Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum was founded in 1841, winning them a reputation for being one of the oldest and best rural garden cemeteries in the country. At over 200 acres, it’s too much to see in the afternoon we had to explore last week. With over 3,000 trees, it’s one of the more impressive cemeteries I have seen in person.
The fall foliage was mostly golden and was completely breathtaking.
You enter through a Romanesque gateway that was completed in 1889 alongside a chapel and office. We didn’t stop at the chapel but I wish now that we did to see the original Tiffany stained glass windows. Another trip.
There are some interesting people buried here including Julia Reichert who I wrote about last week. The Wright Brothers are buried here along with their younger sister Katherine who was a suffragette and an important part of her brothers’ business. She deserves a story of her own.
Poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, humorist Erma Bombeck, inventor of the folding stepladder John H. Baisley, inventor of the Yellow Pages Loren M. Berry and freed slave and writer Jordan Anderson are among the notable people who lie at rest here. For every one of the well known individuals buried here there are thousands of normal people, souls who lived quiet lives for whom the bell tolled but there’s no one left to remember them. I suppose that’s why some of the wealthy have enormous monuments and obelisks to grab your attention as you drive or walk through. They’re hoping to outsmart short memories and the unforgiving march of time.
We parked near the Wright family plot and explored from there. It’s interesting that the fathers of flight, the people responsible for one of the most important inventions in world history, are buried with a rather humble marker.
It wasn’t lost on me that they are buried in the flight path of Wright Patterson Air Force Base as we watched from this hillside as military planes took off and landed. It made me wonder if Wilbur and Orville Wright ever imagined how prolific flight would be, how enormous the planes could grow, or how they could be used as weapons of war and tools for peace.
It was quite an experience to stand here and contemplate these questions.
If you like cemeteries as much as I do, Woodland is worthy of your time. I hope to return another day and perhaps in another season when we might see snow or spring blooms.
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Does this cemetery offer tours? We have a similar cemetery in St. Louis – Bellafontaine – which is the final resting place for many famous people and is beautifully manicured as well. I even read a book about giving short bios of all the famous people buried there. Your Woodlawn sounds very similar. With regards to the fancy headstones, I remember my young daughter commenting, “It’s a way for people to show off after they’re dead.” 🙂 She liked the look of our national cemetery where all the headstones are essentially the same.
Bellafontaine sounds wonderful!
I saw where Woodlawn offers mausoleum tours and I imagine many others. Spring Grove down in Cincinnati offers several tour options a month so I imagine Woodlawn does as well.
National cemeteries sure do have their appeal for their simplicity and equity for all.
I assume that you saw Johnny Morehouse’s monument…a Boy and His Dog? Very touching story there.
A few years ago I visited Woodland, looking for some relatives. It’s a wonderful cemetery and arboretum.
Hi Chris! If I lived closer I would walk there every day. It’s so beautiful and peaceful.
We missed that monument so I’ll have to go back!
200 acres is pretty big for a cemetery! It’s interesting to hear that the chapel has the original Tiffany stained glass windows. It’s too bad you missed it.
I’ll have to return another day!