Who's Buried In Grant's Tomb? Part 3

Ulysses S. Grant Buried: General Grant National Memorial, New York, New York Eighteenth President - 1869-1877 Born: April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio Died: 8:06 a.m. on July 23, 1885, in Mount McGregor, New York Age at death: 63 Cause of death: Throat cancer Final words: "Water."

Admission to General Grant National Memorial: Free Ulysses S. Grant, hero of the Civil War's battlefields, was terrified in the presence of animal blood. So consuming was his fear that he ordered steaks extra-well done. Grant's squeamishness did not extend to the front lines. His military leadership won him the Republican nomination for president in 1868. The war and scandal-weary nation hoped the general could restore peace.

Following his two terms as president, Grant embarked in 1877 on an ambitious two-year tour of the world with his wife Julia and son Jesse. He met with several heads of state, including Queen Victoria, and later cooperated in doc.u.menting the tour in a book. When he returned, Grant settled in Galena, Illinois. In 1880 he led the field for the Republican nomination for the presidency. James Garfield edged out the former president by just sixty-six votes, thus preventing Grant from becoming the first person to be nominated for a third term. Grant's luck worsened when a series of schemes in which he invested failed, leaving him penniless and publicly humiliated.

Entrance to Grant's Tomb on Riverside Drive and 122nd Street in New York City After he complained of frequent sore throats in the spring of 1884, doctors ordered the general, a lifelong cigar smoker, to stop smoking. The following year he began to lose his voice and had trouble swallowing. Doctors diagnosed cancer of the throat. Grant had such difficulty swallowing food that by the following spring he'd lost nearly seventy-five pounds, almost half his weight. His doctors treated him with a mixture of pain-relieving drugs-morphine and cocaine, to which the former president gradually became addicted. He soon lost the ability to speak above a whisper and communicated primarily with notes. His coughing fits grew so bad that Grant was frequently forced to sleep sitting up in a chair so as not to choke to death. During those many sleepless nights, Grant began work on his autobiography.

In June of 1885, Grant moved from New York City to Mount McGregor, New York, to continue work on his memoirs; he hoped to earn enough money to leave his wife financially secure after his death. Yet within a month, his health took a turn for the worse. By July 22, Ulysses Grant was fading in and out of consciousness. He opened his eyes when his wife spoke to him and in one of his final statements said, "I don't want anybody to feel distressed on my account." His only spoken word after that was a request for water. After suffering increasing difficulty breathing, doctors gave him brandy for the pain and applied hot cloths to warm his extremities.

The scene surrounding Grant's deathbed was a crowded one. In addition to his family, several doctors, nurses, a minister, a stenographer, and a sculptor (for the death mask) gathered around the dying man in the parlor of his home. When he died on the morning of July 23, the first news reports were on the wire within two minutes.

After he became ill, Grant had considered three potential sites for his burial: West Point, eliminated because the academy would not allow his wife to be buried with him; Galena, Illinois, where he received his first general's commission; and New York City. Unknown to the general, his family had also discussed burial at the Old Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, a site was recommended overlooking the Hudson River on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Here, he was laid to rest on August 8, 1885, following one of the largest pageants the country had ever witnessed: sixty thousand people marched in his funeral procession.

New York City's African-American population played a leading role in the initial planning and funding for Grant's tomb. Richard Greener, the first black graduate of Harvard, was secretary of the Grant Monument a.s.sociation. In 1888, he organized a design compet.i.tion to gather proposals from architects for a suitable monument. The winner was an elaborate granite and white marble tomb designed by John Duncan. The tomb, which broke with the then-current fashion of erecting obelisks, was completed in 1897 and dedicated by President William McKinley in a ceremony attended by a crowd estimated at one million people. It is the largest mausoleum in North America. Grant's wife Julia was buried alongside him when she died in 1902.

Touring Ulysses S. Grant's Tomb at the General Grant National Memorial After years of disrepair, the General Grant National Memorial is now restored. Operated by the National Park Service, the memorial is located at Riverside Drive and 122nd Street in New York City on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Operating hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., daily, except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas. Admission is free.

To reach the memorial by car: Take the Henry Hudson Parkway to the 95th Street exit. Go north on Riverside Drive to 122nd Street. A limited amount of street parking is available.

To reach the memorial by subway: Take the Seventh Avenue-Broadway #1 subway train, which stops at the West 116th Street station on Broadway, two blocks east and six blocks south of Grant's Tomb.

Bus service is provided on Riverside Drive up to 120th Street by route M-5. To reach the memorial by bus: Take the M11 bus to Amsterdam Avenue and West 118th Street.

For additional information Superintendent General Grant National Memorial Riverside Drive and 122nd Street New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 932-9631 Fax: (212) 666-1679 www.nps.gov/gegr "Doctors applied a cocaine solution to dull the excruciating pain of throat cancer, the result of Grant's twenty-cigar-a-day habit."-Richard Norton Smith

In fact, there is nothing new about fascination with death, especially as it affects the politically celebrated who can outrun any opponent but time. In the summer of 1885, Ulysses S. Grant died by inches while an eager public camped outside the twelve-room cottage on New York's Mount McGregor. Inside the old hero was attempting to recoup his losses from a Wall Street swindle by penning his war memoirs for Mark Twain.Doctors applied a cocaine solution to dull the excruciating pain of throat cancer, the result of Grant's twenty-cigar-a-day habit. Nightly injections of morphine enabled the patient to gain strength for the next day's incessant scribbling. As the death watch dragged on, knots of curiosity seekers climbed the wooded mountain slope to observe the general on his front porch, a skeletal figure in top hat and shawls, conjuring memories of Vicksburg and the Wilderness while gazing off toward the Saratoga battlefield.When the disease permanently silenced verbal communication, Grant scrawled a poignantly humorous note to his doctors. "I think I am a verb instead of a personal p.r.o.noun. A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; or to suffer. I think I signify all three."Nor did this marvelous Victorian melodrama end with Grant's death on July 23, 1885. Too many old soldiers had too much invested in their commander's glory, and glorification, to consign him to a temporary vault on 122nd Street. Hard times slowed the effort to build a shrine worthy of the Union's military savior, as did a rival campaign to install the Statue of Liberty on her pedestal in New York harbor.In 1890, the Senate pa.s.sed a bill to remove Grant's remains to Arlington National Cemetery, a step staunchly opposed by the general's widow, Julia. Whatever their motive, the lawmakers succeeded in prodding New York's dilatory fundraisers. On April 27, 1897, Grant's seventy-fifth birthday, a million people lined the streets of Manhattan to watch aging warriors of the Grand Army of the Republic and amba.s.sadors from twenty-seven nations join President McKinley in dedicating the largest mausoleum in America. the lawmakers succeeded in prodding New York's dilatory fundraisers. On April 27, 1897, Grant's seventy-fifth birthday, a million people lined the streets of Manhattan to watch aging warriors of the Grand Army of the Republic and amba.s.sadors from twenty-seven nations join President McKinley in dedicating the largest mausoleum in America.[image]Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia lie side by side in Grant's mammoth marble tombTo the novelist Henry James, Grant's Tomb symbolized "democracy in the all together...an unguarded shrine where all could come and go at their own will." Inside, beneath mosaics depicting his martial triumphs, the general and his lady lie in twin ten-ton sarcophogi carved from Wisconsin porphyry, Julia having rejected the idea of a single monument. "General Grant must have his own sarcophagus, and I must have mine beside him," she explained. "Hereafter when persons visit this spot, they must be able to say 'here rests General Grant.'" If his presidency, crooked as a dog's hind leg, tarnished Grant's historical standing, it certainly hadn't diminished his hold on popular affections.-RNS

Rutherford B. Hayes Buried: Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, Ohio Nineteenth President - 1877-1881 Born: October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio Died: 11:00 p.m. on January 17, 1893, in Fremont, Ohio Age at death: 70 Cause of death: Heart attack Final words: "I know I am going where Lucy is."

Admission to Hayes Presidential Center: $7.50 The disputed election of 1876 caused a near-rebellion when a fifteen-man Congressional commission, created to sort out electoral vote fraud, awarded the White House to Rutherford B. Hayes in a party-line vote. It earned Hayes, who had lost the popular vote, the derisive nickname "His Fraudulency."

Hayes had promised not to seek a second term. In March 1881, he attended the inauguration of his successor, James Garfield, and happily left Washington for retirement in his native Ohio. The Hayes's new life got off to an inauspicious start: the train in which they were traveling crashed, leaving two other pa.s.sengers dead. Rutherford and Lucy Hayes were unhurt and continued the trip to Fremont and the home they had named Spiegel Grove.

In 1889, the much-admired Lucy Hayes suffered a series of strokes and died. The couple had been very close and Hayes wrote in his diary, "The charm of life left me when Lucy died." He busied himself with public affairs, including service as a trustee of Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University.

In January of 1893, Hayes sat in a drafty train car en route to a university trustees meeting. Chilled, he felt ill throughout the meeting; at the station on his return to Fremont, Hayes suffered a heart attack.

Despite the concern of others, Hayes downed some brandy to restore his spirits and boarded the train for home. There, his doctor ordered the former president to his bed and for a while, Hayes seemed to improve. But on January 17, Hayes's heart gave out; he died in the arms of his second son Webb, telling him, "I know I'm going where Lucy is." Hayes was seventy.

News of Hayes's death reached Washington. Outgoing President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation in honor of Hayes and ordered flags to fly half-staff. Harrison, a fellow Republican, elected not to make the trip to Fremont for Hayes's funeral, although the incoming president, Grover Cleveland-a Democrat-did.

January weather in Ohio was bitter cold. The streets were covered in snow. Yet thousands of mourners, including Ohio governor and future president William McKinley, turned out. Public schools and businesses closed in honor of the former president.

Hayes's body lay in state in Spiegel Grove's dining room. Dozens of floral arrangements surrounded his cedar coffin and a large American flag covered one wall of the room. When the service began on the afternoon of January 20, the house was jammed with visitors. The Reverend J.W. Bashford, a friend of forty years who had married Rutherford and Lucy, read the 23rd Psalm and prayed for the dead president. In deference to the freezing weather, a brief military ceremony was also conducted inside the home. Veterans of Hayes's 23rd Ohio Regiment served as pallbearers, escorting the casket to Fremont's Oakwood Cemetery, where Hayes was buried next to Lucy.

In 1910, Hayes's son Webb donated Spiegel Grove to the state of Ohio. The Hayes Presidential Center, the nation's first presidential library, was established at the site. On April 3, 1915, the bodies of the former president and first lady were re-interred at Spiegel Grove, on a site just south of the family home. Their tomb was constructed of granite mined from Hayes's father's farm in Dummerston, Vermont. A marble headstone, designed for Lucy by Hayes, was also moved to Spiegel Grove. The stone was so heavy, a temporary rail line had to be constructed to move the stone to its new location.

The burial site for two of Rutherford Hayes's horses, "Old Ned" and "Old Whitey," can be found just outside the fence surrounding the presidential tomb.

Touring Rutherford B. Hayes's Tomb at the Hayes Presidential Center The Hayes Presidential Center is located in Fremont, Ohio, on the grounds of Spiegel Grove, the Hayes's twenty-five-acre estate. It is open Tuesday through Sunday and closed Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Sat.u.r.day, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays and holidays. The library is closed on Sundays and holidays. Admission to the museum and home is $7.50 for adults, $6.50 for senior citizens, and $3.00 for children ages six to twelve. Admission for children under six is free. Special rates are available for groups. Visits to the gravesite are free. The grave is located on the south side of the Hayes home.

From the east or west: From the Ohio Turnpike (I-80/90), take exit 91/6. After leaving the turnpike, follow the signs for State Route 53-South. (This will take you onto the US 20 Bypa.s.s briefly, then back onto SR 53-South.) After approximately five miles, you will come to the junction of State Route 6-West. Turn left at the light (which is Hayes Avenue, but is not labeled). After the second light on Hayes Avenue, look for a flashing yellow light, about 2.2 miles from US 6. Turn right and immediately make a second right into the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. The entrance to the center is at the corner of Hayes and Buckland Avenues. From the city of Fremont, follow the brown and white Hayes Presidential Center signs.

Stone marker at the Hayes Presidential Center For additional information The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Spiegel Grove Fremont, Ohio 43420-2796 Phone: (419) 332-2081 / (800) 998-7737 Fax: (419) 332-4952 www.rbhayes.org "...Hayes proved to be the gold in the Gilded Age..."-Richard Norton SmithElevated to the White House in 1876 amid rancorous cries of electoral fraud, Hayes proved to be the gold in the Gilded Age, a foe of the spoils system and a dedicated teetotaler whose feminist wife won immortality, and patronization, as "Lemonade Lucy." Time was on their side: less than a year after leaving office, Hayes helped to bury the a.s.sa.s.sinated Garfield. In the summer of 1885, he rode in Grant's funeral procession, sharing a carriage with none other than Chester Arthur, the onetime boss of the New York Customhouse whose removal Hayes had orchestrated, and who had gone on, against all odds, to become an effective reformer in his own right. In June 1889, Hayes lost his greatest friend. "How easily I could let go of life," he said in the wake of Lucy's pa.s.sing. On a Sunday in January 1893, he visited her grave in the cemetery near his handsome estate called Spiegel Grove. That evening he wrote in his diary of his longing to join her. At the Cleveland train station a few days later, Hayes In June 1889, Hayes lost his greatest friend. "How easily I could let go of life," he said in the wake of Lucy's pa.s.sing. On a Sunday in January 1893, he visited her grave in the cemetery near his handsome estate called Spiegel Grove. That evening he wrote in his diary of his longing to join her. At the Cleveland train station a few days later, Hayes experienced severe chest pains. "I would rather die at Spiegel Grove," he said, "than to live anywhere else." experienced severe chest pains. "I would rather die at Spiegel Grove," he said, "than to live anywhere else."[image]Roger Bridges, former director of the Hayes Presidential Center, with C-SPAN consulting historian John Splaine at the Hayes tombOn the night of January 17, his wish was granted. President-elect Grover Cleveland made the long train journey from Washington to attend Hayes's funeral. "He was coming to see me," said Cleveland. "But he is dead and I will go to see him." The gesture would have touched Hayes, for, by his gallant action, Cleveland buried all the old charges about the disputed election of 1876, along with the man who had won it.-RNS

James A. Garfield Buried: Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio Twentieth President - 1881 Born: November 19, 1831, in Orange, Ohio Died: 10:35 p.m. on September 19, 1881, in Elberon, New Jersey Age at death: 49 Cause of death: Infection resulting from a.s.sa.s.sin's bullet Final words: "Oh, Swaim, there is a pain here. Oh, Swaim!"

(to David Gaskill Swaim, his chief of staff) Admission to Lake View Cemetery: Free Medical incompetence may have been partially to blame for the death of the twentieth president. Clean instruments and a different sickbed might have prolonged James Garfield's life.

On July 2, 1881, Garfield became the second president to be wounded seriously while in office. Four months into his term, Garfield, accompanied by Secretary of State James Blaine, set off for a trip to the Northeast. As Garfield and Blaine walked arm-in-arm through Washington's Baltimore and Potomac railroad station (now the site of the National Gallery of Art) at about 9:30 a.m., a man came within a yard of the president and shot him twice with a .44-caliber British Bulldog pistol.

The first bullet superficially wounded Garfield's right arm. The second shot pa.s.sed through his lower back and lodged deep in his body. Garfield cried out, "My G.o.d, my G.o.d, what is this?" and fell, bleeding heavily. A doctor was on the scene within moments.

The Garfield Monument houses the remains of James and Lucretia Garfield The a.s.sa.s.sin, Charles Julius Guiteau, was arrested at the station. A former Garfield supporter, he unsuccessfully sought a patronage position from the president and secretary of state. Turned down, he began shadowing the president. In the weeks prior to the shooting, Guiteau had come within range of the president three times-each time, he found a reason not to shoot. Several letters were found in his pockets, including one which read, "The president's tragic death was a sad necessity, but it will unite the Republican party and save the Republic.... I had no ill will towards the president."

Moved to the White House, surrounded by a half dozen physicians, Garfield sipped brandy to ease the pain. Doctors trying to find the bullet probed the wound in Garfield's back with bare hands and unsterilized instruments. Their prognosis was grim; they did not expect the president to live through the night. Garfield's family gathered at his bedside. Garfield tried to cheer his sixteen-year-old son Jimmy, saying, "Don't be alarmed. The upper story is all right, it is only the hull that is a little damaged."

A metal detector invented by Alexander Graham Bell was used in an attempt to find the bullet, but failed due to the unforeseen attraction of metal springs in Garfield's bed; doctors were mystified as to why the machine made the president's body appear bullet-riddled. They operated three times to remove bone fragments and drain abscesses near the wound. Newspapers across the country carried daily updates on the president's condition.

On September 6, Garfield asked to be taken by special train to the New Jersey seaside. For a few days he seemed to be recuperating. But on September 19, 1881, he complained of severe pains near his heart and fell unconscious. James Garfield died at 10:35 that evening at age forty-nine. Bells tolled across the country announcing his death. Vice President Chester Arthur took the oath of office a few hours later at his home in New York City.

A three-hour autopsy discovered that the bullet's actual trajectory was nowhere near what doctors originally thought. That miscalculation and a blood infection caused by the lack of sterile procedures were factors in Garfield's death.

At a private viewing held at his home, friends of the late president were shocked by his emaciated appearance. The New York Times New York Times reported: "The President's face was shockingly ghastly. The skin was drawn tightly over the projecting bones, except on the forehead, where it was deeply corrugated. The lips were apart, disclosing set teeth. The hair and whiskers had whitened perceptibly. No signs of the swelling or incisions were visible, but the face was blotched and covered with black specks-the result, it is said, partly, of the taking of a plaster cast of the face last night." reported: "The President's face was shockingly ghastly. The skin was drawn tightly over the projecting bones, except on the forehead, where it was deeply corrugated. The lips were apart, disclosing set teeth. The hair and whiskers had whitened perceptibly. No signs of the swelling or incisions were visible, but the face was blotched and covered with black specks-the result, it is said, partly, of the taking of a plaster cast of the face last night."

Garfield's body was carried by train to Washington on Wednesday, September 21, and was escorted up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol by Chester Arthur and former president Ulysses S. Grant. Garfield's body lay in state in the Capitol rotunda for two days.

On Monday, September 26, 1881, Garfield's body was taken to his hometown for burial in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery. Artillerymen lifted the casket from its platform onto a carriage led by twelve black horses. Former President Rutherford B. Hayes, a fellow Ohioan, led the procession. As rain began to fall, a band played "Nearer My G.o.d, to Thee," and James Garfield's body was placed into the cemetery's public vault.

Nine years later, Garfield was re-interred in Lake View Cemetery at the site of the newly completed James A. Garfield Monument. His wife Lucretia was buried there in 1918.

The crypt containing the caskets of James and Lucretia Garfield Two months after James Garfield was buried, Charles Guiteau went on trial. Guiteau believed that G.o.d had ordered him to kill the president; his attorney (also his brother-in-law) argued that Guiteau was not guilty by reason of insanity. After an hour of deliberation, the jury found him guilty. Guiteau was sentenced to death. On his way to the gallows, Guiteau sang a hymn he had written about going to G.o.d. He was hanged before a crowd of spectators in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 1882.

Touring James Garfield's Tomb at Lake View Cemetery The Lake View Cemetery is located in Cleveland, Ohio. The cemetery is open daily 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The James A. Garfield Memorial Monument is open April 1 through the president's birthday, November 19, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is free.

From Akron: Take I-480 northbound to I-271. Take I-271 North to the Mayfield Road exit. Go west on Mayfield Road for about four miles. The Mayfield gate of the cemetery is located at the intersection of Mayfield and Kenilworth Roads on the right.

From Toledo: Take I-90 East to exit 177. Take exit 177 to Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. Turn left and proceed south for three miles to Euclid Avenue. Turn left on Euclid Avenue and drive east to the gates of Lake View Cemetery.

To reach the Garfield Monument, follow Garfield Road after entering the cemetery gates.

For additional information Lake View Cemetery 12316 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44106 Phone: (216) 421-2665 Fax: (216) 421-2415 www.lakeviewcemetery.com "One hundred thousand mourners paid their respects to the late president..."-Richard Norton SmithWhether Garfield died at the hands of an a.s.sa.s.sin, or from the unsanitary probings of his doctors, remains a topic of scholarly debate. Beyond question was the depth of popular grief occasioned by his pa.s.sing. One hundred thousand mourners paid their respects to the late president as he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda; another twenty thousand requested tickets for Guiteau's hanging. In the aftermath, Congress enacted civil service legislation, much as lawmakers eight decades later would be shamed into pa.s.sing a civil rights bill a.s.sociated with the martyred John F. Kennedy.That is not all Guiteau's crime inspired, as any visitor to Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery can see for himself. Part of a distinguished company that includes John D. Rockefeller, Mark Hanna, and John Hay, the twentieth president rests in a turreted red sandstone tower soaring 180 feet into the air. Beneath Memorial Hall, whose ornate mosaics and elegant tilework have recently been restored to their original splendor, a nineteen-foot white Carrara marble Garfield stands forever poised on the edge of a campaign oration. Downstairs a crypt holds the caskets of the president and his wife, Lucretia. Forget the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; when in Cleveland, head for Lake View. tilework have recently been restored to their original splendor, a nineteen-foot white Carrara marble Garfield stands forever poised on the edge of a campaign oration. Downstairs a crypt holds the caskets of the president and his wife, Lucretia. Forget the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; when in Cleveland, head for Lake View.[image]One of Garfield's neighbors in Lake View Cemetery-RNS

Chester Arthur Buried: Albany Rural Cemetery, Albany, New York Twenty-first President - 1881-1885 Born: October 5, 1829, in Fairfield, Vermont Died: 5:00 a.m. on November 18, 1886, in New York, New York Age at death: 57 Cause of death: Stroke Final words: Unknown Admission to Albany Rural Cemetery: Free The circ.u.mstances surrounding Chester Arthur's birth nearly cost him the presidency. Arthur was born the son of a Baptist minister in Fairfield, Vermont. His political enemies knew that one way to keep Arthur out of the presidency was to prove he was born in Canada rather than Vermont, thus making him ineligible to be president. Though such charges followed him throughout the campaign of 1880, evidence that he was in fact Canadian was never provided.

The vice presidency under James Garfield was Arthur's first elective office. Arthur had not gotten over his wife Nell's recent death from pneumonia when James Garfield was a.s.sa.s.sinated in 1881. When he was president, Arthur hung Nell's portrait in the White House and insisted that fresh flowers be placed underneath it each day. Ironically, Arthur was himself seriously ill, suffering from Bright's disease, a kidney ailment that left him feeling extremely fatigued. Reports of his condition, which Arthur steadfastly denied, appeared occasionally in the press.

The Angel of Sorrow at the Arthur tomb Due to his illness, Arthur was not enthusiastic about another term but nevertheless sought his party's nomination. He was unsuccessful, losing the nomination to James G. Blaine. His health rapidly declined; by the later months of 1886, the former president was bedridden at his home in New York City, unable to eat solid food. Arthur remained optimistic, filling his days with books, newspapers, and visitors. His condition worsened after he was taken on a long ride through Central Park; Arthur never fully recovered. About two weeks before his death, Arthur fell into a state of depression and ordered all of his personal papers burned.

On the night of November 16, 1886, Chester Arthur suffered a severe stroke. A maid who came to wake him the next morning found him partially paralyzed and unable to speak. He soon fell unconscious. He died on November 18 in his home at 123 Lexington Avenue. A doctor and Arthur's two sisters were at his bedside; his daughter and nephew nearby. Telegrams were sent to the former president's other relatives and the surviving members of his cabinet, and an undertaker was summoned. Although many mourners came to pay their respects, the family remained in seclusion.

His funeral was held at 9:00 a.m. on November 22 at the Church of the Heavenly Rest on Fifth Avenue in New York City. As the family wished, it was a simple service with only a small military honor guard. Flags throughout the city were lowered to half staff, and many public and private buildings were draped in mourning. President Grover Cleveland attended. Pallbearers included Robert Todd Lincoln, Charles Louis Tiffany, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Arthur's body was taken to Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York, for burial. His elaborate tomb lies to the right of his beloved wife Nell's in the Arthur family plot.

Touring Chester Arthur's Tomb at Albany Rural Cemetery The Albany Rural Cemetery is located in Menands, New York. The cemetery is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. during the summer months). Admission is free.

From Saratoga Springs: Take I-87 South to Alternate Route 7. From Alternate Route 7, head east to Highway 787. Take Highway 787 South to exit 7 west. Bear right, heading towards Menands/Loundenville. At the first traffic signal, take a right. Albany Rural Cemetery is located on the left.

From Utica: Take I-90 East to exit 24. From exit 24 continue on I-90 East to Highway 787 North. Take Highway 787 North to exit 7 West. From exit 7 West follow Route 32. Turn right on Route 32. Albany Rural Cemetery is on the left.

Look for red, white, and blue signs marking President Arthur's gravesite. Cemetery maps are available at the gate.

For additional information Albany Rural Cemetery Cemetery Avenue Menands, NY 12204 Phone: (518) 463-7017 Fax: (518) 463-0785 The entrance to Chester Arthur's final resting place "An elegant New Yorker, Chester A. Arthur refused to move into the shabby Executive Mansion..."-Richard Norton Smith

An elegant New Yorker, Chester A. Arthur refused to move into the shabby Executive Mansion pending its extensive renovation by Louis Tiffany. Soon the old house was replete with pomegranate plush hangings and jeweled gla.s.s screens. To the abstemious Rutherford B. Hayes, Arthur's White House reeked of "liquor, sn.o.bbery and worse." Arthur indulged his stylish tastes more permanently in the autumn of 1886, when Cornelius Vanderbilt's private railroad car carried the former president to Rural Cemetery in Albany. There his grave is marked by a black granite sarcophagus over which a bronze Angel of Sorrow, green-tinted with age, stands vigil.-RNS[image]Plaque at the base of the Arthur tomb

Grover Cleveland Buried: Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, New Jersey Twenty-second President - 1885-1889 -and- Twenty-fourth President - 1893-1897 Born: March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey Died: 8:40 a.m. on June 24, 1908, in Princeton, New Jersey Age at death: 71 Cause of death: Heart failure Final words: "I have tried so hard to do right."

Admission to Princeton Cemetery: Free Grover Cleveland is remembered for four unusual reasons: He was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, as our twenty-second and twenty-fourth president. He was the only president to marry in the White House, where he wed Frances Folsom, twenty-eight years his junior. He was the only president to support an out-of-wedlock child-the opposition's 1884 campaign slogan, "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" nearly costing him the election. Finally, he was the only president to have a popular candy bar named after his daughter, Baby Ruth.

Grover Cleveland also had one medical distinction: he was the only president with a rubber jaw. During his second term, on a boat in Manhattan's East River, doctors secretly performed surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in Cleveland's mouth. His upper left jaw was removed and replaced with a rubber prosthesis. The details of the operation were not made known until after Cleveland's death.

Grover Cleveland's grave in Princeton Cemetery Cleveland retired to Princeton, New Jersey, after leaving the White House for the final time in 1897. He fell victim to medical difficulties in his later years: inflamed kidneys, swollen joints, blood clots in the lungs, and dropsy.

Stomach problems caused such pain that he had to learn how to use a pump to clear his digestive tract. By the spring of 1908, his condition began to deteriorate rapidly. Cleveland and his wife decided to send their four young children to the care of her mother at the Cleveland summer home in Tamworth, New Hampshire. When he was able to get out of bed, the former president worked in a study adjoining the bedroom of his home in Princeton.

On June 23, Grover Cleveland began to lapse in and out of consciousness. Even during lucid moments, he remained weak. His last words were, "I have tried so hard to do right." At 8:40 the following morning, his heart gave out. His wife, a nurse, and three doctors were at his side.

On June 26 in keeping with Cleveland's wishes, an exceptionally simple funeral service for less than one hundred guests was held at his home. The body was brought downstairs to the reception room in a closed casket where it was surrounded by palm leaves and floral tributes. The mourners, including President Theodore Roosevelt and his wife, a.s.sembled in the adjoining library. There was no eulogy and no music. Instead, Presbyterian ministers recited prayers and read William Wordsworth's poem "Character of the Happy Warrior."

Thirty minutes after the service began, the procession departed to Princeton Cemetery under sunny skies. Crowds along the route were smaller than expected-estimated at about five thousand. The pallbearers walked on either side of the hea.r.s.e, followed by twenty-six carriages carrying the late president's family and friends. After a brief graveside ceremony, Grover Cleveland was buried alongside his thirteen-year-old daughter, Ruth, who had died two years before. Frances Folsom Cleveland lived until 1947; she was buried next to her husband.

Touring Grover Cleveland's Tomb at Princeton Cemetery Princeton Cemetery is located in Princeton, New Jersey. The cemetery is always open, but prefers visitors during daylight hours.

From Trenton: Take Route 1 North to Route 571/Washington Road and head north. At the traffic circle, bear right and drive straight on Washington Road to Route 27/Na.s.sau Street. Take a left on Na.s.sau Street and turn left on Greenview Avenue and follow through gates of the cemetery.

From Philadelphia: Take I-95 North to Route 206. Drive north on Route 206. Continue on Route 206, pa.s.sing the Governor's Mansion. At Library Place Street, continue straight ahead. Route 27 becomes Na.s.sau Street/21. Turn left on Witherspoon Street. Continue on to next traffic light and turn right on Wiggins. Turn left on Greenview Avenue and follow through gates of the cemetery.

After you go through Princeton Cemetery's public gate a map box is located to your left. Grover Cleveland's grave is located across the walkway from the Old Graveyard. His plot is numbered nine on the cemetery map.

Also buried at Princeton Cemetery are John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and member of the Continental Congress, and Aaron Burr, the vice president famous for his duel with Alexander Hamilton.

The headstone of Cleveland's thirteen-year-old daughter Ruth For additional information Superintendent Princeton Cemetery 29 Greenview Avenue Princeton, NJ 08542 Phone: (609) 924-1369 "...tragedy struck the Cleveland household when the family's eldest daughter, Ruth, died..."-Richard Norton SmithIn 1896, during the last year of his difficult second term, Cleveland was prevailed upon to visit Princeton University as part of the school's sesquicentennial observance. The academic program was organized by Dean Andrew West-"Andy Three Million West, sixty-three inches around the chest"-who became one of Cleveland's closest friends. On moving to Princeton in 1897, ex-president Cleveland built a substantial home he called Westland. Ironically, the star of the sesquicentennial was Woodrow Wilson, a rising faculty member who, in 1902, succeeded to the university's presidency. For a time, harmony prevailed-not surprising, given Wilson's conservative Democratic leanings and open admiration for Cleveland.In January 1904 tragedy struck the Cleveland household when the family's eldest daughter, Ruth, died from diphtheria. "I had a season of great trouble in keeping out of my mind the idea that Ruth was in the cold, cheerless grave instead of in the arms of her Savior," wrote Cleveland. In time, however, his faith rea.s.serted itself. G.o.d had come to his help, Cleveland told intimates, enabling him "to adjust my thought to dear Ruth's death with as much comfort as selfish humanity will permit."Another kind of crisis engulfed the grieving parent as Wilson and Dean West clashed over West's proposal for a new graduate college at Princeton. Cleveland aligned himself with the tradition-loving dean, leading to an estrangement between the once and future presidents. As Cleveland lay on his death bed in the spring of 1908, he summoned West to reiterate his support for the dean's plans. "Hang on to it like a bulldog," the dying Cleveland told West, "no matter what is done to you." By then he had come to regard Wilson as thoroughly unreliable.For his part, the beleaguered Wilson declared that Cleveland was "a better president of the United States than a trustee of Princeton." It was a sad climax to their once promising friendship, and a preview of Wilson's unyielding stand a decade later on the League of Nations.-RNS

Benjamin Harrison Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana Twenty-third President - 1889-1893 Born: August 20, 1833, in North Bend, Ohio Died: 4:45 p.m. on March 13, 1901, in Indianapolis, Indiana Age at death: 67 Cause of death: Pneumonia Final words: "Are the doctors here?"

"Doctor, ...my lungs"

Admission to Crown Hill Cemetery: Free Benjamin Harrison, grandson of ninth president William Henry Harrison, served his single term between the two terms of Grover Cleveland. In the 1888 election, Harrison actually lost to Republican Cleveland in the popular vote, but won the majority of the electoral votes. His term saw the admission of six states to the union and the addition of electric lights to the White House.

Caroline Harrison, the new president's wife, began the tradition of displaying a White House Christmas tree as her husband's first year in office drew to a close. After supervising major renovations to the executive mansion, she died of tuberculosis during his reelection campaign.

After losing his second bid for the presidency in 1892, Benjamin Harrison began an active second career as a lawyer, writer, and professor. He also remarried at age sixty-two to Mary Dimmick, a niece of his late wife who had worked as an a.s.sistant to the First Lady.

Benjamin Harrison's tomb In March of 1901 at age sixty-seven, Harrison took ill at his home in Indianapolis. A simple case of the flu turned into pneumonia. Harrison did not respond to various treatments and on March 12 lapsed in and out of a coma. His relatives and closest friends gathered by his bedside. At about 4:45 p.m. on March 13, 1901, Benjamin Harrison died.

On March 16, Harrison's body was taken to lie in state in the rotunda of the Indiana state capitol. A small private service was performed at his home the next day. A larger funeral was held at the First Presbyterian Church where Harrison had been a member for nearly fifty years. Citizens lined up outside more than two hours before the service began. Mourners inside spilled over into the aisles, and the altar overflowed with roses, lilies, and violets. The church choir sang "Rock of Ages," reportedly the late president's favorite hymn-and the only one he ever tried to sing. President William McKinley was in attendance and members of Harrison's cabinet served as honorary pallbearers.

Benjamin Harrison was buried beside his first wife, Carrie, at Crown Hill Memorial Cemetery in Indianapolis. At the graveside service, three white carnations were placed on top of the walnut casket. The casket, enclosed in a granite tomb, was lowered into the ground to the sounds of cannon fire.

Touring Benjamin Harrison's Tomb at Crown Hill Cemetery Crown Hill Cemetery is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Crown Hill is also the burial site of three vice presidents: Thomas Riley Marshall, vice president to Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Andrews Hendricks, vice president to Grover Cleveland, and Charles Warren Fairbanks, vice president to Theodore Roosevelt.

Crown Hill Cemetery is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., April 1 through October 14, and from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., October 15 through March 31. The cemetery's office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sat.u.r.day, 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The office is closed Sundays and holidays. There is no admission fee.

From Indianapolis International Airport: Exit the airport and go east on I-70, toward downtown Indianapolis. Stay in the left lane as it merges into I-65 North. Exit on the right onto Meridian Street and turn right. Take Meridian Street north to Thirty-fourth Street. Turn left onto Thirty-fourth Street and follow it through two stop lights. Thirty-fourth Street will dead-end at the cemetery's large stone gate. This is the Thirty-fourth Street and Boulevard Place entrance. Follow the white line painted on the road to the president's memorial.

From downtown Indianapolis: Crown Hill Cemetery is approximately 3.6 miles from Monument Circle where Meridian and Market Streets intersect. Take Meridian Street north to Thirty-fourth Street. Turn left onto Thirty-fourth Street and follow it through two stop lights. Thirty-fourth Street will dead-end at the cemetery's large stone gate. This is the Thirty-fourth Street and Boulevard Place entrance.

A waiting station is located on the right at the Thirty-fourth Street and Boulevard Place entrance. There you will find cemetery maps with directions to President Harrison's gravesite. White lines on the cemetery road also lead to Harrison's grave.

Crown Hill Cemetery offers a two-hour tour that examines the life of Benjamin Harrison and other notables buried in the cemetery. The "Politicians" Tour is offered seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to dusk. Admission is $5.00 for adults, $4.00 for seniors, and $3.00 for students, with a $50.00 minimum per private tour. (Visitors can schedule a private "Politicians" Tour by calling ahead.)Self-guided tours are free. One may purchase a $5.00 cemetery tour book from the main office from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Sat.u.r.day, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.

For additional information Crown Hill Cemetery 700 West 38th Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46208 Cemetery office: (317) 925-3800 Tour information: (317) 920-2649 / (800) 809-3366.

Fax: (317) 925-8240 www.crownhillhf.org "...'the Harrison Horror' led Ohio's legislature to enact stringent laws against bodys.n.a.t.c.hers."-Richard Norton SmithBenjamin Harrison, already overshadowed by his grandfather president-if anyone can be overshadowed by a man who held office barely a month-plays second fiddle to bank robber John Dillinger at Indianapolis Crown Hill Cemetery. At that, he is luckier than some other White House occupants, not to mention his own father, an Ohio congressman named John Scott Harrison. Soon after John Harrison's death in May 1878, his body was stolen from its grave by "resurrectionists" affiliated with the Ohio Medical College. A professor at that eminent inst.i.tution did nothing to diminish public fury through his offhanded observation that graverobbing mattered little, "since it would all be the same on the day of the resurrection." his offhanded observation that graverobbing mattered little, "since it would all be the same on the day of the resurrection."[image]Caroline Harrison was the president's first wife[image]Harrison's tomb at Crown Hill CemeteryBenjamin Harrison led the charge against the college and its anatomical research practices. In an indignant public letter, the future president vividly described the sight of his father's body "hanging by the neck, like that of a dog, in a pit of a medical college." In time, John Scott Harrison was quietly reburied, the perpetrators tried and punished, and popular outrage over "the Harrison Horror" led Ohio's legislature to enact stringent laws against bodys.n.a.t.c.hers.-RNS

William McKinley Buried: McKinley National Memorial and Museum, Canton, Ohio Twenty-fifth President - 1897-1901 Born: January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio Died: 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo, New York Age at death: 58 Cause of death: Gangrene resulting from a.s.sa.s.sin's bullet Final words: "It is G.o.d's way. His will be done, not ours.