As one of the events for Cambridge City’s 175th year celebration, a guided walking tour for the public of Riverside Cemetery is planned. Included will be the well known General Solomon Meredith and Al Hunter, a Civil War buff (but without a beard). Meredith’s monument is the largest, tallest one in Riverside, at nearly 40 feet and is located in a single section. Initialed footstones of his family are on the west side of the monument..
Volunteers are invited to portray one of the characters buried here. The History Room of the new library has the resources to learn the details of the Cambridge City people’s lives. Volunteers will research, then give a five minute talk about the person they portray, as they wear clothing similar to the time in which the person lived.
Some of the well-known people buried at Riverside are Buckskin Ben of the Wildwest Shows, Valentine and Sarah Sell who operated a Whitewater Canal boat here, ElbridgeVinton and his two daughters, who operated the Vinton House Hotel, BenjaminConklin who operated a store in his big brick home on the National Road at the southeast corner of Lincoln and Main.
Others include the Overbeck Sisters who produced art & pottery here…
Kathleen Postle, who wrote the book about Overbeck Pottery, Will Creitz who donated the land for our park, Lewis Lutz, an art instructor at the Cincinnati Art Academy, Joseph Kimmel, who built his brick home ‘Rosehill’ in East Cambridge, Virginia Meredith, the first woman on the board of trustees at Purdue University, and the three sons of General Meredith, two of whom died from Civil War injuries.
From the Cambridge City Library "Uncle Will" Creitz
William Barefoot owned our famous race horse Single G. Louis P. Kleiber, an agriculturalist and town board member, had his statue erected a few years before his death in 1941.The Boden family did heavy construction work in the area and in 1908 moved the Meredith monument from the old Capitol Hill first burying ground at the southeast corner of town a mile north to the larger new Riverside Cemetery north of town. Thanks to the Whitewater Valley Junior Historical Society, who published a booklet in 1977, we know that at least 127 graves were moved to Riverside. The Juniors were instrumental in restoring the first burying ground by probing for monuments, repairing and resetting them and recording information from the stones. Also, the Juniors should be given credit for the list of forty- seven Civil War veterans who are buried at Capitol Hill Cemetery. This year marks the 150th year since the start of the Civil War. Reenactors are invited to be present for the Riverside walk. Veterans of other wars could also be represented.
Would you like to portray one of the persons mentioned above? Or perhaps you have an ancestor buried in the front part of the cemetery whom you would like to describe for the public Riverside Cemetery walk tentatively scheduled for 2-5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, June 26th. The celebration event is sponsored by Western Wayne Heritage. If you would like to participate, call 478-5993 for more information. It will be an informative, fun afternoon for families to learn about former residents of Cambridge City.
Karole Passmore is a freelance writer who enjoys writing articles and short stories, interviewing local people, and researching non-fiction subject matter– preferably historical. Graduate of RHS, Ivy Tech Richmond, and Earlham College– with a major in History, Karole has spent most of her life in Wayne County and enjoys the quaint atmosphere of a small town.
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