The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-12-20
NUMBER 4S.
THE PRESIDENTS GRAVES

NUMBER 4S.
THE PRESIDENTS GRAVES.
!. There have been twenty-one ex pres
S idents of the United States, only one G
e whom-Rutherlord B. Hayes-still sur
y wives. The mortality in ex-president
= has been unusually great of late years
Seldom. indeed, has it happened tina
e fewer than three or four of our expires
Y idents have been alive at any one time
J. George WashingtOn's grave needs NJ
P description. His homestead at Noun
D Vernon, Va, where he lived, died, anC
t was buried by the side of the beautiful
Potomac, is one of the nations shrines
and is visited annually by many thous
ands.
John Adams, the second President, il
! buried in vault beneath the Unitarian
: Church at Quincy, Mass, where lie alsC
the remains of his son, the sixth Presi
dent, John Quincy Adams. The coffins
are lead, placed in cases hewn from sol
id blocks of granite. In the main body
, OF the church are beautiful and elabor.
J ate marbel memorial tablets to the two
eX-Presidents.
jefferson, the third President, was
buried according to his desire, in lone
! ly little cemetery, amid wooded thick
ct, some distance to the right of the road
leading from Charlottesville, Va, to
Monticello, the statesman's residence.
The scenery in the vicinity is of rarely
beautiful description. The tombstone,
a granite obelisk nine feet high, has
been greatly defaced by relic-hunters.
Madison, the fourth President, rests
in a beautiful spot on the old Madison
estate, near his home in Montpelier,
near Orange, Virginia.
One of the worthiest places of sepul-
ture accorded to any of our leading
statesman is that in which repose the
remains of James Monroe, the fifth
President. His gave is in the south
western corner of beautiful Hollywood
cemetery at Richmond, Va, and on q
high knoll, from WEIGH fine view may
be had of nearly the whole city, together
with Manchester and other environs and
the picturesque valley of the James for
many miles.
The grave of Andrew Jackson, the
seventh President, is situated in corner
OF the garden of the Hermitage, Jack
sons residence in life, about eleven miles
from Nashville, on the Lebanon pike.
The remains lie under massive monu-
ment of Tennessee limestone, around
which rise eight tluted Doric columns
supporting dome with an urn above it.
In the center of the limestone platform
is pyramid resting on a square, and
the whole ediiice is surrounded by man
golias. The tomb is tolerably preserved
in spite of relic hunters.
Martin Van Buren,, the eighth Presi-
dent, lies in the village cemetery at Kin
derhook, Columbia County, New York.
his old home. The grave is in the CEN
ter Of the Van Buren, family lot, in the
northeastern corner of the cemetery,
and is cared for no better than the ma
Jorlty OF graves IN country burying
grounds. Above the grave Is plain
granite shaft, fifteen feet high. Van
Buren's residence and estate, Linden
wald, two miles south of the village of
kinderhook, is still in good condition,
and is the property of well-to-do farm
ers.
The grave of William Henry Harri-
son, The ninth President, for many years
wofully neglected, was in plain brick
vault on the summit of hillock at
North Bend, Ohio. Harrison's home,
about fifteen miles west of Cincinnati,
on the bank Of the Ohio river.
The vault was surmounted by a flat
stone, without inscription, and the struc-
ture was suffered TO be overgrown by
weeds, but of late it has been better
cared for, and the Ohio Legislature has
made an appropriation for the erection
OF suitable monument.
The tenth President, Tyler, lies also
in Hollywood cemetery, Richmond,
within a few feet of Monroe, and,
strangely enough, his grave has been
until recen' y as much neglected by the
state as Monroe's has been honored.
Lately, however, measures have been
taken to do proper honor to his remains.
| Folk, the eleventh President. who
died only three months after retiring
from the Presidency, was buried within
the grounds around his stately residence
at Nashville.
The monument of limestone, is almost
twelve feet square and as many high,
IN the DorIc style, and is ornamented
with ivy. The burial place and all its
surroundings are fully worthy of the
man and of the high office to which
they are tribute.
The remains of Taylor, the twelfth
President, have been inferred four times,
once at Washington, a second time at
the Taylor homestead, near Louisville,
Kentucky, third time in Cave Hill
cemetery, Louisville, and finally at
Frankfort, Kentucky, where an appro-
pirate monument has teen erected over
them.
Fillmore, the thirteenth p. esident, re-
poses in the beautiful Forest Lawn GEM
etery, in the city of his home, Buffalo.
New York. His grave is in the center of
the cemetery, on the crest of the hill,
and it is surmounted by lofty shaft of
Scotch granite. The environment is
peaceful and lovely.
Pierce, the fourteenth President,
sleeps in the Minot cemetery, at Con-
cord. N. H. His grave is marked by a
monument of Italian marble, elaborate
Iy wrought and surmounted by draped
cross, the total height being about fifteen
feet.
In Woodward Hill cemetery, Lancas-
Lancaster. Pa, on a bluff overlooking
the Conestoga Valley, stands the tomb
OF James Buchanan, the fifteenth Presi.
dent--a vault of heavy masonry sup
porting monument in Roman styly, a
single block of Italian marble six feet
long by three wide and high, wrought
with heavily moulded cap and base.
Lincoln, the sixteenth President. and
the first OF our magistrates to meet a
violent death, was buried, as all remem.
Der, with unprecedented pomp aud SOL
emnity, and the monument, or mauso-
leum rather, erected to his memory far
surpasses that ofany of his predecessors.
1t is situated in Oak Ridge cemetery, a
mile and half north of Springfield, ILL
nois. The remains are inclosed in a
white marble slrcophagus. resting in a
catacomb, above which towers the great
pile Of marble, granite and bronze which
constitutes the monument, 100 feet long,
70 feet broad and 100 feet high. The
ornamental work upon it is of the cost
liest and most elaborate description, and
in most respects it is of good artistic
merit.
The grave of johnson. the seventeenth
President, lies on a cone-shaped emf
nence half mile from Greenville, Ten
nessee, spot selected by himself. His
three sons have erected a handsome mon
ument Of marble upon base Of granite
II bears numerous patriotic emblems-a
flag, an eagle, the scroll of the constitu
ton, etc.-whIlethe inscription declares,
His faith in the people never wavered." :"
The ceremonies in connection with the
funeral OF General Grant, the eighteenth
President. and the place of his sepulture,
by the side OF the Hudson. in Riverside