EUCLID CEMETERY TOUR IN HONOR OF VETERANS DAY
Dr. Roy Larick points out a headstone made of Euclid Bluestone (photo taken by Aidas Berzinskas)
On Saturday, November 17th, Dr. Roy Larick led a tour of Euclid Cemetery in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I (WWI), which is commemorated each year on Veterans Day. The tour was sponsored by Councilwoman Caviness and co-sponsored by Councilman Langman and Councilwoman Gorshe. Euclid Historical Society provided a reception following the tour.
Graves and memorials exist in Euclid Cemetery for Vets who served as far back as the American Revolution. Dr. Larick, himself, is related to World War II (WWII) Veterans interred in Euclid Cemetery, including his mother, Elizabeth Larick, who served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). His father, also a Roy, served in the Navy.
Another couple who both served in WWII are Robert and Marie Holloway (LT and LTJG in the Navy, respectively). Mrs. Holloway continued her career as a Registered Nurse and Mr. Holloway went on to serve as a Euclid teacher and Assistant Superintendent and then as the Superintendent of the Beachwood City Schools.
A notable Vet from the First World War who lays at rest in our city cemetery is Clyde Woodmansee. Eventually, he came to serve as the City Building Commissioner, but after a dramatic return home from the war. He had been wounded in France and fell ill. As the story goes, his records were subsequently misplaced and the Army informed his family that he was presumed dead. Imagine their shock when he showed up at their door some months later!
Euclid Cemetery also contains headstones for Vets whose actual places of burial were unknown or unmarked. War Department records accessed on ancestry.com include applications made in 1942 by Mayor Kenneth Sims for headstones to honor four Revolutionary War Veterans including Lt. David Dille, who became Euclid’s first permanent European settler. County Vet records show that Dille was buried at First Presbyterian, which was the family’s church just down Euclid Avenue in what is now East Cleveland. See: https://recorder.cuyahogacounty.us/veteran/gravesearch.aspx . A fifth application in 1956 by a Wilson Crosier was made for a replacement headstone for John Crosier, which is now prominently displayed in the center of the four mentioned above. As his headstone indicates, Lt. Crosier “Repulsed British at Lexington and Bunker Hill”. For more information about the VA’s headstone, marker and medallion programs, visit: https://www.cem.va.gov/hmm/ .
There is some good news for anyone who was unable to make the tour - most of it was recorded using Facebook Live and the video can be accessed at: https://www.facebook.com/AlisaBoles/videos/10216526380459329/ .
The handouts prepared by Dr. Larick for the tour can be viewed on his website at: http://bluestoneheights.org/bsh/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/181117-Euclid-Cem-trifold.pdf and http://bluestoneheights.org/bsh/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/181117-Euclid-Cem-stories.pdf .
Dr. Larick, the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District’s 2017 Educator of the Year,. has a Ph. D. in Archaeology and co-authored an Images of America book about the history of Euclid Creek. It is available online, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Euclid-Creek-OH-Images-America/dp/0738539538 , and also at the Euclid Library. Various books about local history can be purchased at the Euclid Historical Society, which is open on Tuesdays from 1 - 4 p.m. and located at located at 21129 North Street. Euclid Cemetery is accessible from Concordia Street, which is off of Grand Boulevard.
Mary Szekely, a retired school district employee, spent her lunch breaks documenting thousands of Euclid Cemetery graves on findagrave.com. She included information from various sources and uploaded pictures where possible. Check out her work at: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/40739/euclid-cemetery . I personally used ancestry.com and findagrave.com this past year to take my son to find the graves of my great-grandparents in rural Tennessee. Efforts of our local historians make it possible for others to do the same. Making this information accessible can mean a great deal to families in search of their ancestors or to anyone interested in history, generally.