Calvary Cemetery (Cleveland, Ohio)
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Calvary Cemetery is a
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, in the United States. The cemetery straddles the border between Cleveland and the city of Garfield Heights, with its offices within the city limits of Cleveland. Calvary Cemetery is the largest Catholic cemetery in Cleveland, and one of the largest in Ohio.


About the cemetery

In 1892, the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland The Diocese of Cleveland ( la, Dioecesis Clevelandensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Pope Pius IX erected the diocese April 23, 1847, in ter ...
purchased approximately of land east of Broadway Avenue in what was then Newburgh Township. The cost of the land was $600 ($ in dollars). Formerly the Leand farm, it was named Calvary Cemetery. Toledo cemetery designer, horticulturist, and cemetery superintendent Frank Eurich designed Calvary as a lawn cemetery. The land was regraded and other initial improvements made by The William H. Evers Engineering Company. Calvary Cemetery was consecrated on November 26, 1893. Within just a few years, the cemetery featured a stone
receiving vault A receiving vault or receiving tomb, sometimes also known as a public vault, is a structure designed to temporarily store dead bodies in winter months when the ground is too frozen to dig a permanent grave in a cemetery. Technological advancement ...
, waiting room at the entrance, and a number of roads. A
streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...
spur ran adjacent to the cemetery, allowing caskets and funeral parties to reach the cemetery by electric train. The long spur was removed in 1927. Initially, the cemetery was bounded on its east side by the Connotton Valley Railway, whose tracks were laid in 1882. An additional purchase of land east of the railroad tracks was made in 1900. Various figures have been cited for the size of this property: , , and . Fifty acres appears to be the best figure, and is supported by an industry trade journal which reported the cemetery's total size as a total in 1900. Additional land was acquired by 1908, giving the cemetery either or of total land. The cemetery acquired the Quigley farm and the Stegkemper tract in 1910. Calvary's reported size was in 1936. The streetcar line was torn up in 1947, and the strip of land sold to the cemetery for $600 ($ in dollars). Calvary Cemetery reportedly still had more than of land in 2007. As of 2007, there were over 305,000 interments at Calvary Cemetery. The first burials, of John and Catharine Hogan, were on November 30, 1893. Husband and wife, they died one day apart and were buried in section 10. The largest number of burials occurred on November 4, 1918, during the
Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...
pandemic. There were 81 burials that day. The total number of interments that month was 985. The cemetery contains the Commonwealth war graves of two
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
soldiers of the
Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...
. Calvary Cemetery is the largest Catholic cemetery in Cleveland, and operated by the Catholic Cemeteries Association.


Memorials

A large memorial angel atop a pedestal inscribed "Our Babies" was dedicated on November 2, 1952, in what is now section 105 of the cemetery. This section was then set aside for the burial of infants and children. The news media did not identify the sculptor or manufacturer. In 1966, the cemetery opened a new section (now identified as Section 43) near the E. 100th Street entrance. This section was dedicated to in-ground, flat headstones typical of lawn cemeteries. Overlooking the section, the cemetery constructed a grotto and placed a life-size
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
statue of Christ in the niche. The manufacturer of the statue was not identified by the press. A statue of Our Lady, Queen of Heaven was erected at the E. 100th Street entrance of Calvary Cemetery in 2001. The statue was paid for by the Lausche Foundation and dedicated to the memory Senator Frank Lausche. After the Diocese of Cleveland closed or merged more than 75 parishes between 2006 and 2010, several works of art were moved to Calvary Cemetery. After St. Hyacinth Church closed in September 2009, its monument to Catholic war veterans was moved to the entrance of Calvary Cemetery. St. Margaret of Hungary Church originally was located in Cleveland's Buckeye–Shaker neighborhood. In 1960, parishioners erected a life-size statuary group to honor church members who had died in World War II. The group featured a crucified Christ, three women, and two angels. The sculptures were set on brick and concrete pedestals, with a bronze plaque attached to the main pedestal. When St. Margaret of Hungary Church moved to
Orange, Ohio Orange Village is a village in Cuyahoga County and an affluent eastern suburb of the Greater Cleveland area in the US state of Ohio. The population was 3,323 at the 2010 census. History Orange Township was settled in 1815 and established as ...
, in 1989, the statue group was relocated as well. The church closed in November 2009, and the diocese removed the statuary group a month later. Initially, the diocese intended to disperse the statuary group among several cemeteries. After months of discussion with former St. Margaret parishioners, the diocese agreed to reinstall the complete grouping near the cemetery's 116th Street entrance, where many World War II dead are buried. The cost of the installation was $30,000 ($ in dollars), and the memorial rededicated in mid-September 2010.


Notable interments

*
Frank J. Battisti Frank Joseph Battisti (October 4, 1922 – October 19, 1994) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Battisti's career featured groundbreaking—and sometimes controversial—ruli ...
(1922–1994), judge for the Northern District of Ohio. *Gene Carroll (1897–1972), actor, musician, comedian, and host of the long-running local television series ''The Gene Carroll Show''. *Kathleen Daly Chapman McMahon (1893–1926), and Rae Marie Chapman (1921–1929), the widow and daughter (respectively) of
Ray Chapman Raymond Johnson Chapman (January 15, 1891 – August 17, 1920) was an American baseball player. He spent his entire career as a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians. Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by pitcher Carl Mays and died ...
. Chapman is the only Major League Baseball player to die as the result of being hit by a pitched ball. Kathleen and Rae are buried together. *
Michael Corcoran Michael Corcoran (September 21, 1827 – December 22, 1863) was an Irish- American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln. As its colonel, he led the 69th New York Regiment t ...
(d. 1919), Medal of Honor recipient, Indian Wars. *
Ed Delahanty Edward James Delahanty (October 30, 1867 – July 2, 1903), nicknamed "Big Ed", was an American professional baseball player, who spent his Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Philadelphia Quakers, Cleveland Infants, Philadelph ...
(1867–1903), Hall of Fame
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
player. *
Danny Greene Daniel John Patrick Greene (November 14, 1933 – October 6, 1977) was an Irish-American organized crime figure based in Cleveland, Ohio. Greene gained power first in the local chapter of the International Longshoremen's Association, where h ...
(1933–1977), mobster *Anton Grdina (1874–1957), community activist, first American to receive Yugoslavia's highest civil honor (Third Order of the Crown). *
Frank Lausche Frank John Lausche (; November 14, 1895 – April 21, 1990) was an American Democratic politician from Ohio. He served as the 47th mayor of Cleveland and the 55th and 57th governor of Ohio, and also served as a United States Senator from Ohio ...
(1895–1990), Cleveland mayor and Ohio governor. *
Angelo Lonardo Angelo Anthony Lonardo (January 21, 1911 − March 31, 2006) was a mobster who became the acting boss of Cleveland crime family in the early 1980s. Lonardo was born in 1911 in Cleveland to Joseph and Concetta Lonardo. His godfather was Anthony ...
(1911–2006),
underboss Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The under ...
of the
Cleveland Mafia The Cleveland crime family or Cleveland Mafia is the collective name given to a succession of Italian-American organized crime gangs based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. A part of the Italian-American Mafia (or ''Cosa Nostra'') phenom ...
*
Joseph Lonardo Joseph Lonardo (; October 20, 1884 – October 13, 1927), also known as "Big Joe", was a Sicilian emigrant to the United States who became the first crime boss of the Cleveland crime family, which he structured from a competing number of organi ...
(1884–1927),
boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...
of the Cleveland Mafia *Helena Pelczar (1888–1926), Catholic stigmatist with an open beatification process. * John R. Towle (1924–1944), U.S. Army
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
recipient. * Stanisława Walasiewicz (Stella Walsh) (1911–1980), controversial
Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
gold medalist. *
Bill Wambsganss William Adolf Wambsganss (March 19, 1894 – December 8, 1985) was a second baseman in Major League Baseball. From 1914 through 1926, Wambsganss played for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, and Philadelphia Athletics. He is best remembered ...
(1894–1985), baseball player who made the only
unassisted triple play In baseball, an unassisted triple play occurs when a defensive player makes all three outs by himself in one continuous play, without his teammates making any assists. Neal Ball was the first to achieve this in Major League Baseball (MLB) under ...
in
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
history. *
Frankie Yankovic Frank John Yankovic (July 28, 1915 – October 14, 1998) was an American accordion player and polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career. He ...
(1915–1998), musician known as "The Polka King". *
Antanas Smetona Antanas Smetona (; 10 August 1874 – 9 January 1944) was a Lithuanian intellectual and journalist and the first President of Lithuania from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1926 to 1940, before its occupation by the Soviet Union. He was one of the ...
(1874–1944), first President of Lithuania.


References

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Bibliography

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External links

{{Authority control 1893 establishments in Ohio Cemeteries in Cleveland Roman Catholic cemeteries in Ohio Garfield Heights, Ohio