Universal Fly on the Wall

Lately, I’ve realized there are a lot of interesting things to learn about history in graveyards. I got the idea when I watched a youtube video from a guy who had visited every presidents’ grave and showed a montage of pictures in order from the presidencies with the Hans Zimmer Inception music in the background. I found it very intriguing how he presented the pictures in order of the presidents as I enjoy looking at the continuity and progression over time. I also came to realize that he must have really had to venture and explore remote places. I wondered why highly influential people were buried in such desolated locations and it dawned on me that it was a source of their identity that is hard to pick up in a history book. For example, I saw that Lyndon B. Johnson was buried in a small town named Stonewall Texas. Another example was John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams who were both buried in Quincy Massachusetts, a mystique province within the state. These people chose to be buried in these locations because they grew up there, maybe it was a meaningful place to them, or it was because their loved ones resided there. Standing in a graveyard was very calming to me and helped me get a sense of what these people were like when they were alive. 

Over the last summer, I was on a trip visiting colleges in the East Coast and I took advantage of this opportunity to visit the graves of people I knew had their final resting place in the places I was visiting. My first grave was Washington’s when I visited Mount Vernon and got to see his entire home, plantation, and the graves of him and his wife Martha Washington. George Washington is a very inspirational person who I’ve watched in many movies, books, and documentaries. I always knew that Mount Vernon was a famous town for this reason but actually being there and seeing his home was amazing to me. I had no idea how big it was reaching 7,600 acres and it was incredible seeing how clever George Washington was in both farming and business. He often looked at sustainable crops and realized that tobacco depleted the soil faster than other crops and he took the long term approach even though the British were paying for Tobacco. It’s intriguing how his disciplined personality ultimately led to his death at a rather younger age of only 67. On a cold, rainy December night he was working on his usual farm activities and came home in wet and cold clothes. Because there were guests waiting for him for dinner he refused to take a hot shower until later. However, this decision left him very sick and it only got worse when his old fashioned doctors decided to drain his blood. After all the crazy events he had been through in his life, he died sick because of his minute stubbornness. That being said, it can’t be denied that he left behind a huge legacy that has garnered respect from many.

While the legacy of George Washington is widely praised by people around the world, the same can’t be said about all the graves I went out to see. While I was visiting Baltimore, Maryland I realized that Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, resided in the heart of Baltimore at Green Mount Cemetery. What I was not expecting was that the graveyard was beside a very run down neighborhood. My dad said it reminded him of scenes from the HBO TV show, The Wire. The story gets weirder as my dad and I saw that the whole graveyard was bordered by 20 feet brick walls and barbed wire. My dad assumed that we weren’t allowed to enter, however, to our surprise all we had to do was sign in where a polite woman let us in. The graveyard was huge and there were also many other famous people buried there such as Civil War Colonels, CIA Director Allen Dulles, and Napoleon’s Sister-In-Law. We hunted for Booth’s grave for about 30 minutes and got lost several times in the unmarked lanes following a rudimentary map that we were handed at the entrance. Finally, we came across a large obelisk with the name Booth on it. It took us a minute to realize this was the family plot and John Wilkes’ grave was a tiny stone stump in the corner. What was more fascinating was that people put Lincoln pennies on top believing that this would keep his ghost from rising. Coincidentally we found a few dollars crumpled up on the ground as we were leaving and kept it for good luck. 

While on the topic of Abraham Lincoln, the most recent grave I visited was Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois while on a 5 hour drive. I found it interesting how the city itself was more remote and understated than expected as it is both the capitol of Illinois and the burial ground for one of the most famous and respected presidents in American history. That being said, I really enjoyed visiting this tomb, similarly to Booth, My dad and I were worried we couldn’t get in. Once we found the entrance however, we walked across a whole underground passageway that almost felt like a maze. The path had many quotes, statues, and Lincoln’s tomb itself. I had to rush to the airport though so I didn’t get to stay for very long but it was still a very enjoyable experience. 

Arlington National Cemetery holds a lot of famous prominent people in American history. You need to have a lot of prestige and military clout to be buried there. However, we were on a tight schedule so we had to move past it very quickly. My dad and I got to see John F Kennedy’s grave with the famous eternal flame. We barely got to see President William Howard Taft’s grave as we were on a moving bus so my photos were blurry. But we did get to see The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier which I had never heard of before so it was a very captivating experience. 

In Philadelphia I visited Benjamin Franklin’s grave at Christ Church Burial Ground next to the Liberty Bell. It was underwhelming as the graveyard was not as grand as the other ones I had visited. We also had to pay a $5 entrance fee and for a map to the cemetery but we didn’t even need it as it was rather easy locating the grave. To me, the weird yet fun part about visiting these graves is how tricky they are to find and the surroundings around it. The Benjamin Frankin cemetery wasn’t as big or confusing as some of the others and that is one of the coolest things is getting lost for a little while until you find the grave you’re looking for. Sometimes you stumble across graves of other interesting people. That didn’t happen in this graveyard.

In Boston, I visited Granary Burying Ground, the final resting place of numerous Founding Fathers. The more prominent ones that I was interested in were Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. It also contained several of Benjamin Franklin’s family and one really interesting one for the victims of the Boston Massacre. While this graveyard was also very small just like the graveyard I saw in Philadelphia, I found it interesting how all these people were buried in such close proximity to each other and I had to locate each individual person. We paid a volunteer a few dollars for a map and legend to the graveyard–we gave $2 in this case. Funny it felt a little nicer when it was a choice to donate rather than a mandatory entrance fee. We gladly paid for this person who took the time to do a nice write up of all the history of the the graveyard. We also spent a little time sitting next to Benjamin Franklin’s family site talking about our trip. It was a nice sunny day and the breeze was blowing and rustling up leaves.

Finally, the most interesting graveyard I got to see was in New York City. First I visited Trinity Church which was the final resting place of a few notable figures such as Alexander Hamilton, Elizabeth Schuyer (Hamilton’s Wife), Robert Fulton, John Watts, and James Lawerence (Naval hero during the War of 1812). It was very neat how the graveyard was gated and in a shadowed setting with sky scraping buildings around it. It’s a small, shadowed, mossy, graveyard in the center of Wall Street which I found to be very intriguing. The graves themselves were also super thin. After that we went uptown to see Ulysses S. Grant’s tomb. This place had a lot of space and not a lot of people were there. Interestingly, in 1897 in the shadow of Grant’s Tomb, a Chinese statesman named Li Hung Chang planted a 7 foot ginkgo biloba tree from the Chinese Government out of respect for Grant which I was told by a friend who was a Chinese immigrant. Even though it’s not officially a graveyard we also walked by Washington Square Park where 20,000 bodies have been buried dating as far back as 1799. This eerie fact has led many to believe that the park is haunted by the ghosts of those who have been improperly buried there. 

Visiting all the graves of all these famous people was very enjoyable to me. Having the opportunity to visit all these interesting populated and even remote cities really expanded my views on the country. People get to learn far more about the life of these people, their upbringing, and who they were as a person. Taking the time to visit the graveyards of these famous people gave me a different perspective on the city and the history of the individuals.