GUEST SPEAKER — Joe Benline Jr., Steubenville Union Cemetery Superintendent, was the visitor speaker at a latest Steubenville Kiwanis Membership assembly. With him, the consultant of the membership Phyllis Riccadonna. — Janice Kiaski
STEUBENVILLE — The Steubenville Union Cemetery superintendent gave members of the Steubenville Kiwanis Membership a glimpse into its previous and current.
The visitor speaker was Joe Benline Jr., who grew to become superintendent of Union Cemetery at 1720 Sundown Blvd., Steubenville, in 2016 after the retirement of his father, Joe Benline Sr., who had held the place since 2004.
Union Cemetery at the moment spans 199 acres and was established in 1854. It’s listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations and is privately owned and managed by the Union Cemetery Affiliation.
The cemetery was initially in downtown Steubenville, the place the Grant College as soon as stood, however the development of the city in 1850 created a necessity for extra land, prompting 5 church buildings to unite to buy 50 acres of Huscroft Farm to start out the cemetery.
“On July 4, 1855 the grounds had been consecrated by the church buildings, and so they started to develop what you understand now if you first enter the cemetery, the decrease a part of the cemetery is the primary space they’ve developed”, Benline defined, noting that the primary burial was on October 10, 1855, and was for Clayton Donaldson. In 1856, there have been burial transfers from the downtown web site, based on Benline.
“One of many attention-grabbing issues that occurred in the course of the Civil Conflict, they did not have sufficient manpower to handle the cemetery, so that they determined the sheep would do the job,” he mentioned. “They introduced in 2,000 sheep and allow them to run all around the cemetery, and I really discovered after I was researching this that we had been one of many first locations within the nation to even consider doing one thing like that in this time, however it began to unfold that the Union Cemetery was doing this, and different cemeteries began doing it to handle their cemetery,” he added.
In 1877, the unique 48 acres grew to 143 acres after a couple of extra purchases. “Immediately we’ve got 199 acres to take care of,” Benjamin mentioned. The cemetery has roughly 42,000 burial websites with sufficient house to accommodate 100 extra.
“In 1909 they found oil on cemetery land, not in areas the place burials had been, however a bit of increased up, so that they made cash from the sale of the oil they discovered” , He continued. “And two-thirds of the cash they put in for that was for redevelopment of some new areas, fixing a few of the roads on the present areas that they’d. The opposite third was positioned in an endowment care account,” he mentioned. “The endowment care that we’ve got today, 10% of each sale we’ve got goes into an endowment care account after which we reinvest that cash. This cash must be used once we can now not promote tons, once we can now not have burials, in order that the Union Cemetery will be taken care of lengthy after we’re accomplished with the ability to have burials,” he mentioned.
“From 1918 to 1920 the Spanish flu got here, and I do not know if you understand or know the cemetery, however the place is the guests aspect of the Harding parking zone stadium, should you look again you may see stones all over the place, then you definately’ll see an space the place there’s nothing however grass. They will need to have accomplished mass burials there,” he mentioned. “It is the one space of the cemetery the place we do not have a file of who was buried as a result of the well being division made it a warrant that if anybody had handed by then they needed to be buried as quickly as potential. So they’d a typical grave prepared, and so they buried them in there. There is no such thing as a hint of who’s on this space,” he mentioned. There may be additionally no monument or stone to acknowledge it.
“In 1930, our lands descended to Beatty Park”, Benjamin mentioned. “We had two authentic entrances – one was down Lincoln Avenue the place the Beatty Park entrance is and the opposite was up on Market Avenue, now Sundown Boulevard.” he mentioned, noting that funeral processions handed by means of Beatty Park as a technique to keep away from toll highway expenses on Market Avenue.
The present administrative constructing was in-built 1931, based on Benline, who specifies that there was as soon as a home in entrance of the one the place the board of administrators met and that rooms welcomed individuals coming from afar, permitting them to really keep within the cemetery.
The Veterans Part was established in 1939. “We have now our Troopers and Sailors Memorial, and it is in our part simply above our GAR part, and it was to commemorate all of the veterans of the civil struggle.
One other focal point, he mentioned, is the previous stone bridge. “Anybody who has handed by means of the cemetery, you have got crossed this bridge, as a result of it’s the solely technique to entry the higher a part of the cemetery”, he mentioned.
The reception vault, refurbished by a bunch of Questers, remembers a time in historical past when there was no tools to make winter burials potential. Coffins could be positioned there till climate situations are favorable.
The unique workplace, which was in-built 1892, homes the unique Jefferson County Courthouse bell.
A grave with a collie canine marker has a particular story behind it, based on Benline.
“There was a person named John Boylan, and he was a molder on the Means Foundry, and there was an accident. He went blind” Benline mentioned, noting {that a} stray canine ended up serving as her information canine. When Boylan died in 1924, a few of his colleagues determined to make a mould of the canine, utilizing it as a tombstone. “It has been there perpetually.”
The workplace constructing additionally serves as a residence for Benline. “I’m there always. That means, if one thing occurs, I can handle it, as a result of the Union Cemetery is type of like a small city. We have now sewage remedy crops. We have now an entire water system working by means of it.
He cited a few of the distinguished burials within the Union Cemetery, together with James and Anna Wilson, grandparents of President Woodrow Wilson; the combating McCook part with Colonel George McCook having served as Civil Conflict Colonel and Ohio State Lawyer Basic; Bezaleel Wells, founding father of Steubenville; Colonel James Collier, a Conflict of 1812 veteran and Jefferson County’s first Civil Conflict volunteer; Moses Fleetwood Walker, the primary African-American skilled baseball participant; Tuskegee Airmen Jerome and John “Elis” Edwards; and Eliphalet Frazer Andrews, who painted a portrait of Martha Washington that also hangs within the White Home.
“We have now Chief Pink Cloud who lived to be 120, and he was finest recognized for touring with Buffalo Invoice’s Wild West present, and he ended up transferring right here to the realm. He stop the Wild West present and he began practising his type of drugs,” Benjamin mentioned. “They mentioned he used to trip round in a automotive with an eight-foot black snake on the hood of the automotive.”
The cemetery is the ultimate resting place of 10 Revolutionary Conflict troopers, Benline famous.
Identical for Jimmy the Greek.
The upkeep constructing was in-built 1975. “It accommodates all our tools. There are two public bogs inside. And there is additionally a two-bedroom house within the upkeep constructing for the evening watchman, who lives there, so we even have somebody who lives in that outer a part of the cemetery, after which myself who lives the place you might be coming into the cemetery for the primary time, ” Benline advised the group.
In 1987, the cemetery was named to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. “The reason being that we had been the second cemetery in america to be thought of a garden-style cemetery. The primary was in Cincinnati – Spring Grove Cemetery – and we’re each nonetheless working cemeteries proper now,” he mentioned, noting that Spring Grove was most likely about twice the scale of the Union Cemetery.
In 1995, the present chapel and mausoleum had been constructed, and in 2016, the cemetery fence and gate had been redone
“We have additionally created a web site the place we at present have union cemetery.com on the web site you possibly can really seek for burials so should you’re on the lookout for somebody you possibly can really write down the title of the deceased and so they’ll let you know what a piece and so much”, he mentioned.
“When creating the web site, we put all of the information within the cloud. Earlier than that, the information had been just about all handwritten or we had them on the pc, but when we had had a fireplace within the constructing, all the burial information might need disappeared, so now they’re really protected within the cloud. We have now all the unique recordings within the workplace,” Benjamin mentioned.
“We have now books which can be about as huge and as thick from the very first burial to the tip, and so they’re all handwritten. Right here they’re in fireproof safes. He continued.
In 2018, Union Cemetery grew to become the primary location sponsor in Jefferson County for Wreaths Throughout America, “and that is what we have been doing ever since”, Benjamin mentioned.