City Cemetery has many interesting and detailed stones.  Although few are ‘famous,’ you will find many that catch your eye.

James B. Beam

James Beam's Marker

One very famous interment is for Colonel James (Jim) Beauregard Beam, grandson of the man who developed a style of whisky known as Bourbon. Beam was born in 1864 in Kentucky and took over the family business from his father, David Beam.   Despite 13 years of Prohibition in this country, Beam kept the business profitable, turning it into a legendary American company. He was integral in the rebuilding of the distillery in 1933 in Clermont, Kentucky near Bardstown. In 1935 the bourbon was renamed Jim Beam Bourbon in J.B. Beam’s honor.  He died in Kentucky in 1947.

White Bronze Confederate Soldier

Dedication

Bardstown Cemetery is also known for the white bronze Confederate Soldiers Statue.  The memorial is cast from zinc, standing on a limestone base.  The four side panels show the image of General Robert E. Lee, cannons and other war artillery.  The statue cost $900 when it was erected in 1903.  It stands among the sixty-seven Confederate graves of soldiers who died during area Civil War battles. Sixty-six of the soldiers died in 1862, including those at the Battle of Bardstown. Seventeen soldiers are unknown.

Battle of Bardstown

Unknown Soldier

The Battle of Bardstown occurred on October 4, 1862 between the towns of Bardstown and Nazareth, on what is now Highway 31 East. Confederate troops had marched into Bardstown before four Union regiments encircled them.  During this battle the Confederates broke free and withdrew to Perryville.  

8th Texas Cavalry

Confederate Graves

During this battle, the Eighth Texas Cavalry and its leader, Colonel John Wharton, were stationed at the Fairgrounds, ready to intercept the Union Army.  But the Rangers found themselves confronted by far superior numbers of the First and Fourth Kentucky, the Fourth Ohio and the Third Indiana Cavalry regiments.  The Texas Calvary fought hard and won.  It would be called the unit’s finest hour.  The battle is still reenacted each August in Bardstown.

Confederate Marker

Confederate Soldier

In May 2000, the Confederate Soldiers Statue was damaged when a tree fell on it during a storm.  The pieces were shipped to New York and the statue was restored by the Conservation and Sculpture Company.  Restoration cost was around $50,000 and over 90% of the monument was reconstructed from original pieces.  Two years later the statue returned to its place of honor in the cemetery.   It was listed on the National Registry of Historic Markers in 1997.  

Ben Johnson

Bardstown & St Joseph Cemeteries

St Josephs’ Cemetery is adjacent to the Bardstown City Cemetery.  It has over 4,500 interments, including U.S. Congressman Ben Johnson.  Johnson was born in Bardstown on March 19, 1858 and died there on June 4, 1950.  Johnson began as an attorney in 1882, and then was appointed as a member of the State House of Representatives in 1885.  He served as Speaker of the House in 1887, and was appointed as a collector of the Internal Revenue in 1893, a position he held for four years. He served as a U.S. Congressman from 1907 until 1927.

St Michael Defeating the Devil

Close Up of Statue Base

Another monument of interest in St Joseph's, is the statue of St Michael defeating the devil.  The details and the red coloring of the statue draws your attention from throughout the cemetery.

Bardstown Cemetery

Statue Descending Steps

Bardstown City Cemetery is located in the 800 block of North Third Street.  Contact Cemetery Sexton Bobbe Blincoe at (877) 348-5947 for hours and genealogy information.  The cemetery does not have a web site.

~ Joy

Cemeteries Worth the Visit - Bellevue Cemetery, Danville, Kentucky

Bellevue Cemetery Map

Danville Historic District

Bellevue Cemetery was founded in 1847 as the Danville Cemetery. Robert Montgomery and William Speed purchased the first four acres from the Philip Yeiser farm.  The cemetery now consists of 29 acres near the historic district of downtown Danville, Kentucky 

A Lawn Park style Cemetery

Bellevue Cemetery

Designed as a Victorian Lawn Park style cemetery, Bellevue is made up of tree-lined paths and pastoral vistas. Upon entering the cemetery from North First Street, an allee of red oaks acts as a divide between the eastern and western sections of the cemetery. 

The eastern section of the cemetery contains newer graves; the western section is where you will find the older monuments and statues.  This is the section that still maintains the look of the Lawn Park cemetery from the 19^th century.

The Danville Cemetery had a name change in 1897 and became Bellevue Cemetery The City of Danville took over management of the cemetery in 1931.

McDowell's Monument

McDowell Family Stone

Although not buried in the cemetery, Danville doctor, Ephraim McDowell has family buried here.  McDowell is buried at McDowell Park in the center of town, near the Old First Presbyterian Church. 

Ephraim McDowell

 McDowell was a doctor and world renowned surgical pioneer.  On Christmas Day, 1809, he performed the first ovarian surgery on Jane Todd Crawford, a Kentucky resident.  An ovarian tumor weighing over twenty pounds had to be cut into several pieces to be lifted out.  Crawford was awake for the procedure, since anesthetic was not yet invented.  Jane Crawford survived the operation and went on to live another 33 years.  She died at the age of 79.  McDowell became famous as the pioneer of abdominal surgical techniques. He performed the same operation on two more women.  He published his report “Three Cases of Extirpation of Diseased Ovaria” in 1817.  Ephraim McDowell died in 1830.

Governor William Owsley

Brigadier General Jeremiah Boyle

There are several U.S. Congressmen, two Civil War Union Generals; Boyle County native Jeremiah Tilford Boyle and Danville native, Speed Fry, along with Kentucky Governor William Owsley buried here.

Bellevue is also the site of a National Cemetery.  At the start of the Civil War, the federal government set aside 18 cemetery lots in the Danville City Cemetery.  Made up of less than half an acre, the section was laid out in a rectangle with all four corners marked with U.S. corner posts. 

A total of 394 Union soldiers were buried here, most of them had died at Civil War hospitals scattered throughout Danville.  A Confederate lot set up just east of the National Cemetery has 66 interments.   In 1868, the Danville National Cemetery was established.  Burials continued in the National Cemetery until 1952. In 1998 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

 

Bellevue Cemetery does not have a web page, Facebook page or Twitter account.  For information about the cemetery, contact Josh Morgan, Assistant City Engineer at (859) 238-1206.  The cemetery is located at 377 North First Street in Danville, and is open daily from dawn to dusk.

Although finding information on Bellevue Cemetery is somewhat difficult, the cemetery itself is a treasure.  Plan on spending an afternoon wandering among the older stones and mature trees of this gorgeous old Civil War era cemetery.  The statues and stones are outstanding!

~ Joy