Gravely Speaking

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York

When John Tyler became the president after the death of William Henry Harrison, he was referred to by the political wags of the day as “His Accidency.”  Millard Fillmore was the second president to ascend to the office upon the death of a president, though, he was not so dubbed.

Fillmore was an influential politician in Buffalo and New York.  In Buffalo, he co-founded the Univerisity at Buffalo and helped found the Buffalo Historical Society, as well as the Buffalo General Hospital.    Fillmore served in Congress representing his district in New York State and later was elected as the state’s first comptroller.

At the Whig Convention in 1848, Millard Fillmore were nominated to run for Vice President.  On the top of the ballot was the famous General Zachary Taylor.  They won.  Two years later, President Taylor died as a result of eating a bad bowl of cherries and sour milk and the ensuing medical treatment.  Fillmore assumed the presidency on July 9, 1850 and served until the end of the term in 1853.  This did not end his political career, he was nominated for the presidency in 1856, just three short years later, on the American Know Nothing Party ticket but came in third.  Though, Fillmore only carried the state of Maryland, the ticket garnered 21.6% of the popular vote, which still represents a highwater mark in third party politcs.

Millard Fillmore died on March 8, 1874 after having suffered a stroke.  He was buried on a plot in the Forest Lawn Cemetery at Buffalo, which he chose.  He grave is marked with a rose-colored granite obelisk.  The placque on the fence surrounding his grave reads:

In Memory

Of

MILLARD FILLMORE

13^th President of the

United States of America

Born January 7, 1800—Died March 8, 1874

Dedicated by the Millard Fillmore Republican Woman’s Club

Memorial Day, May 30, 1932

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York

The two obelisks in the picture to the right mark the graves of Millard Fillmore’s law partners Nathan Hall and Solomon Haven, mirroring the law firm’s stationery–Fillmore, Hall, and Haven.

Grant’s Tomb was dedicated on April 27th, 1897, President Grant’s 75th anniversary of his birth.  His mausoleum was to be the centerpiece of Riverside Park.  For many years it was a gathering place.  But by the 1970s the tomb had fallen into disrepair.  The monument had been vandalized and was painted with graffiti.

One of two reliquary rooms that display battle flags from the Civil War. The murals on the walls that show the battles in which General Grant fought were restored.

Congress allocated the funds to restore the monument in 1994 and by 1997 the restoration of the tomb had been completed and it was rededicated.

In 1968, The Rolling Bench, designed by artist Pedro Silva and architect Phillip Danzig was built by hundreds of children who lived in the area under the direction of Silva and surrounds the tomb on three sides. The bench, a Gaudi-esque design, was criticized for its incongruity with the Neo-classical monument. The Rolling Bench was restored in 2008.

Grant’s Tomb, Riverside Park, New York City

President Ulysses S. Grant died of throat cancer July 23, 1885, only 4 days after he finished writing his memoirs, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.  He was mired in debt from financial catastrophes and bad investments, but Mark Twain’s publishing company sold over 350,000 copies of Grant’s two-volume book set which brought his widow, Julia Dent Grant, out of debt and into prosperity.

Grant’s presidency was marred by one scandal after another, though, Grant was never personally implicated.  In spite of that, when he died, Grant was a national hero and one of the most beloved Americans of his day.

Upon his death, his wife made the decision that President Grant would be buried in New York City.  Almost immediately fundraising efforts began.  Soon after a design competition was won by architect John Hemenway Duncan, who designed a towering mausoleum with the exterior modeled after the tomb of King Mausolus, for which the term mausoleum derives.  The mausoleum is one of the largest in North America.  It was built with 8,000 tons of light gray granite.  The tomb symbolically faces South.

Grant’s only wish regarding his death was that he be buried next to his wife Julia.  The twin red-granite coffins containing President and Mrs. Grant can be seen from the circular gallery inside the memorial.

Two large sculptures of eagles flank the entrance to the tomb resting on large blocks that have four stars carved on them denoting Grant’s 4-star ranking.