Oakwood's Panorama Signage
Overview
Oakwood Cemetery, (Troy Cemetery Association, Inc.) was incorporated in 1848. Several dozen major Troy citizens each contributed funds to begin purchasing land for the cemetery. Many parcels were assembled, and engineer/landscape architect J. C. Sidney of Philadelphia was hired to lay out the new cemetery. The first burial was in 1850, as was the formal inauguration of the cemetery in October, 1850. The inauguration included a procession of dignitaries walking from downtown Troy, special hymns, and a consecration address by David Buell.
Troy’s Oakwood is significant in landscape architecture as one of America’s most distinguished and well-preserved 19th century rural cemeteries. J. C. Sidney went on to design part of Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia and was the principal designer of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, both also "rural" cemeteries.
Oakwood has been said, by the late, well-known cemetery authority Barbara Rotundo, to have the most beautiful natural setting of any of the old “rural” cemeteries in America. The cemetery has 5 small lakes, 5 waterfalls, about 60,000 burials, and10-12 miles of roads. It has about 400 acres, of which 330 are west of Oakwood Avenue. And since most of Oakwood sits high on a bluff above the Hudson River Valley, it has the most beautiful 100-mile viewshed of the Hudson Valley anywhere in the valley. It is also the most important and comprehensive overview of American history anywhere in the nation.
For further details on this, see the section here entitled "Panorama" within "History" here, or "Botany" in its own section.
Lower Gatehouse
The built environment includes the Lower Gatehouse, a Queen Anne Victorian 1884 building which houses the cemetery office and an apartment upstairs for the superintendent of grounds. It is located at the eastern end of 101st Street, just off River Street. In 2001 the Board of Trustees renovated that building. The original 1884 slate roof, which was leaking into the attic and causing ceilings in the second floor apartment to collapse, was replaced with a new slate roof. The rotted fascia boards were replaced, and the building was re-painted back to its original 1884 colors of dark gray and brown. The 1st floor was re-plastered and repainted, and the beautiful 10’ high terracotta fireplace and mantel cleaned. The collapsed ceilings on the second floor were repaired, and the floor of the attic insulated.
The road going up the hill from the office is closed except to funeral, fire and police vehicles. It was closed in 2001 because about 50-60 vehicles an hour were using the road as a cut-through shortcut between Lansingburgh and Oakwood Avenue. The drivers were speeding up the hill, and many of them were throwing their garbage out the window as they went. (The speed limit in the cemetery is 15 mph, by state law.) To reach the office, one may enter the Lower Gate at 101st Street, or come in the Oakwood Avenue gate, turn left at the bell, and descend the hill. Halfway down the hill you will encounter yellow barricades.
These are protecting a temporary sand barrier water diversion system to keep
road runoff away from the mudslide on the west side of the ravine. At the barrier, turn right, go down the short hill, around the "island" at the bottom of the hill, come back up the hill and you should be on the down side of the barricades. Proceed down the hill. When you are finished at the office, simply go up the hill and reverse the procedure.
Upper Gatehouse
At the Oakwood Avenue Gate is the Upper Gatehouse, or "Keeper’s House". It was originally the home of the President of the Board of Trustees, and is now the home of our Administrator and family. It was built in 1861 and added to later in the 19th century. As of 2007, it is in need of a new roof and much restoration.
Two Chapels
Oakwood Cemetery boasts two beautiful chapels:
- Gardner Earl Memorial Chapel and Crematorium
- Warren Family Mortuary Chapel
Gardner Earl Memorial Chapel and Crematorium
Hannah and William S. Earl were prominent business owners of Earl and Wilson, a national collar manufacturing firm.
Their only child, son Gardner Earl, born in 1850, was apparently sickly from an early age. He was well enough to do the Grand Tour in Europe in the early 1880’s. He was impressed with the cremation methods used in Italy, and when he came home wrote out a legal document stating his wish to be cremated (which was not common at that time.) When he died in March, 1887, his parents took his body to Buffalo by train to be cremated, since there was no crematory in eastern New York.
On their return, they made the decision to fund the building of the Earl Chapel and Crematory as a memorial to their only child. Albert Fuller, a well-known architect in Albany, was hired in September, 1887,to design the chapel. He had already served Oakwood as the designer of the Lower Gatehouse. By April ,1988, the bids had been let and construction had begun. The Earls gave Fuller a free hand, money was apparently not an object. Fuller was asked to make the building the most modern, most beautiful, and most enduringly strong crematory in the world. The chapel itself is filled with 8 Tiffany stained-glass windows(from early in Louis Comfort Tiffany’s career) marble mosaics on the floor of the altar, and onyx and marble from all over the world in the wainscoting, and the rear and front altars. The ceilings and pews are all hand-carved quarter-sawn oak.
In the room to the left of the altar was the original crematory, with 2 retorts fired by a wood-burning furnace in the basement. The building was basically complete in late 1889, and the first cremation was early in January, 1890. But some time before 1905, the man in charge of the building had invented a kerosene-fired system. Since the Earls were still alive, they built a seamless addition of Westerly granite to match the rest of the building, moved the retorts into the addition, and began the beautification of the room to the left of the altar. The roof was raised, a tray ceiling installed and covered in marble mosaics, the 2 windows on the west and south enlarged to hold large Maitland Armstrong stained-glass windows, the 2 north windows enlarged and fitted with custom bronze doors leading to the 2 retorts. The walls of the "gorgeous" room were covered with Siena marble from Italy, and the lower walls covered in marble mosaics.
The building is "Richardsonian Romanesque",with Roman arches and a heavy, rooted-to-the-earth feeling. Please see the "Virtual Tour" of this building in the left-hand menu bar.
In 1969 a small concrete-block addition was added to the northwest corner of the basement, and 2 new gas-fired retorts were placed. There apparently were difficulties with its placement, and so in the 1970’s a new plain concrete-block free-standing building was built about 50’ to the north. The 2 gas-fired retorts are there and in constant use. Oakwood does about 375-400 cremations a year.
In about 1904, the original black slate roof was replaced by a copper one, which by 1995 had begun to fail and leak into the rich interior of the chapel. The Oakwood Board of Trustees spent six years raising money to replace the roof, through much grant-writing and generous donations from lot owners and concerned citizens and foundations. The work on the new black slate roof was begun in July, 2006, after public bids were opened. The architects are the nationally-known preservation architectural firm of Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, and Baker, LLP of Albany. It is expected that the work will be finished by late spring, 2007.
Warren Family Mortuary Chapel
The Warren Family Mortuary Chapel is not owned by Oakwood, but by the Mary Warren Free Institute. It is a small Chapel sited on a knoll in the center of the cemetery. Built in 1860, it is a stone church in the English country Gothic style designed by noted architect Henry Dudley of New York. It had a steep slate roof,leaking and in very poor condition, until 2003 when the slate was removed and an EPDM roofing material was put on. It is waiting for the Mary Warren Free Institute to replace the slate. A building has a nave and cross transept plan, lancet windows, and a recessed pointed-arch entrance with a small rosette window above. In 1883 a tower of compatible material and design was added on the northeast side. On the interior, above the altar, there is a triple stained-glass window designed by artist/professor Robert Weir of West Point. There are 95 family burials under marble gravestones in the floor.
Notable Gravesites
"Uncle Sam" Wilson
Samuel Wilson was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, in 1766. The family moved to Mason, NH when he was quite young. In 1780 he began to learn brickmaking, which would help him later in his life. In 1781, at age 15, he enlisted in the Revolutionary Army, becoming a service boy mending fences and tending livestock. In 1789 he and his brother Ebenezer walked from New Hampshire to Troy, NY, where they decided to stay. They set up a brickyard on Mt. Ida in Troy.
In 1789 they began a meat-packing business. During the beginning of the War of 1812 with England, Sam won a contract to supply meat to the War Department for the armies in NY and NJ. The barrels of meat were stamped "E.A.- U.S.", and the "U.S." stood for United States. The "E. A." stood for Elbert Anderson, probably from New York City. Anderson was the man from whom Samuel got the contract. But Samuel Wilson’s workers and the soldiers from this vicinity who knew him joked that "U.S." meant "Uncle Sam," as Samuel Wilson was very often called.
Local soldiers who received the barrels of meat knew his reputation, and passed along the reputation that anything from Samuel Wilson was top quality. Thus the connection between good quality and Uncle Sam and Samuel Wilson began to spread throughout the army and the nation.
From the War of 1812, the concept of "Uncle Sam" began to take hold. America needed a new symbol which could compete with England’s rotund "John Bull." America had used an ineffective symbol of "Brother Jonathan", not dignified enough to represent the emerging U. S. A.
There were uses of "Uncle Sam" as a symbol beginning in 1813, but the most famous were those of Thomas Nast, the famed NYC political cartoonist in the 1870’s.
In 1854, Samuel Wilson died and was buried in Troy’s Mt. Ida Cemetery. In 1858 his son Benjamin bought a plot at Oakwood and Samuel was re-interred at Oakwood. His wife, 3 of his children and 2 of his grandchildren are buried at Oakwood.
Oakwood is therefore the main site in America for "Uncle Sam" Wilson.
In 1917 James Flagg made the most famous poster ever, the "I Want You" recruitment poster. And in 1961 Congress officially recognized "Uncle Sam" Wilson of Troy as the man behind America’s national symbol.
In 2007, Oakwood is launching a national architectural competition for a design of an internationally-significant memorial to "Uncle Sam" Wilson at his gravesite. It will tell both the history of the man but also trace the evolution of the symbol who now represents America all over the world.
Emma Willard
1787 - 1870. The 16th of 17 children in Connecticut. 
In 1807 she began teaching and propounding her strong belief that females beyond the 8th grade were as capable as males in learning math and science. It was widely held that if young women did not study sewing, etc, but tried a rigorous academic course of study, they might take ill or die. She wrote and spoke both nationally and internationally on the subject. Governor Dewitt Clinton invited her to open a school for young females in NYS, which she opened in Waterford in 1819. (I think she had opened an earlier school in 1814) Waterford did not support the school, but leading citizens of Troy raised money to bring the school to Troy in 1821, where it was called the Troy Female Seminary. The high school was originally where Russell Sage College is now, downtown. The school’s name was eventually changed to "Emma Willard" to honor its founder.
The roster of graduates of Emma Willard, particularly in the 1800’s ,includes many national leaders, including many in the women’s right-to-vote movement. Her sister, Almira, came to teach with Emma, and was principal for about 8 years. She wrote many science textbooks which were used nationally. Almira became, in 1859, only the second woman ever elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Olivia Slocum Sage, an Emma graduate, became the wealthiest woman in America upon the death of her husband, Russell Sage, in the early 1900’s. At her urging, he had donated at small amount to her idea of founding a college for women. At his death, she helped establish Russell Sage College on the former Emma Willard site downtown, and was the most generous benefactor in helping to build the current Emma Willard campus on Pawling Avenue.
Educator Amos Eaton
Amos Eaton was close to what we call "a Renaissance Man". 
He was a published and widely recognized botanist, and a pioneer in the field of geology who taught and trained the men who went on to become their state geologists all over America during the 1800’s. But most importantly, he was an early educator who believed that the traditional "studying Greek and Latin" education which predominated in the 1700’s and early 1800's was useless for educating the engineers, scientists, farmers, etc. of his time, who needed practical, hands on education in order to help our young country grow. With Stephen Van Rensselaer, who provided the money, he founded the Rensselaer Institute, which became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI.
This was the first higher education school of science and technology in the English-speaking world.
It should also be noted that Eaton believed that females should have the same education as the men, and had a group of female students (separated from the men) learning the same curriculum, as an experiment. The females did well and the experiment was successful, but the trustees of the school failed to continue the experiment. Eaton had a lively correspondence with another famous Oakwood resident, Emma Willard, and indeed did some teaching of her students. The correspondence is preserved in the archives of RPI.
Russell Sage
Sage was born in the Mohawk Valley and came to Troy to work in his brother’s dry goods store. He became an important figure in Troy, elected to several offices. But he soon expanded beyond Troy. His first wife, Maria, was an Emma Willard graduate but died early and childless. He sought another wife who might be another Emma graduate and whose family would give him proper credentials. His second wife was Margaret Olivia Slocum, who fit all his requirements. They moved to New York City, to a mansion on 5th Avenue, and Russell became allied with Jay Gould. Together they were part of a group which the history books call "robber barons". The Sage-Gould duo bought railroads all over America, including the famous elevated railroad in NYC. They became big investors in the stock market, where it is said Sage invented "puts" and "calls". Sage died in the early 1900’s as perhaps the "19th wealthiest American ever", according to a Fortune publication of the "100 richest" people ever in the American millennium craze pre-2000.
Sage died childless, leaving his widow, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, the wealthiest woman in America. She chose to be buried in Syracuse with her parents, but was noted as a major philanthropist nation-wide. It has been said that she endowed causes and institutions which her husband would have opposed, such as higher education in general and education for females. A major national cartoon from the early 1900’s shows "Uncle Sam" behind a bank teller’s window, collecting the first national income tax payments. First in line is Russell Sage, a well-known miser, having a hard time getting his payment out of his pocket. Behind him is Hetty Green, another famous miser, known as "the Witch of Wall Street". Last in line is Jay Gould, Russell Sage’s colleague. All are very unhappy to be paying the U. S. any money. Sage’s wife, Margaret, buried him in a Greco-Roman mausoleum by himself, without his name on it, and with a Medusa’s head, snakes and all, carved on a small marble bench next to the mausoleum.
General George Thomas
Called "The Rock of Chickamauga" for his refusal to retreat during a key battle in the Civil War.
General Thomas was born and raised in Virginia and graduated from West Point. He married a Kellogg of Troy, and chose to fight for the United States during the Civil War, rather than for the southern states which had seceded from the Union. He was the only general never to have lost a battle during the Civil War. However, what he did lose was his birth family. When he decided to fight for the North, his family turned his portrait to the wall, never spoke to him again, and refused to come to his funeral.
Prior to the Civil War, General Thomas fought under another Oakwood resident, Major General John Ellis Wool in the Mexican-American War. The March, 2007, Smithsonian magazine has an important and excellent article about General Thomas.
Jacob D. Vanderheyden, founder of Troy
Jacob Vanderheyden was the founder of Troy, died in 1809, and was buried in the Third Street Cemetery next to the First Baptist Church. His grandson, Lewis Morris, brought all the family gravestones to Oakwood sometime after 1850. These 12 stones were all laid flat in the ground and over time had become covered with sod, rendering them nearly invisible. The Pioneers excavated all 12 gravestones on their first work day, cutting away the sod to at least six inches from the stones. On their second work day, assisted by Grethen-Cahrenger Memorials and other volunteers, each stone was carefully lifted from the ground and a bed of crushed shale was put into the cavity. Then each stone was lowered into its new bed, which raised each to ground level. They are beautiful stones to see, located near the Uncle Sam site.
George M. Phelps
George M. Phelps was a prominent 19th century telegraph inventor and machinist. He was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History for his work done in Troy during the 1850s. Born in West Troy in 1820, he became the superintendent of Western Union's largest machine shop located in New York City. Most of Thomas Edison's Western Union experimental telegraph and telephone patent models were built by George Phelps. In the late 1870s, Western Union sold telephones that combined the inventions of both Edison and Phelps. To learn more about George Phelps please visit :
Here
Rural Cemeteries
In the 1600’s, 1700’s and early 1800’s burials in cities in America were usually in church yards or city burying grounds. As cities grew, the burying grounds became more and more inadequate. Layers upon layers of burials became common, in some instances even above ground. The results were unpleasant and unsanitary.
City fathers began looking for alternatives in the early 1800’s. At about the same time, the Romantic movement was gaining popularity, with its emphasis on proximity to nature. The movement, in both art and music, inspired city fathers to look to Europe for inspiration. There they found the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, but most especially were inspired by the great landscaped estates in England. These estates, which are now owned primarily by the National Trust, were not “landscaped” as we might think of flower beds, etc. Rather, they were designed with roads curving around groves of trees, with surprises designed to delight the eye as one came around the curves. Often these cemeteries were sited on hills, since that way one would be closer to God.
The new rural cemeteries were often sited on the outskirts of the cities, and were planned to be filled with natural or man-made ponds, statues, and shrubs. Mt. Auburn, established in Cambridge, Mass. in 1831, was the first “rural” cemetery in America; it inspired many other similar cemeteries in cities all over America, but particularly along the East Coast.
Oakwood, incorporated in 1848, follows all the trends above—winding roads, ponds, waterfalls, statuary and forests, and built high above the City of Troy. It, along with its sister cemeteries, was meant to be a beautiful retreat for citizens, to walk quietly in peaceful, natural surroundings while meditating on the deceased or caring for their family plots while picnicking. These rural cemeteries were the precursors and models for the large public parks such as New York City’s Central Park. They were social meeting grounds, even serving as showcases for marriage-eligible daughters.
There were many large family plots, often surrounded by wrought- iron fences or low granite walls to delineate my family’s plot from your family plot. Most rural cemeteries have removed the wrought-iron fences, since it is extraordinarily difficult to mow the plots within the fences. Oakwood, however, has retained most of its wrought-iron fences and granite walls, although the families owning the plots have not maintained them, and they have fallen into disrepair.
Gradually, these cemeteries were replaced by “lawn” cemeteries, were sections were regimented, regulated, and contained flat markers, or symmetrical upright markers, placed in a regimented fashion, making each section much easier to maintain.
The Panorama
Oakwood has been blessed with the most beautiful natural setting of any of the old large “rural” settings in America. Most of the cemetery sits high up on a long bluff, affording amazing views from many spots along the ridge. But there is one spot, at the western edge of the western pond in the center of the cemetery, which surpasses all others in its views. We have generally taken most tours there because it affords such spectacular views. We received a New York State Estuary Grant via the Dept. of Environmental Conservation to construct signage at that panorama. There we have an 84” long photograph of the 100-mile viewshed, embedded in 1” thick acrylic, on a steel frame embedded in concrete. Local historians have aided Oakwood in annotating the photo signage with notes about important events and places regarding the viewshed.
It has been called the most beautiful view of the Hudson River Valley anywhere, and also the most concentrated and complete overview of American history anywhere in America. It goes from Paleolithic rocks, to Paleo-Indians, to the Dutch, then English settlers, to the French and Indian Wars, the American Revolution, the seat of the American Industrial Revolution, the “Way West” movement, with the Erie and Champlain Canals, all the way up to the San Francisco Giants.
