Cedar Hill Cemetery in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
is located at 453 Fairfield Avenue. It was designed by landscape architect
Jacob Weidenmann (1829–1893) who also designed Hartford's
Bushnell Park
Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut is the oldest publicly funded park in the United States. It was conceived by the Reverend Horace Bushnell in the mid-1850s at a time when the need for open public spaces was just starting to be recognize ...
. Its first sections were completed in 1866 and the first burial took place on July 17, 1866. Cedar Hill was designed as an American
rural cemetery
A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery that became popular in the United States and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries. They were typically built one to five ...
in the tradition of
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, west of Boston. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brah ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
.
The cemetery straddles three towns. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1997, in Hartford,
Newington, and
Wethersfield.
[ It includes the Cedar Hill Cemetery Gateway and Chapel, also known as ''Northam Memorial Chapel and Gallup Memorial Gateway'', which is separately listed on the NRHP.
Cedar Hill Cemetery encompasses and includes several historic buildings, including the Northam Memorial Chapel (built 1882), which was designed by Hartford architect George Keller, and the Superintendent's Cottage (built 1875), which continues to be occupied by Cedar Hill's Superintendent to this day.
The cemetery is open from 7 a.m. until dusk every day.
]
Notable monuments
Cedar Hill has many unique monuments. One of the most recognizable is the tall pink-granite pyramid, and life-sized angel statue, erected in memory of Mark Howard and his wife, Angelina Lee Howard. Mark Howard was president of the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford and Connecticut's first internal revenue collector.
Another example of an unusual grave is that of Cynthia Talcott, age two, which features her likeness in stone.
John Pierpont Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became kno ...
's family monument was designed by architect George W. Keller. Made of red Scottish granite, the monument was designed to portray Morgan's vision of the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an ...
.
The Porter-Valentine mausoleum features a stained-glass window created by Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...
.
Notable burials
More than 30,000 people are buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery, including many notable people such as:
* Robert Downing Ames (1889–1931), actor
*Fern Andra
Fern Andra, Dowager Baroness von Weichs (born Vernal Edna Andrews, November 24, 1893 – February 8, 1974) was an American actress, film director, script writer, and producer. Next to Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen, she was one of the most popu ...
(1893-1974), actress
*John Moran Bailey
John Moran Bailey (November 23, 1904 – April 10, 1975) was an American politician who played a major role in promoting the New Deal coalition of the Democratic Party and its liberal policy positions.
Bailey dominated Connecticut Democratic p ...
(1904-1975), Connecticut politician
*Henry Barnard
Henry Barnard (January 24, 1811 – July 5, 1900) was an American educationalist and reformer.
Biography
He was born in Hartford, Connecticut on January 24, 1811 and attended Wilbraham & Monson Academy. He graduated from Yale University in 1 ...
(1811–1900), Connecticut educator
* James Goodwin Batterson, Connecticut businessman
* Charles E. Billings (1834-1920), engineer, inventor and businessman
* Thomas Church Brownell, founder of Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
* John R. Buck, U.S. Congressman
* Francis M. Bunce, U.S. Navy rear admiral
*Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley
Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley (June 20, 1803 – February 13, 1872) was an American business executive, politician, and first president of the Aetna Insurance Company.
Life and career
Bulkeley was born June 20, 1803, in Colchester, Connecticut, the ...
, Connecticut businessman
* Morgan Gardner Bulkeley, Governor of Connecticut and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
* Ernest Cady (1842-1908), 45th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
*George Capewell
George Joseph Capewell (June 26, 1843 – November 6, 1919) was an inventor and businessman who developed an automated process for the production of horse shoe nails and founded the Capewell Horse Nail Company.
Biography
Capewell was born in Birm ...
, Connecticut businessman
* Charles Chapman (1799-1869), U.S. Congressman
* William Closson, artist
* Emily Parmely Collins (1814–1909), suffragist, activist, writer
*Elizabeth Jarvis Colt
Elizabeth Jarvis Colt (born Elizabeth Hart Jarvis, October 5, 1826 – August 23, 1905) was the widow and heir of firearms manufacturer Samuel Colt, founder of Colt's Manufacturing Company.
Early life
Elizabeth Hart Jarvis was born in Saybrook, Co ...
, Connecticut business woman
*Samuel Colt
Samuel Colt (; July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now Colt's Manufacturing Company) and made the mass production of ...
, inventor of the Colt revolver
*Helen Curry
Helen Curry (October 22, 1896 – November 15, 1931) was an American stage actress.
Biography
Early life and family
Helen Curry was born October 22, 1896, in Chester, Pennsylvania
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Curry studied at The ...
(1896-1931), stage actress
*Katharine Seymour Day Katharine Seymour Day (May 8, 1870 - June 4, 1964) was an American preservationist from Hartford, Connecticut. She worked as a member of the Hartford City Planning Commission to preserve historic homes in Connecticut and helped establish the Chil ...
(1870–1964)
* Charles Bancroft Dillingham, Broadway producer
*James Dixon
James Dixon (August 5, 1814 – March 27, 1873) was a United States representative and Senator from Connecticut.
Biography
Dixon, son of William & Mary (Field) Dixon, was born August 5, 1814 in Enfield, Connecticut, Dixon pursued preparat ...
(1814-1873), U.S. Congressman and Senator
*Virginia Dox
Virginia Dox (October 31, 1851 – February 14, 1941) was a 19th-century American missionary, educator, and explorer in the Intermountain West, and later a noted public speaker and fundraiser for educational institutions including Whitman Colle ...
, frontier educator and popular lecturer
* Johnny Duke or Giulio Gallucci (1924–2006), professional boxer and coach
* Edward Miner Gallaudet, teacher
* Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, teacher
*Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (December 10, 1787 – September 10, 1851) was an American educator. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first permanent institution for the education of the deaf in North America, and he bec ...
, educator of the deaf
* William James Glackens (1870–1938), artist
* Annie Warburton Goodrich, nurse, first dean of Yale University School of Nursing
* Charles Keeney Hamilton, aviator
*Joseph Roswell Hawley
Joseph Roswell Hawley (October 31, 1826March 18, 1905) was the 42nd Governor of Connecticut, a U.S. politician in the Republican and Free Soil parties, a Civil War general, and a journalist and newspaper editor. He served two terms in the U ...
, governor of Connecticut
*Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
(1907–2003), actress
* Katharine Houghton Hepburn (1878–1951), women's rights legal activist
*Isabella Beecher Hooker
Isabella Beecher Hooker (February 22, 1822 – January 25, 1907) was a leader, lecturer and social activist in the American suffragist movement.
Early life
Isabella Holmes Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the fifth child and sec ...
(1822–1907), women's rights legal activist
* Richard D. Hubbard (1818-1884), U.S. Congressman and 48th Governor of Connecticut
* Richard Jarvis (1829-1903), president of Colt Firearms
*Marshall Jewell
Marshall Jewell (October 20, 1825February 10, 1883) was a manufacturer, pioneer telegrapher, telephone entrepreneur, world traveler, and political figure who served as 44th and 46th Governor of Connecticut, the US Minister to Russia, the 25th U ...
(1825–1883), Connecticut businessman.
*Mary Goodrich Jenson
Mary Goodrich Jenson (November 6, 1907 – January 4, 2004) was an early woman aviator and journalist who became the first woman in Connecticut to earn a pilot's license and the first woman to fly solo to Cuba. She was inducted into the Con ...
, aircraft pilot
*John James McCook
John James McCook (February 21, 1806 – October 11, 1865), was a patriarch of the Fighting McCooks, one of the most prolific families in United States Army history. Five of his sons became prominent soldiers, chaplains, or sailors, as well as ei ...
(1843-1927), professor and theologian
* Anne Morgan (1873-1952), philanthropist
* Edwin Denison Morgan (1811–1883), United States Senator
*Junius Spencer Morgan
Junius Spencer Morgan I (April 14, 1813 – April 8, 1890) was an American banker and financier, as well as the father of John Pierpont "J.P." Morgan and patriarch to the Morgan banking house.
In 1864, he established J. S. Morgan & Co. in L ...
, financier
* John Pierpont Morgan Sr., financier
* Benjamin Wistar Morris (1870–1944), architect
* Peter Davis Oakley (1861-1920), US Representative
* Francis Ashbury Pratt, inventor
* Henry Roberts (1853–1929), Governor of Connecticut from 1905 to 1907
* Thomas Henry Seymour, Governor of Connecticut
* Nathaniel Shipman (1828-1906), U.S. Circuit Judge
* Virginia Thrall Smith, children's rights legal advocate
* Griffin Alexander Stedman, United States Civil War general of the Battle of Fort Stedman
The Battle of Fort Stedman, also known as the Battle of Hare's Hill, was fought on March 25, 1865, during the final weeks of the American Civil War. The Union Army fortification in the siege lines around Petersburg, Virginia, was attacked in a pr ...
. The General Stedman monument was sculpted by John M. Moffit.
*Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
(1879–1955), poet
* Julius L. Strong (1828-1872), U.S. Congressman
*Allen Butler Talcott
Allen Butler Talcott (April 8, 1867 – June 1, 1908) was an American landscape painter. After studying art in Paris for three years at Académie Julian, he returned to the United States, becoming one of the first members of the Old Lyme Ar ...
, artist
*Isaac Toucey
Isaac Toucey (November 15, 1792July 30, 1869) was an American politician who served as a U.S. senator, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, U.S. Attorney General and the 33rd Governor of Connecticut.
Biography
Born in Newtown, Connecticut, Toucey p ...
, Secretary of the Navy
*Reverend Joseph Hopkins Twichell, theologian
* Robert Ogden Tyler, Civil War general
* Edward Sims Van Zile (1863-1931), author
* Loren P. Waldo (1802-1881), U.S. Congressman
*Charles Dudley Warner
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
, writer
* Jacob Weidenmann (1829–1893), Switzerland-born landscape architect
*Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878), nicknamed "Father Neptune", was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869, a cabinet post he was awarded after supporting Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Although opposed ...
(1802–1878), Secretary of the Navy under Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
* Horace Wells, discoverer of anesthesia
Anesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), ...
*Amos Whitney
Amos Whitney (October 8, 1832 – August 5, 1920) was a mechanical engineer and inventor who co-founded the Pratt & Whitney company. He was a member of the prominent Whitney family.
He was born in Biddeford, Maine to Aaron and Rebecca (Pe ...
, inventor
*Yung Wing
Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between C ...
(1828–1912), first Chinese graduate of Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
Image gallery: Monuments
File:Angel Sculpture, Mark Howard Family Monument at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - January 2016.JPG, Angel sculpture, Mark Howard monument
File:Oswin Welles Family Monument at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - January 2016.JPG, Statue atop Oswin Welles monument, sculpted by Carl Conrads
Carl H. Conrads (February 26, 1839 in Breisig, Germany – May 24, 1920 in Hartford, Connecticut) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Civil War monuments and his two works in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. C ...
(1873)
File:Hunt Family Monument at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - January 2016.JPG, Hunt family monument, sculpted by Carl Conrads
Carl H. Conrads (February 26, 1839 in Breisig, Germany – May 24, 1920 in Hartford, Connecticut) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Civil War monuments and his two works in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. C ...
File:Clark Monument by Ferdinand von Miller, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - January 2016.JPG, Statue atop Clark family monument, designed by Truman Howe Bartlett (1868) and sculpted by Ferdinand von Miller
Ferdinand von Miller (18 October 1813 – 11 February 1887) was a German artisan who is noted for his furtherance of bronze founding.
Biography
Von Miller was born in Fürstenfeldbruck.
After a sojourn at the academy in Munich and a preliminary ...
(1869)
File:Colt Family Monument (Randolph Rogers, sculptor), Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - February 2016.jpg, ''Angel of the Resurrection'' atop Colt family monument, sculpted by Randolph Rogers
Randolph Rogers (July 6, 1825 in Waterloo, New York – January 15, 1892 in Rome, Italy) was an American Neoclassical sculptor. An expatriate who lived most of his life in Italy, his works ranged from popular subjects to major commissions, includ ...
(1864)[Inscription at base of statue shows date as "MDCCCLXIV" (1864).]
File:Marshall Jewell Monument (Carl Conrads, sculptor), Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - February 2016.jpg, Statue atop Marshall Jewell monument, sculpted by Carl Conrads
Carl H. Conrads (February 26, 1839 in Breisig, Germany – May 24, 1920 in Hartford, Connecticut) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Civil War monuments and his two works in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. C ...
File:Windsor Family Monument by Carl Conrads, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - April 2016.JPG, Statue atop John B. Windsor monument, sculpted by Carl Conrads
Carl H. Conrads (February 26, 1839 in Breisig, Germany – May 24, 1920 in Hartford, Connecticut) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Civil War monuments and his two works in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. C ...
(circa 1887–1905)
Image gallery: Trees
File:Weeping European Beech Tree in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford-Wethersfield, CT - June 2011.jpg, Weeping European Beech, June 2011
File:Weeping_European_Beech_Tree_beneath_canopy,_Cedar_Hill_Cemetery,_Hartford,_CT_-_June_3,_2011.jpg, Weeping European Beech, June 2011
File:Ginkgo_Tree,_Cedar_Hill_Cemetery,_Hartford,_CT_-_November_2,_2014.jpg, Ginkgo, November 2014
File:Purple_Japanese_Threadleaf_Maple,_Cedar_Hill_Cemetery,_Hartford,_CT_-_July_16,_2011.jpg, Purple Japanese Threadleaf Maple, July 2011
File:Japanese_Threadleaf_Maple,_Cedar_Hill_Cemetery,_Hartford,_CT_-_November_5,_2013.jpg, Japanese Threadleaf Maple Trees, November 2013
File:Ed Richardson with Japanese Threadleaf Maple in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT - June 29, 2013.jpg, Ed Richardson with Japanese Threadleaf Maple, June 2013 ''This tree was planted in honor of Mr. Richardson's work measuring and mapping the trees of Cedar Hill Cemetery.''
File:Pink_Weeping_Cherry,_Cedar_Hill_Cemetery,_Wethersfield,_CT_-_March_27,_2012.jpg, Pink Weeping Cherry Tree, March 2012
See also
*
*
References
External links
Cedar Hill Cemetery and Foundation
official website
Cedar Hill's Distinguished Heritage
official website subpage on history
* David F. Ransom,
Mapquest link, showing the cemetery
*
{{Authority control
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Queen Anne architecture in Connecticut
Gothic Revival architecture in Connecticut
Buildings and structures in Hartford, Connecticut
Cemeteries in Hartford County, Connecticut
Tourist attractions in Hartford, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut
Newington, Connecticut
Rural cemeteries
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
1865 establishments in Connecticut