Spirits Alive Friday -- July 16, 2011 -- 7 & 8 p.m. Sponsored by the Historic Warsaw Alive Committee and the Warsaw Historical Society
Warsaw Cemetery - CA 1880 Route 19 - South, Warsaw, NY www.warsawhistory.org
Spirits Alive -- 2011 Welcome to the Warsaw Cemetery. Graves of several extraordinary people from Warsaw’s past are found here. William Patterson William Henry Merrill Mary Hosford
Jennie Frank Nassau Lusk John Montgomery Donald B. Whitlock
Please see aerial cemetery map on page 5. Tour guides who will lead you to the ‘Spirit Happenings’ include Beth Russell, Sally Smith, and Sue Heubusch.
Please follow guides and stay on pathways. Try not to walk among graves. If you wish to visit a grave, please inform a guide.
Join us as we honor the lives of some of Warsaw’s most remarkable personalities.
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1. William Patterson farmed his 256 acres in Warsaw before making Warsaw his home in 1822. He also manufactured and sold Fanning Mills or grain thrashers. In 1837 he was elected to Congress but died a year later in Warsaw. Patterson's brother, George Washington Patterson of Westfield and nephew, Augustus Frank of Warsaw were also members of the House of Representatives from New York, 1877-1879 and 1859-1865 respectively. Actor: William P. Patterson is the great, great nephew of William Patterson, and related to Augustus Frank, through marriage. Retired, he is now the President of the Buffalo Audubon Society which includes Beaver Meadow.
2. Mary Hosford was the first women to receive her college degree from Oberlin in 1841, thus being the first women in the U.S. to receive a BA degree. Actor: Mary Conable is currently the children’s services assistant at the Warsaw Public Library. She has worked at several local history museums and earned her Ph.D. in American History at the University of Rochester.
3. John W. Montgomery was apprenticed in shoemaking at age 16 in1843. In 1853, he opened the first shoe store in Warsaw. Today Mongomery’s Shoe is one of the oldest shoe stores in America. He also farmed in Wethersfield and was very active in the Warsaw community. Actor: Robert Kelley is retired, and most recently has portrayed several characters at the Genesee Country Museum. He is president of the Wyoming County Federation of Historical Societies.
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4. William Henry Merrill started his newspaper career at age 15 in Warsaw at the offices of the Wyoming County Mirror in 1855. In 1861 he purchased the Western New Yorker also sited in Warsaw. He was active in the community, but went on to become editor of several major newspapers on the East Coast, most notably The Boston Globe. Actor: Ray Rohauer is a history buff, and has been an antique dealer for over 30 years.
5. Jennie Frank Nassau Lusk was born in Warsaw in 1859. She was the granddaughter of Dr. Augustus Frank, an early Warsaw pioneer doctor turned businessman. She married Dr. Zera Lusk of Warsaw, who had developed special methods for grafting skin on burn patients, now commonly known as plastic surgery. She was well known for her spiritual force, wit, freedom of speech, and her kindly interest in others at her church and in the community. Actor: Judy Gardner has worked for Wyoming County full time and Bid-n-Buy Auction part-time for over thirty years. She is a volunteer at the Gainesville Fire Department, a member of the Grange, and the Warsaw Historical Society.
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6. Donald B. Whitlock owned and operated the Warsaw Button Company after starting there as a young adult in 1914. The company had been founded by his father, Donald, in 1898. Specialty buttons and walnut radio knobs were handcrafted and sold nation-wide. He was also very active in the Warsaw community. Actor: David Almeter is a history professor at GCC, and the Vice-President of the Board of Managers at the Wyoming County Hospital. He is also active in the Warsaw Historical Society.
Aerial map of the Warsaw Cemetery (west side) Speaker locations. 1. William Patterson (William P. Patterson) 2. Mary Hosford (Mary Conable) 3. John W. Montgomery (Robert Kelley) 4. William Henry Merrill (Ray Rohauer) 5. Jennie Frank Nassau Lusk (Judy Gardner) 6. Donald B. Whitlock (David Almeter)
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Brief History of the Warsaw Cemetery The Warsaw Cemetery is located on both sides of South Main Street in the Village and Town of Warsaw. The cemetery had its beginnings in 1804 after Elizur Webster purchased in 1803 the land that would become Warsaw. As shown on the aerial map on page 7, three tracts of land essentially comprise the Warsaw Cemetery. The Pioneer Cemetery is the oldest part of the Warsaw Cemetery and covers about two acres on the east side of South Main Street. Some five acres nearly opposite the Pioneer Cemetery on the west side of South Main Street were added in 1850. A third tract adjoins the Pioneer Cemetery on its south side and is delineated by a vertical dotted line on the aerial map. Warsaw’s first settlers had not chosen land for a cemetery. No doubt they were occupied with cutting timber, building log cabins and planting gardens. However, the death of Sterling Stearns’ two-year old son in the spring of 1804 produced an urgent need for a place to bury the child. A few trees were cut away and a grave dug at about the center of what is now the old Pioneer Cemetery. Having no lumber, the child’s coffin was made from part of a wagon box. As it was a time of high water in the creek, the coffin was carried over the water on a log to the grave. In the fall of that same year, Nehemiah Fargo’s young son who had drowned in the Oatka Creek was buried nearby. A third burial was that of Dwight Noble, the first adult to die in January 1807. Over time many pioneers were laid to rest in the “old burying ground.” There being no land available for expansion, the cemetery was closed in about 1850. The Pioneer Cemetery is maintained by appropriation from the Town of Warsaw and is often referred to as the “town cemetery.” Records compiled in 1983 reveal more than 600 are buried there including approximately 200 in unmarked graves, about 130 of those Potter Field burials. Probably anticipating the closure of the Pioneer Cemetery, the community formed the Warsaw Cemetery Association which purchased five acres across the road in about 1847. Several thousand plots were laid out. Given Warsaw’s dramatic population growth beginning in the 1870’s and the increasing number of burials, the Association acquired more land across the road on the east side of South Main Street, and South of St. Michael’s Cemetery. Excluding the Pioneer Cemetery, over 6,700 are buried on both sides of the road.
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Aerial Map of the Warsaw Cemetery
For at least ten years, local resident Sally Smith has been documenting individual grave sites and uploading photos of markers and brief obituaries to the internet site www.findagrave.com. Visitors may search the site for Warsaw Cemetery burials.
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The Society recently created a specially prepared database of over 6,700 burials in the Warsaw Cemetery. The first of its kind and comprehensive, it lists birth-death dates, photos of grave stones, obituaries along with cemetery maps. Also fully searchable are rare books, Young’s 1869 History of Warsaw; Warsaw’s 1903 bicentennial history; Wyoming County’s History (18411880). These and other resources on the CD tell the rich history of Warsaw. Please pick up a copy and donate $10.
For more information, visit www.warsawhistory.org or the Gates House Museum at 15 Perry Avenue, Warsaw, NY or call 585 786-8646 8