Machpelah Cemetery (Le Roy, New York)
Encyclopedia
Machpelah Cemetery is located on North Street in Le Roy
, New York, United States. It was opened in the mid-19th century and expanded since then. Graves from other, smaller burial grounds around Le Roy have been added. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 2007, one of two cemeteries in Genesee County
with that distinction.
It was originally built and laid out as a rural cemetery
, with a parklike setting on the banks of Oatka Creek
. In the early 20th century its design philosophy changed, when a large mausoleum to local businessman Orator Francis Woodward, who in his last years made a fortune developing Jell-O
into a bestselling dessert, was built in the southern section of the cemetery near his factory. The architect hired by the family to lay out the section was influenced by the City Beautiful movement
, giving that area a more orderly cast.
Woodward's monument, visible from the cemetery's main entrance, is the most prominent of many notable graves in the cemetery. Other structures within include a memorial chapel built around the same time and a granite vault held together by its own weight. The markers exhibit a variety of materials, forms and styles of funerary art
. Among the 5,500 dead buried here besides Woodward and his family are many people important to the history of Le Roy, including the daughters of its namesake, the inventor of Jell-O and Sarah Frances Whiting
, an astronomer who was also one of the first to experiment with X-ray
s. Veterans of every American war lie at Machpelah as well.
.
A wrought iron
fence runs along the south and east sides. At the three main entrances, and the southeast and northeast corners, are two limestone
pillars topped with stone orbs. The southern third of the cemetery is generally flat, with axial roads radiating outward from the Woodward mausoleum near the southeast entrance. In the northern and central portions, the landscape becomes hillier, with a gentle descent to the creek. The roads there curve with the landscape. Throughout, the cemetery is planted with mature trees and shrubs from a variety of species.
There are three buildings on the cemetery grounds. The most prominent is the mausoleum
of Orator Francis Woodward, the Le Roy resident who built a personal fortune from buying the patent
for Jell-O. It is a small stone Classical Revival
structure in the middle of a circle with large planted myrtles at the end of the short drive from the main entrance, serving as its focal point. The east (front) elevation has four Doric
columns in front of bronze doors, and a similar colonnade on the west (rear) with a stained glass
window. Its interior is paneled in marble
. Interred there are Woodward, his wife Cora and their six children.
To the south of the main drive is the smaller Lampson mausoleum. It is built of panels of New Hampshire
granite locked together by their own weight. Scottish variegated granite columns are on the north (front) elevation. Between them are marble doors opening into a chamber with a marble mosaic floor.
Downhill from the drive at the northern entrance, the former main entrance, is the Lathrop Chapel, at the end of a parkway
with plantings and a veterans' memorial. It is a vernacular
Gothic
limestone
building with a slate roof. On its front is a portico
with two lancet window
s framing the entrance. Above is a double pointed-arch window with a Celtic cross
at the roof.
All three are contributing resources
to the cemetery's historic character. There is one other building, a modern cemetery office and garage just south of the main entrance. Due to its recent construction it is non-contributing.
There are 5,500 decedents buried at 6,500 graves in the cemetery's ten sections. They date from thet time of the cemetery's founding to the present, and include a variety of funerary art from the times they were erected. They take a variety of forms, from traditional gravestones to obelisk
s, and use a variety of stones from granite and marble to green serpentine.
Among the notable markers are another one to the Woodwards. It is a large semicircle of pink Canadian granite, 20 feet (6.1 m) long and 10½ feet (10.5 feet (3.2 m)) deep with a paved terrace
. On either side are curved benches with a small flower garden in the center around a rectangular stone.
Many members of the Olmsted family, prominent from Le Roy's early days, also have distinctive markers. The obelisk of John Randolph Olmsted is the tallest monument in the cemetery, and Chauncey Olmsted and his family also are memorialized with a large red granite obelisk atop a hill. John Barlow Olmsted's green serpentine stone, amid a grove of cedars, has a history of the family.
Some markers have distinctive decoration. Artist Frank Eastman Jones' stone has a carved palette
. On the south knoll of the cemetery's west side are the graves of the three Bang children, outlined with low marble stones that resemble cribs when seen at a distance. A fourth Bang child has a nearby grave with a detailed carved cross decorated with ivy and flowers. Another descendant of a prominent local family, Sheldon Francis Bartow, has a large marble urn embellished with garlands
on his stone. The white marble angel praying at the Paul family plot is the largest statue in the cemetery. Other distinct funerary art include the Greek letters
Alpha and Omega
(A and Ω) on the three Whiting graves and the Avilan crosses on the graves of Polly and Esther Barrows.
lands in the surrounding area and its location at the junction of Oatka Creek and a major road (now New York State Route 5
) through the area. All were small, meant mainly for the churches' congregants.
The first rural cemetery, Mount Auburn Cemetery
in Massachusetts
, was established in 1831. The idea of burying the dead in a large, parklike tract with walking paths and plantings took some time to gain acceptance. Seven years later, in 1838, Rochester
's Mount Hope Cemetery
became the first rural cemetery in Western New York
, and the first one to be operated by a municipality.
George Blodgett, a veteran of the War of 1812
and local businessman, may have been similarly inspired by the idea. He proposed that an eight-acre (8 acres (3.2 ha)) tract near the northwest corner of the village be acquired for a rural cemetery. At first he tried to finance the purchase through the sale of plots for $25 ($ in contemporary dollars), but grew discouraged after he had only sold 20 in several years.
, suggested the name Machpelah, from Jacob
's exhortation at Genesis 49:30: "Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephrom the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah
..."
The first decedent, twelve-year-old Caro Frances Chamberlin, was buried on the last day of 1858. Her grave is extant, atop the southern knoll in section B, Lot 16. Blodgett built the public vault
into the hill near what is now the parkway leading to the Lathrop Chapel. Its limestone facade
was copied soon after for a nearby family vault.
In 1870 the heirs of Miles Lampson, one of the wealthiest men in the village, built the granite mausoleum to him. Originally it was surrounded by a decorative iron fence. It was built by a Connecticut company for a reported cost of $10,000 ($ in contemporary dollars). Later in that decade the cemetery grew when one of Le Roy's original burying grounds were closed down and the bodies moved. After the original Episcopal church was demolished, the bodies in its graveyard were divided between two other cemeteries. Among those moved to Machpelah were Julia and Caroline Le Roy, daughters of the community's namesake, Jacob Le Roy.
Ownership of the cemetery was formally transferred in 1873 from Blodgett to the Machpelah Cemetery Association. The following year Blodgett died, and the cemetery was formally consecrated
. At the ceremony one speaker, Lucius Bangs, praised the cemetery's rural setting and its soothing effect:
Similar praise found its way into print in subsequent years. "The grounds are upon an elevation and are beautifully laid out with an excellent taste displayed in adapting new ideas to the laying out and beautifying of burial plots, which is worthy of imitation." wrote the Genesee County Gazetteer in 1890. Two decades later, in 1913, the Le Roy Gazette said:
With the new century the cemetery acquired a fence. The initial 1367 feet (416.7 m) was installed along the east side by a Detroit company for $36.60 ($ in contemporary dollars) in 1903. Later that decade, the cemetery association bought the property to the south and, in 1907, the Woodward Mausoleum was built. Afterwards, the southern boundary was fenced off and by late 1908 the limestone pillars at the gates and corners were in place.
uses not only in Le Roy but in the greater Rochester area as well. His mausoleum was one of the first in the southern section, and the Woodward family retained landscape architect
Alling Deforest, who had designed the gardens around the George Eastman House
in Rochester, to design the surrounding landscape.
The roads radiating from the circular drive around the mausoleum impart clean, clear visual lines and symmetry to the landscape, in contrast to the meandering, idiosyncratic rural atmosphere of the older sections. This reflects the ideals of the contemporary City Beautiful movement
, with a preference for symmetry and order in public spaces, particularly since this section directly abuts the factory where Woodward had made his fortune. It is augmented by the Classical Revival
style of the mausoleum at the center of the Deforest-designed portion, the architect of which is not known. Deforest was also able to make a smooth transition between the newer and older sections and their different styles.
In 1910 the Union Free School
in the village needed to expand and acquired the former Ingham University
campus. Members of the Ingham family who had been buried there were moved to a small plot in Machpelah, along with the white marble obelisk memorializing Emily Ingham's husband Col. Phineas Staunton, who died on an expedition to South America and is buried in Ecuador. Also that year, the Lathrop Chapel, designed by Robert Fayfield of Buffalo, was erected. It is built into the hillside to allow its basement to be used as a vault.
There have been no significant additions to the cemetery since then. The chapel underwent several renovations at mid-century. In 1950 Helen Woodward Rivas, Orator's youngest daughter, paid for the first. Three years later, the Rev. Raymond Calkins funded additional work in memory of his wife's family, the Lathrops, giving the chapel its name. Among those renovations were a stained glass
rose window
; however it was replaced with the current window, depicting the Resurrection of Jesus
as described at Matthew
28:1-6, six years later when Calkins objected to the rose window.
Almost 400 war veterans are buried at Machpelah. They represent all wars, starting with three from Revolutionary War
moved to Machpelah later in the 19th century. In 2006 the Le Roy Historical Society began putting flags on their graves, a practice the local American Legion
post had discontinued in the 1980s due to lack of funds. It is part of a society project to update the records of the veterans buried at the cemetery.
Le Roy (village), New York
Le Roy is a village in Genesee County, New York, United States. The population was 4,462 at the 2000 census.The Village of Le Roy lies in the center of the Town of Le Roy at the intersection of Routes 5 and 19.- History :...
, New York, United States. It was opened in the mid-19th century and expanded since then. Graves from other, smaller burial grounds around Le Roy have been added. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2007, one of two cemeteries in Genesee County
Genesee County, New York
Genesee County is a county located in Western New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 60,079. Its name is from the Seneca Indian word Gen-nis'-hee-yo meaning "The Beautiful Valley." Its county seat is Batavia.- History :...
with that distinction.
It was originally built and laid out as a rural cemetery
Rural cemetery
The rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of burial ground that uses landscaping in a park-like setting.As early as 1711 the architect Sir Christopher Wren had advocated the creation of burial grounds on the outskirts of town, "inclosed with a strong Brick Wall, and having a walk round, and...
, with a parklike setting on the banks of Oatka Creek
Oatka Creek
Oatka Creek is the third longest tributary of the Genesee River, located entirely in the Western New York region of the U.S. state of New York. From southern Wyoming County, it flows to the Genesee near Scottsville, draining an area of that includes all or part of 23 towns and villages in...
. In the early 20th century its design philosophy changed, when a large mausoleum to local businessman Orator Francis Woodward, who in his last years made a fortune developing Jell-O
Jell-O
Jell-O is a brand name belonging to U.S.-based Kraft Foods for a number of gelatin desserts, including fruit gels, puddings and no-bake cream pies. The brand's popularity has led to it being used as a generic term for gelatin dessert across the U.S. and Canada....
into a bestselling dessert, was built in the southern section of the cemetery near his factory. The architect hired by the family to lay out the section was influenced by the City Beautiful movement
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
, giving that area a more orderly cast.
Woodward's monument, visible from the cemetery's main entrance, is the most prominent of many notable graves in the cemetery. Other structures within include a memorial chapel built around the same time and a granite vault held together by its own weight. The markers exhibit a variety of materials, forms and styles of funerary art
Funerary art
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. Tomb is a general term for the repository, while grave goods are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside...
. Among the 5,500 dead buried here besides Woodward and his family are many people important to the history of Le Roy, including the daughters of its namesake, the inventor of Jell-O and Sarah Frances Whiting
Sarah Frances Whiting
Sarah Frances Whiting , American physicist and astronomer, was the instructor to several astronomers, including Annie Jump Cannon.-Biography:Whiting graduated from Ingham University in 1865....
, an astronomer who was also one of the first to experiment with X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
s. Veterans of every American war lie at Machpelah as well.
Buildings and grounds
The cemetery is located on a 24.7 acres (10 ha) parcel near the northern boundary of the village of Le Roy. Its western boundary is the irregular, curving Oatka Creek. On the south is the large, empty factory that once manufactured Jell-O when it was all produced in Le Roy. To the east, across North Street, are houses, and residential property continues to the north, into the Town of Le RoyLe Roy (town), New York
Le Roy, or more commonly LeRoy, is a town in Genesee County, New York, United States. The population was 7,790 at the 2000 census. The town is named after one of the original land owners, Herman Le Roy....
.
A wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
fence runs along the south and east sides. At the three main entrances, and the southeast and northeast corners, are two limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
pillars topped with stone orbs. The southern third of the cemetery is generally flat, with axial roads radiating outward from the Woodward mausoleum near the southeast entrance. In the northern and central portions, the landscape becomes hillier, with a gentle descent to the creek. The roads there curve with the landscape. Throughout, the cemetery is planted with mature trees and shrubs from a variety of species.
There are three buildings on the cemetery grounds. The most prominent is the mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
of Orator Francis Woodward, the Le Roy resident who built a personal fortune from buying the patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
for Jell-O. It is a small stone Classical Revival
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
structure in the middle of a circle with large planted myrtles at the end of the short drive from the main entrance, serving as its focal point. The east (front) elevation has four Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
columns in front of bronze doors, and a similar colonnade on the west (rear) with a stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
window. Its interior is paneled in marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
. Interred there are Woodward, his wife Cora and their six children.
To the south of the main drive is the smaller Lampson mausoleum. It is built of panels of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
granite locked together by their own weight. Scottish variegated granite columns are on the north (front) elevation. Between them are marble doors opening into a chamber with a marble mosaic floor.
Downhill from the drive at the northern entrance, the former main entrance, is the Lathrop Chapel, at the end of a parkway
Parkway
The term parkway has several distinct principal meanings and numerous synonyms around the world, for either a type of landscaped area or a type of road.Type of landscaped area:...
with plantings and a veterans' memorial. It is a vernacular
Vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...
Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
building with a slate roof. On its front is a portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
with two lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s framing the entrance. Above is a double pointed-arch window with a Celtic cross
Celtic cross
A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...
at the roof.
All three are contributing resources
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the cemetery's historic character. There is one other building, a modern cemetery office and garage just south of the main entrance. Due to its recent construction it is non-contributing.
There are 5,500 decedents buried at 6,500 graves in the cemetery's ten sections. They date from thet time of the cemetery's founding to the present, and include a variety of funerary art from the times they were erected. They take a variety of forms, from traditional gravestones to obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
s, and use a variety of stones from granite and marble to green serpentine.
Among the notable markers are another one to the Woodwards. It is a large semicircle of pink Canadian granite, 20 feet (6.1 m) long and 10½ feet (10.5 feet (3.2 m)) deep with a paved terrace
Terrace (building)
A terrace is an outdoor, occupiable extension of a building above ground level. Although its physical characteristics may vary to a great degree, a terrace will generally be larger than a balcony and will have an "open-top" facing the sky...
. On either side are curved benches with a small flower garden in the center around a rectangular stone.
Many members of the Olmsted family, prominent from Le Roy's early days, also have distinctive markers. The obelisk of John Randolph Olmsted is the tallest monument in the cemetery, and Chauncey Olmsted and his family also are memorialized with a large red granite obelisk atop a hill. John Barlow Olmsted's green serpentine stone, amid a grove of cedars, has a history of the family.
Some markers have distinctive decoration. Artist Frank Eastman Jones' stone has a carved palette
Palette
Palette may refer to:* Cosmetic palette, an archaeological form* Palette , a wooden board used for mixing colors for a painting* Palette , in computer graphics, a selection of colors...
. On the south knoll of the cemetery's west side are the graves of the three Bang children, outlined with low marble stones that resemble cribs when seen at a distance. A fourth Bang child has a nearby grave with a detailed carved cross decorated with ivy and flowers. Another descendant of a prominent local family, Sheldon Francis Bartow, has a large marble urn embellished with garlands
Garland (decoration)
A garland is a decorative wreath or cord, used at festive occasions, which can be hung round a person's neck, or on inanimate objects like Christmas trees. Originally garlands were made of flowers or leaves.-Etymology:...
on his stone. The white marble angel praying at the Paul family plot is the largest statue in the cemetery. Other distinct funerary art include the Greek letters
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
Alpha and Omega
Alpha and Omega
The term Alpha and Omega comes from the phrase "I am the alpha and the omega" , an appellation of Jesus in the Book of Revelation ....
(A and Ω) on the three Whiting graves and the Avilan crosses on the graves of Polly and Esther Barrows.
History
The cemetery went through two phases of development. From its establishment to the end of the 19th century, it remained true to its conception as a rural cemetery. After the construction of the Woodward Mausoleum in the early years of the 20th, subsequent development was influenced by the contemporary City Beautiful movement.1801–1858: Conception and construction
Le Roy's first burying ground had been established in 1801, within three years of its settlement. Gradually seven other small graveyards came into being around the community's churches as it grew due to settlement of the Holland PurchaseHolland Purchase
The Holland Purchase was a large tract of land in what is now the western portion of the U.S. state of New York. It consisted of about 3,250,000 acres of land from a line approximately 12 miles to the west of the Genesee River to the present western border and boundary of New York State.The land...
lands in the surrounding area and its location at the junction of Oatka Creek and a major road (now New York State Route 5
New York State Route 5
New York State Route 5 is a state highway that extends for across the state of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in the Chautauqua County town of Ripley and passes through Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, and several other smaller cities and...
) through the area. All were small, meant mainly for the churches' congregants.
The first rural cemetery, Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain...
in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, was established in 1831. The idea of burying the dead in a large, parklike tract with walking paths and plantings took some time to gain acceptance. Seven years later, in 1838, Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
's Mount Hope Cemetery
Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester
Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York, founded in 1838, is the United States' first municipal rural cemetery. Situated on 196 acres of land adjacent to the University of Rochester on Mount Hope Avenue, the cemetery is the permanent resting place of over 350,000 people...
became the first rural cemetery in Western New York
Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
, and the first one to be operated by a municipality.
George Blodgett, a veteran of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
and local businessman, may have been similarly inspired by the idea. He proposed that an eight-acre (8 acres (3.2 ha)) tract near the northwest corner of the village be acquired for a rural cemetery. At first he tried to finance the purchase through the sale of plots for $25 ($ in contemporary dollars), but grew discouraged after he had only sold 20 in several years.
1858–1906: Rural cemetery period
Blodgett turned to another prominent Le Roy citizen, Chauncey Olmsted, who would later be buried in the cemetery. Olmsted gave him $200, which made it possible to purchase the land from a local wheat farmer. Under Blodgett's supervision, Olmsted built the original fences and walkways. The Rev. Samuel Cox, first chancellor of Ingham UniversityIngham University
Ingham University in Le Roy, New York, was the first women's college in New York State and the first chartered women's university in the United States. It was originally founded in 1835 as the Le Roy Female Seminary by Mariette and Emily E. Ingham. The school was chartered on April 6, 1852 as the...
, suggested the name Machpelah, from Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
's exhortation at Genesis 49:30: "Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephrom the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah
Cave of the Patriarchs
The Cave of the Patriarchs or the Cave of Machpelah , is known by Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham or Ibrahimi Mosque ....
..."
The first decedent, twelve-year-old Caro Frances Chamberlin, was buried on the last day of 1858. Her grave is extant, atop the southern knoll in section B, Lot 16. Blodgett built the public vault
Burial vault (tomb)
A burial vault is a structural underground tomb.It is a stone or brick-lined underground space or 'burial' chamber for the interment of a dead body or bodies. They were originally and are still often vaulted and usually have stone slab entrances...
into the hill near what is now the parkway leading to the Lathrop Chapel. Its limestone facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
was copied soon after for a nearby family vault.
In 1870 the heirs of Miles Lampson, one of the wealthiest men in the village, built the granite mausoleum to him. Originally it was surrounded by a decorative iron fence. It was built by a Connecticut company for a reported cost of $10,000 ($ in contemporary dollars). Later in that decade the cemetery grew when one of Le Roy's original burying grounds were closed down and the bodies moved. After the original Episcopal church was demolished, the bodies in its graveyard were divided between two other cemeteries. Among those moved to Machpelah were Julia and Caroline Le Roy, daughters of the community's namesake, Jacob Le Roy.
Ownership of the cemetery was formally transferred in 1873 from Blodgett to the Machpelah Cemetery Association. The following year Blodgett died, and the cemetery was formally consecrated
Consecration
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...
. At the ceremony one speaker, Lucius Bangs, praised the cemetery's rural setting and its soothing effect:
Similar praise found its way into print in subsequent years. "The grounds are upon an elevation and are beautifully laid out with an excellent taste displayed in adapting new ideas to the laying out and beautifying of burial plots, which is worthy of imitation." wrote the Genesee County Gazetteer in 1890. Two decades later, in 1913, the Le Roy Gazette said:
With the new century the cemetery acquired a fence. The initial 1367 feet (416.7 m) was installed along the east side by a Detroit company for $36.60 ($ in contemporary dollars) in 1903. Later that decade, the cemetery association bought the property to the south and, in 1907, the Woodward Mausoleum was built. Afterwards, the southern boundary was fenced off and by late 1908 the limestone pillars at the gates and corners were in place.
1906–present: City Beautiful
Orator Francis Woodward's burial in the cemetery marked a change in design philosophies. He had made his Jell-O fortune in the last years of his life; his family put it to many philanthropicPhilanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
uses not only in Le Roy but in the greater Rochester area as well. His mausoleum was one of the first in the southern section, and the Woodward family retained landscape architect
Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
Alling Deforest, who had designed the gardens around the George Eastman House
George Eastman House
The George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...
in Rochester, to design the surrounding landscape.
The roads radiating from the circular drive around the mausoleum impart clean, clear visual lines and symmetry to the landscape, in contrast to the meandering, idiosyncratic rural atmosphere of the older sections. This reflects the ideals of the contemporary City Beautiful movement
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
, with a preference for symmetry and order in public spaces, particularly since this section directly abuts the factory where Woodward had made his fortune. It is augmented by the Classical Revival
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style of the mausoleum at the center of the Deforest-designed portion, the architect of which is not known. Deforest was also able to make a smooth transition between the newer and older sections and their different styles.
In 1910 the Union Free School
Le Roy House and Union Free School
The Le Roy House and Union Free School are located on East Main Street in Le Roy, New York, United States. The house is a stucco-faced stone building in the Greek Revival architectural style. It was originally a land office, expanded in two stages during the 19th century by its builder, Jacob Le...
in the village needed to expand and acquired the former Ingham University
Ingham University
Ingham University in Le Roy, New York, was the first women's college in New York State and the first chartered women's university in the United States. It was originally founded in 1835 as the Le Roy Female Seminary by Mariette and Emily E. Ingham. The school was chartered on April 6, 1852 as the...
campus. Members of the Ingham family who had been buried there were moved to a small plot in Machpelah, along with the white marble obelisk memorializing Emily Ingham's husband Col. Phineas Staunton, who died on an expedition to South America and is buried in Ecuador. Also that year, the Lathrop Chapel, designed by Robert Fayfield of Buffalo, was erected. It is built into the hillside to allow its basement to be used as a vault.
There have been no significant additions to the cemetery since then. The chapel underwent several renovations at mid-century. In 1950 Helen Woodward Rivas, Orator's youngest daughter, paid for the first. Three years later, the Rev. Raymond Calkins funded additional work in memory of his wife's family, the Lathrops, giving the chapel its name. Among those renovations were a stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
; however it was replaced with the current window, depicting the Resurrection of Jesus
Resurrection of Jesus
The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
as described at Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
28:1-6, six years later when Calkins objected to the rose window.
Notable burials
A number of locally prominent people, some who also achieved national renown, are buried in Machpelah:- Frank Eastman Jones, an artist whose grave marker has a carved palettePalettePalette may refer to:* Cosmetic palette, an archaeological form* Palette , a wooden board used for mixing colors for a painting* Palette , in computer graphics, a selection of colors...
. - Calvin Keeney, a village resident who invented the stringless bean.
- William Lampson, a local bank president who was the wealthiest man in the village when he died in 1897. His funeral vault is the only extant building of many he had constructed.
- Joshua Lathrop, Le Roy's first mayor (the position was called village president at the time).
- Jacob Le Roy's daughters Caroline and Julia, both of whom died in childhood, are the only members of the family buried in the village which bears their father's name. Their graves were among those moved into Machpelah later on.
- Pearle Bixby Wait, the actual inventor of Jell-O.
- Sarah Frances WhitingSarah Frances WhitingSarah Frances Whiting , American physicist and astronomer, was the instructor to several astronomers, including Annie Jump Cannon.-Biography:Whiting graduated from Ingham University in 1865....
, an Ingham alumna who became an astronomer and was one of the first to experiment with X-rayX-rayX-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
s. - Donald Woodward, Orator's youngest son. He was an aviation pioneer who built the local airport and owned the Friendship, the plane Amelia EarhartAmelia EarhartAmelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
flew across the Atlantic. - Ernest Woodward, Orator's oldest son. He sold Jell-O to Postum for $66 million, the beginning of General FoodsGeneral FoodsGeneral Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...
. With the money he supported local institutions, and even paid for some of the cost of the local post officeU.S. Post Office (Le Roy, New York)The U.S. Post Office in Le Roy, New York, serves the 14428 ZIP Code, covering the village and town of Le Roy. It is a brick and stone building on Main Street erected in the late 1930s....
. - Orator Francis Woodward, The owner of the Genesee Pure Food Company. He bought the Jell-O patent from Wait in 1899 and died a millionaire seven years later.
Almost 400 war veterans are buried at Machpelah. They represent all wars, starting with three from Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
moved to Machpelah later in the 19th century. In 2006 the Le Roy Historical Society began putting flags on their graves, a practice the local American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
post had discontinued in the 1980s due to lack of funds. It is part of a society project to update the records of the veterans buried at the cemetery.