Eighth President of the United States.
Born December 5, 1782;
Died July 24, 1862.
Beneath this inscription is another one which reads: "Hannah Van Buren,
his wife; born March 3, 1783; died at Albany, New York, February 3, 1819."
William Henry Harrison's grave is marked by no monument and bears no
inscription. It is situated fifteen miles west of Cincinnati at North
Bend. A brick vault on the summit of a small hill holds the remains of
Harrison and his wife and children. He died one month after his
inauguration and received funeral honors all over the country, but his
grave is now singularly neglected and apparently forgotten.
John Tyler, the tenth President, rests in an obscurity similar to that of
his immediate predecessor, Harrison. At Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond,
Virginia, ten yards from the unique monument which marks the grave of
President Monroe, are interred Tyler's remains. No monument--save a small
magnolia-tree--no inscription, no tablet; nothing but weeds and shrubs and
loneliness mark the last resting-place of the President whose sad fate it
was to be the nation's executive at a time when his political and
temperamental tendencies were the least of all adjustable to the great
office he held.
James K. Polk's remains repose at Nashville, Tennessee, almost within
sight of The Hermitage, the last resting-place of President Jackson. A
limestone monument marks the grave, designed by William Strickland, the
architect of the Capitol. It is in Grecian Doric style (a roof supported
by columns), about twelve feet square and the same height. An inscription
on the architrave of the eastern front reads:
JAMES KNOX POLK,
Eleventh President of the United States.
Born November 2, 1795;
Died June 15, 1849.
Further inscriptions inform the reader that "the mortal remains of James
K. Polk are resting in the vault beneath." They eulogize his virtues and
detail his public services at great length.
Zachary Taylor is buried in the old burial-ground on the ancestral farm of
the Taylors, five miles from Louisville, Kentucky. The plot is about one
hundred yards from the mansion and contains the bodies of three
generations of the family.
A few years after Taylor's death Congress made an appropriation for the
purpose of constructing a vault, and within a few years the State of
Kentucky appropriated five thousand dollars to erect a monument. The
sarcophagi containing the bodies of the President and his wife are
separated by a marble bust of Taylor.
The monument is a gray granite shaft, surmounted by a colossal Italian
marble statue, representing General Taylor in full military dress, with
sword and cap in hand. The monument is inscribed with the general's name,
dates of birth and death on one side, and on the opposite side are the
United States coat-of-arms and implements of war in bas-relief. On the
other two sides are the names of the great battles of the Mexican War.
Millard Fillmore, the thirteenth President, was the second Vice-President
to be called to the higher office. His grave is at Forest Lawn Cemetery,
three miles from Buffalo, New York. The monument is of highly polished
Scotch granite, twenty-two feet high. On the base, in raised letters, is
the word "Fillmore," and farther up is the inscription which proclaims his
name and the dates of birth and death.
Franklin Pierce is buried in the Minot Lot, Old Cemetery, Concord, New
Hampshire. The monument over his grave is of elaborately carved Italian
marble. The base is of granite, and on the plinth in raised letters is the
word "Pierce." A panel is inscribed:
FRANCIS PIERCE.
Born November 23, 1804;
Died October 8, 1869.
Presumably Francis is the name under which he was baptized. Near the
President's grave is that of Mrs. Pierce--a plain white marble spire with
an upward pointing hand, marking the spot.
James Buchanan, the fifteenth President, reposes in Woodward Hill
Cemetery, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Buchanan plot is thirty feet by
twelve, and is surrounded by an iron fence interwoven with rose-bushes,
and roses are profusely dotted all over the well-kept lawn. The
President's remains are in a vault covered with slabs of rock in the
center of the plot. On these is a base of granite which is surmounted by a
block of Italian marble, six feet four inches long, by two feet ten inches
wide, and three feet six inches high. It is worked with a molded cap and
base, and bears the inscription:
Here Rest the Remains of James
Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the
United States, Born in Franklin
County, Pa., April 23, 1791, Died at
Wheatland, June 1, 1868.
Abraham Lincoln's tomb is in the National Lincoln monument, Oak Ridge
Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois. The base on which the column stands is
seventy-two feet six inches square, with projections at the front and rear
for the catacomb and memorial hall, making a total length of one hundred
and nineteen feet six inches. The height of the base is fifteen feet, and
round the top of it runs a strong railing.
The obelisk stands on a beautiful pedestal with four bronze statues at the
corners, and is eighty-two feet six inches high from the base. In front of
this, on a separate pedestal, is a statue of Lincoln. In his right hand he
is holding an open scroll representing the Proclamation of Emancipation.
The top of the base and the platform round the pedestal are reached by two
flights of stairs, each of which has twenty-four steps. The tomb is a
vault in the catacomb in the front projection of the base. Under the
statue of the President is the single word: