Rapids Cemetery: A National Landmark Sinking in Time

Rapids Cemetery: A National Landmark Sinking in Time

Rapids Cemetery has a sparse and paleolithic aura to it. [Photos provided by George Payne]

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see A World Heritage Site in our Backyard: preserving and profiting from the history, culture, and ecology of the Lower Falls Gorge

You’ve heard from George Payne on numerous occasions, most extensively of the work of the Lower Falls Foundation to create a World Heritage Site in the Lower Falls Park and Gorge. A World Heritage Site in our Backyard: preserving and profiting from the history, culture, and ecology of the Lower Falls Gorge

old grave

Mt. Hope Cemetery. Most recent grave in the Spanish-American War site, 1984. Catherine S. Frenchman, aged 101 from On Spanish-American War monuments in Rochester. And remembering the Buffalo Soldiers on Veteran’s Day

Today George turns our attention to a far less recognized historical site, the Rapids Cemetery on Congress Avenue — one also deserving of preservation and awareness.

After last weekend’s “Civil War Days” at the Tinker Nature Park’s Homestead and Farmhouse Museum, George’s evocative photographs and impressions especially resonate.  Bitten by the Civil War bug at the Tinker Homestead Encampment

And new images of Spanish-American War graves adds to the collection. On Spanish-American War monuments in Rochester. And remembering the Buffalo Soldiers on Veteran’s Day

Rapids Cemetery: A National Landmark Sinking in Time

Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let’s choose executors and talk of wills”
William Shakespeare, Richard II

corporal

Here lies the gravestone of a corporal in the NY regiment. As an infantryman in the Civil War, I can not begin to fathom the carnage that this young man must have experienced in battle. Even if this marble rock goes out of sight, his suffering will be known forevermore. It was too vast and too immense to be forgotten by the callous indifference of time. see Bitten by the Civil War bug at the Tinker Homestead Encampment

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Congress Ave in the historic 19th Ward. According to an article from the Democrat and Chronicle, approximately 150 people are buried at the city cemetery.

Rapids Cemetery is one of the oldest and most mysterious cemeteries in Monroe County. Most people in Rochester have no idea that it even exists. For geographical context, it is about a 20 minute walk from my home on Exchange Street in the PLEX neighborhood by Corn Hill. I go down Magnolia, take a left on Seward, another left on Genesee, and then a right on Congress Ave. Just a few hundred yards down Congress and the landmark appears on a plateau like a vanquished field of sparsely dotted paleolithic structures. This is no ordinary cemetery. It houses the remains of pioneers, Revolutionary War veterans, Civil War infantryman, officers and nurses, and other residents of the lost community of Castle Town, which was a thriving and notorious landing during that time.untitled 3

 see “Civil, Spanish American War vets rest in city cemetery” (D & C)

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see Bitten by the Civil War bug at the Tinker Homestead Encampment

wingate

At the age of 78, Mr. Wingate may have managed to survive the worst conflict in American history without fighting himself. I wonder how many loved ones he lost in that most dreadful affair. I also wonder if he thought it was worth it in the end. see Bitten by the Civil War bug at the Tinker Homestead Encampment

As far as we know (see MCNY geneaology.com), ,the cemetery was founded between 1810 and 1812. We also know that it was bought and maintained by the influential Wadsworth family which owned property from Geneseo to Rochester. Apparently the Wadsworths put aside one and a quarter acre for a burial place of area residents. Rapids Cemetery actually resided in Gates until 1902 when the area was finally annexed into the City of Rochester. The street leading to the cemetery was first called Cemetery Road. Then between 1880 and 1890 the name was converted to Chester Street. In 1899, Chester Street became Congress Avenue.

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Like Duncan, how much longer before we are swallowed up by the earth? Since my visit to the cemetery I have learned that this land has been orphaned by the city and the county. (Apparently it is mowed only three times a year.) How much longer do we have before our legacy is orphaned like the souls interned at Rapids Cemetery? How much longer do we have before someone stops mowing our grass? 100 years? 500 years? 1000 years? 5,000? 10,000? Soon we will all be devoured by the land we once clung to.

Apparently much is being done to preserve this national landmark. According to City of Rochester historian Christine Ridarsky:

nurse

This grave caught my attention because of the bright red and white carnations. Her name is Pamela Harrison. According to her tombstone, she served in the Nurse Corps during the Civil War. What a woman she must have been! Just think about how many lives she saved. If there is not a Pamela Harrison Society out there already, we need to get moving on that. I have a hunch that she was more noteworthy than this modest stone leads on. see Bitten by the Civil War bug at the Tinker Homestead Encampment

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This soldier was interesting to me because he volunteered to fight in the Spanish American War. 89 years is an incredible age for a veteran of that era. How many times did he escape death’s grasp? What motivated him to pick up a weapon and fight the Spanish? see  On Spanish-American War monuments in Rochester. And remembering the Buffalo Soldiers on Veteran’s Day

The City of Rochester owns and maintains this cemetery. It is currently under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department and is mowed and maintained regularly. Just last week, the department cleared brush along the edge of the cemetery, and more such work is planned over the next few weeks. The City is in the midst of a restoration project that includes members of several veterans organizations and the 19th Ward Community Association. We a consulting with a gravestone restoration expert and expect to restore and re-set many of the remaining headstones in the next two months. The site will be landscaped and marked with a historic marker. I and several community volunteers are researching the people buried here, and we will be looking for other volunteers to help with our recovery and restoration efforts.

SEE

Bitten by the Civil War bug at the Tinker Homestead Encampment

On Spanish-American War monuments in Rochester. And remembering the Buffalo Soldiers on Veteran’s Day

AND ON THE MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY

“Alone in the Dawn” Restorationist James Caffrey joins the conversation with more on Adelaide Crapsey

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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