When I started this series, I honestly thought I’d be finished in (at most) three parts. As you can see, I was off on that estimation a bit. I do promise that today is indeed the end.

The McDonald family sarcophagus is a bit unusual because a beautiful woman in mourning is leaning over it. I think I took pictures of her at every angle I could. She fascinated me.

John McDonald and his wife, Annie, were society leaders in both Lincoln and New York.

A native of Illinois, John McDonald was a banker, financier and real estate investor. He and his wife, Annie, spent a lot of time at their spectacular summer “cottage” at Monmouth Beach, N.J. called “Blow by the Sea.” The McDonalds appeared often in the New York Times, which reported on their summer events and guests.

John McDonald made his fortune in banking and real estate.

Soon after her husband died, Annie built a mansion at South 22nd and Washington Streets in Lincoln, which she also called “The Blow.” If you’re curious (as I was) as to why the McDonalds liked this word, it’s thought to be synonymous with the word “respite.” The Lincoln house (which is long since gone) was ornamented with marble statuary. Maybe the person who created those figures sculpted the one on their monument.

Here’s another view of the mourning lady.

I did find a curious story about Annie’s friendship with William Frederick Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill Cody. The famous Wild West showman is said to have attended many of Annie’s parties, which were described as “unusual.”

Not far from the McDonald sarcophagus (in Section 13) is the bust of Albinus Nance, Nebraska’s fifth Governor. A native of Illinois, Nance was born in 1848 and enlisted in the Union Army when he was only 16. Elected to the Nebraska House of Representatives in 1877, Nance became Speaker of the House at the age 29.

Just a year later,  Nance was elected Governor of Nebraska and reelected in 1880. Because of his young age, he is sometimes called the “Boy Governor” of Nebraska. His wife, Sarah White Nance, was only 24 when she became the state’s First Lady. After “retiring” at the age of 35, Nance returned to practicing law and was president of banks in Osceola and Stromsburg, Neb. Nance County was named after him.

The Nance bust was sculpted by noted artist Gilbert Riswold, who studied with a more famous sculptor, Lorado Taft.

An interesting bit of trivia is that Nance’s bust was signed by Gilbert Riswold, who studied in Chicago with none other than Lorado Taft (best known for his sculpture “Eternal Silence” in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery that I featured last year).

A much smaller but no less impactful monument is at the grave of little Irmgard Christine Winter, who died from diphtheria before she reached the age of 5.

Christine Winter did not make it to her fifth birthday due to diphtheria.

“Our Morning Glory”

Christine’s parents, Phillip and Alta Winter, paid homage to their little girl (“Our Morning Glory”) with the largest photographic portrait in Wyuka. Alta, Pauline, Philip and Wilhemine Winter are also interred in the family plot.

A visually unique modern grave marker is situated in Section 1. A beloved second-grade teacher and wife of a Lincoln Public Schools board member, Barbara Evans died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 54 in 2000. The family chose to commemorate her life with a round granite table and four granite stools, a picnic table which all are invited to share.

Beloved teacher Barbara Evans’ family had this table and stools created so friends visiting her grave could sit and reflect.

The F. Gottlieb Beuthner iron cross is easily noticed because it is the only one of its kind at Wyuka. However, they’re fairly common in Midwestern cemeteries where many German immigrants are buried.

I’ve never seen a marker like this in Georgia but they are fairly common in the Midwest.

I like to end my cemetery series posts on an upbeat note but in the case of Wyuka, I cannot.

Wyuka’s guidebook is quite exhaustive about those buried there. But the most infamous person is not mentioned at all. I think it’s an unspoken wish to not give someone who caused so much pain any more attention than he already gets.

Charles Raymond “Charlie” Starkweather’s name sends chills down the spine of many a Nebraskan and for good reason. Along with his 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, Starkweather killed 11 people in Nebraska and Wyoming. All but one were killed between January 21 and January 29, 1958.

Charles “Charlie” Starkweather, with his teenage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate in tow, murdered 11 people in two states.

Starkweather grew up in Lincoln, the son of Guy and Helen Starkweather. After dropping out of Lincoln High School, Starkweather bounced from job to job before meeting Caril Ann Fugate. She was not with him when he committed his first murder, shooting Lincoln service station attendant Robert Colvert on Nov. 30, 1957.

The other murders began on January 21, 1958 when Starkweather went to see Caril Ann at her home (she was not there) and her parents wouldn’t let him in. He shot them both and soon after killed Caril Ann’s two-year-old step-sister, Betty Jean. When Caril Ann got home, she reportedly helped him hide the bodies. After a few days, they left home.

Over the next several days, the pair would kill Starkweather family friend August Meyer; young couple Robert Jensen and Carole King; industrialist C. Lauer Ward, his wife, Clara, and their maid, Lilyan Fencl; and traveling salesman Merle Collison.

Fugate and Starkweather were finally arrested after a high-speed car chase with the police. Fugate swore that Starkweather held her hostage by threatening to kill her family, claiming she didn’t know they were already dead. The presiding judge at her trial (nor the jury) didn’t buy her story.

Caril Ann Fugate with Chalres Starkweather in the days before the killing spree. She has always insisted she had no part in the murders and that he had kidnapped her.

Starkweather was found guilty and received the death penalty for the murder of Robert Jensen, the only murder for which he was tried. He was executed in the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln on June 25, 1959.

An anonymous donor paid for Starkweather’s first marker in 1970, which was vandalized. Wyuka’s president, Michael Williams, told me that actor Martin Sheen (who portrayed Starkweather in the 1973 film Badlands) purchased a new marker for Starkweather. That’s the one pictured below.

Fugate received a life sentence on November 21, 1958. She was paroled in June 1976 after serving 17 years and settled in Lansing, Mich., working as a janitor at a local hospital. She married Frederick Clair in 2007 and, apart from a radio interview in 1996, has refused to speak of the murder spree.

After her marriage, Fugate changed her name to Caril Ann Clair and was living in Stryker, Ohio when she was seriously injured in a car crash on August 5, 2013. Her husband was killed in the crash.

Five of Starkweather’s victims are buried at Wyuka. Fugate’s step-father, Marion Bartlett, her mother, Velda Bartlett, and her step-sister, Betty Jean Bartlett, are buried only about a hundred feet from Starkweather. I was unaware of this when we were at Wyuka so I didn’t get pictures of their graves.

I did locate the graves of the two other victims, C. Lauer Ward and his wife, Clara. The killers broke into their home and found Clara, along with the family maid, Lilyan Fencl. They were stabbed multiple times. When Mr. Ward came home, he was attacked and killed as well. Their son, Mikey, was not at home at the time.

C. Lauer Ward was a wealthy businessman who enjoyed traveling with his wife and son.

Clara Ward was active in the Junior League and enjoyed playing the piano.

Lilyan Fencl is buried in Sunrise Cemetery in Wahoo, Neb., which I visited later that day on our way back to Omaha. I will feature her story when I write about that cemetery next week.

As we prepared to leave the cemetery, I realized how fast the time had flown. But Wyuka is the kind of place you can spend hours in rambling from grave to grave, there are so many that catch the eye.

At the same time, we had little time but lots more to see. So we got in the car to find a place to eat a very late lunch before heading to Wahoo.

My fellow cemetery hopper and best friend, Christi.

In Part II last week, I highlighted several of Wyuka’s outstanding memorials for 9/11, the Holocaust and Nebraska firefighters. Today, I’m going to stick with gravestones (and an airplane propeller, but more about that later).

Over in Section 5, this marker stood out.

Jane “Jennie” Bell added “Ringer” to her name when she married her husband, Frank Ringer. He died in 1920, leaving her a fairly young widow. She died in California in 1975.

Jane “Jennie” Bell married Frank Ringer, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and a prominent Lincoln businessman. After Frank died in 1920, she went back to school and got her Doctor of Chiropractic and Doctor of Chiropractic Philosophy degrees. Dr. Bell-Ringer practiced for several years before passing away in California.

The story goes that Jennie won a baby contest in the late 1870s. At her wedding, she learned something surprising from her new brother-in-law, John Dean Ringer. He teased her that the only fault he had to find with her is that she had taken first prize away from him at that baby contest, making him come in second.

In Section 17, I found the small marker for Helen Mary Sargent. Born in Massachusetts, she got her degree at the University of Nebraska and entered Army service as a Red Cross nurse September 4, 1918. She was assigned to Fort Slocum, N.Y., where she died of illness Oct. 23, 1918 (most likely the Spanish flu that was raging there at the time).

In 1928, the Lincoln Women’s Club dedicated Memorial Drive in Antelope Park to fallen World War I troops with a monument naming all the “Lancaster County Boys Who Gave Their Lives.” Two female nurses, including Helen Sargent, were listed among the “boys.”

Another marker in Section 17 is for a young man who also lost his life during World War I. His grave is one of the handful at Wyuka that features a portrait on a porcelain plaque.

A Russian immigrant, John Bohl had worked as a machinist before enlisting in the U.S. Army.

A native of Russia, Bohl enlisted in the Army and was placed with the 58th Infantry, Company H. Only 25, he was wounded in action in France and died post-Armistice on Christmas Eve 1918.

Up to this point, everything we’d seen at Wyuka had been fairly traditional in terms of style and materials. Corel Sherwood’s monument changed all that.

Sherwood’s unique monument is made from a wooden airplane propeller with a copper-covered tip. His name and dates are hammered into the copper and carved onto the shaft of the wooden blade.

Sherwood befriended the legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh when they attended Lincoln Flight School together. Lindbergh often helped him work on building his airplane. They were such good friends that Sherwood loaned Lindbergh enough money to leave Lincoln when he was short of funds.

In 1925, Sherwood was a mechanic for Lincoln Aircraft Corporation, one of two airplane manufacturers in the area during the 1920s. One day while giving brief plane rides, Sherwood crashed in February 1925 near Ellis, Neb., killing his 50-year-old passenger, Dan Camp. Sherwood died the next day.

A podium features a letter Corel Sherwood received from friend and fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh, along with Sherwood’s portrait.

Mounted on a podium next to Sherwood’s unique marker is a copy of the letter Lindbergh wrote to him when he re-payed his loan.

Then we caught a glimpse of an eye-catching bronze not far away from Sherwood’s grave.

The grave of Lois “Toots” Pegram is marked with a beautiful bronze of a young woman holding a peacock.

Unfortunately, I don’t know who created the bronze but I did find Lois “Toots” Pegram’s obituary. Twice widowed, Lois was a pioneer business woman in Lincoln, owning multiple businesses at one time while being active in local politics. She was a restaurateur, antique dealer and avid antique doll collector, and owner and operator of rental and farm properties. I wish I could have met her because she sounds like she was a real pistol.

I think there’s a fresh, elegant quality that transcends time about this statue. I took photos of it from several angles.

Around this time, we were making our way into the center of the cemetery. It isn’t often I find a port-a-john ensconced in a PVC pipe arbor in a cemetery. I wish more cemeteries provided something like this, because both Christi and I were happy we didn’t have to drive back to the office to use the restroom there.

It may not be much, but this portable toilet was a welcome sight after a few hours of cemetery hopping.

After our pit stop, we got back to business. Circled on the map by me was the Kimball monument.

The Kimball family was well known in Lincoln for their successful monument business.

The Kimball Brosthers were leading monument makers in Lincoln from the 1880s through the 1930s. William R. and Frank B. Kimball established the business in Lincoln in 1887, having come from Albia, Iowa.

Here’s a closeup.

By 1890, the Kimballs had installed more than 20 monuments the year before, averaging $1,500 each. Their own family plot features the pink granite seen in many of their major monuments.

Frank Kimball’s monument for the Thompson family is similar to the one made for his own family, although the Thompson one has a more ornate granite setting.

Frank Kimball was a respected and talented sculptor in the monument business.

Here’s a closer look.

After Jeanee died and his term as U.S. ambassador was up, Thompson returned to Lincoln for a few years before moving to California, where he spent the rest of his life.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a fascination with hands and feet on sculptures. Frank Kimball definitely knew what he was doing.

Here’s you one more example of Frank Kimball’s work. The monument for Swedish immigrants Olof (as the guide book spells it) and Clara Palm is not a bronze but it’s become one of my favorite monuments at Wyuka.

Olof and Clara Palm were Swedish immigrants who established an insurance agency in Lincoln, with Olof as the president and Clara as the vice-president. He helped found the North Star Relief Society, a Swedish fraternal group. Clara died in 1931 at 70, and Olof was 75 when he died eight years later.

Once again, you can see Frank Kimball’s skill. The Palms commissioned him to do this monument.

Try as I could, I cannot finish my series on Wyuka with three parts. There’s simply too much beauty and history here that I have to keep going.

Next week, I’ll finish up with Part IV. I’ll be featuring more monuments along with the tragic story of a spree killer who is buried only a few hundred feet from some of his victims.

Last week, I began my tour of Lincoln, Nebraska’s Wyuka Cemetery. This week, we’ll visit several of Wyuka’s memorials devoted to various events/groups. I’ve never been to a cemetery that has so many, but they are all thoughtfully and tastefully done.

Before I do that, I wanted to highlight two things. I’ve always admired Nebraskans for their strength of character and sensible nature. However, when I found out about Wyuka Cemetery’s cast iron fence, my opinion of them only rose higher.

The Southern border of Wyuka is lined by a long fence that edges O Street. I thought nothing of it when I was photographing in that area. The guide book, however, shares its impressive past.

John Seaton’s firm created this cast iron fence. He was well known for his foundry in Atchison, Kansas, which employed an estimated 2,000 men at one time.

The fence was originally installed in 1891 around the first campus of the University of Nebraska, made up of 10 acres bounded by R, T, North 10th and North 12th Streets. The fence’s narrow gateways hampered efforts of Lincoln firefighters to combat fires on campus, including one that severely damaged the State Museum building in 1912.

This problem inspired prominent Nebraska businessman Charles Morrill to make donations that resulted in a new natural history museum, Morrill Hall. Built in 1925, it still stands today and houses a wonderful collection of fossils and other archaeological treasures. That same year, the campus fence was removed and reinstalled at Wyuka, with a wide front entrance. I love the fact that they re-purposed this fence and didn’t toss it into a landfill.

The other thing I wanted to highlight was the grave of Harrison Johnson, which is located beside the fence.

An escaped slave, Harrison Johnson served with distinction in the Civil War with the Nebraska First Infantry. His son, John Johnson, was a talented photographer who worked in Lincoln in the 1910s and early 1920s.

African-Americans were not enlisted in the Union Army until President Lincoln changed the nation’s policy with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Before that, the First Nebraska Regiment was officially all-white. An Arkansas native and slave, Johnson escaped and sought out Nebraska’s First Regiment. He was allowed to enlist as a private and served out the war with the regiment. At war’s end, Johnson settled in Lincoln, joined the Farragut Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and worked as a hotel cook and janitor.

Near the eastern border of the cemetery is the 9/11 Memorial, dedicated to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93. The two red-painted steel I-beams symbolize the World Trade Towers, but did not come from the buildings themselves.

Wyuka’s 9/11 Memorial is located close to the Nebraska Firefighters Memorial in Section 41.

The 9/11 Memorial includes President George W. Bush’s rallying cry:

“Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”

Across the way is the Nebraska Firefighters Memorial, one of the largest I have ever seen. Names of project donors are inscribed on plaques, benches and paving blocks leading up to and surrounding the statue.

Captain Roger Kruger was a Nebraska firefighter, EMS instructor and paramedic.

Captain Kruger was delivering Christmas turkeys to needy families when the truck in which he was a passenger slid off an icy road and hit another vehicle.

The memorial sculpture was decorated for fall so you can’t properly see the inscription on the front.

The centerpiece of the display is a large bronze figure of a kneeling firefighter, sculpted by S. Mariami in 2001 and dedicated in 2003.

A plaque featuring “A Firefighter’s Prayer” is on the side of the base of the sculpture.

The author of “A Firefighter’s Prayer” is unknown.

Close by in Section 42 are the Desert Shield/Desert Storm memorials.

These black granite monuments commemorate those who served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the U. S. military actions against Iraq in 1990 and 1991. The monuments were added in 1992.

The Purple Heart Monument was installed on Veterans Day 2003.

This red granite monument is inscribed with a replica of the Purple Heart, America’s traditional medal awarded to military personnel wounded in combat. Congress provided one of these monuments to each state in the Union and Wyuka was chosen as Nebraska’s location.

The Soldiers’ Circle is located on a large grassy section across from the Desert Storm/Desert Shield and Purple Heart Memorials. It was established in the early 1900s for veterans of America’s armed services who served after the Civil War. In a century’s time, 1,258 veterans were interred here before the area was filled.

Wyuka’s Soldiers’ Circle is dedicated to those who served in the military after the Civil War.

This memorial monument in the Soldiers’ Circle was dedicated in 2001.

All of these memorials are special in their own way. But I must admit that Wyuka’s Holocaust Memorial has to be one of the most creative and movingly designed that I have ever seen.

The Wall of Remembrance of Wyuka’s Holocaust Memorial is a brutal but honest photographic representation of this tragic era in history.

Nebraska’s only Holocaust memorial was dedicated at Wyuka Cemetery in 2006. Through text, photographs and a sculpture by Candian Morton Katz, it teaches about the systematic slaying of six million European Jews and over five million others by the Nazi regime while paying respect to those lives lost.

Morton Katz’s sculpture combines the symbolism of the triangle, which Jews and other targeted persons were required to wear, and a three dimensional Star of David, the emblem of Judaism.

Embedded in the gravel surrounding the sculpture are squares bearing the names of victims of the Holocaust and where they died. Visitors are invited to leave a stone on the base of the sculpture as an act of remembrance, which I did.

Plaques bearing the names of Holocaust victims are nestled amid the gravel that surrounds the sculpture.

Back over next to the Soldiers’ circle is the GAR Section. In 1892, the Nebraska legislature required Wyuka to create a section for the free burial of “G.A.R men,” members of the Grand Army of the Republic (the Union veterans’ organization). Eventually over 400 soldiers and sailors were buried in this section, and nearly 1,000 Civil War veterans were buried throughout the cemetery.

Wyuka’s GAR section was set aside for the burial of Union veterans who served in the Civil War.

On the edge of the GAR section is the impressive granite and bronze monument of John M. Thayer, who was elected governor of Nebraska in 1886 and 1888. The Massachusetts native, arriving in the 1850s, helped raise the First Nebraska Regiment when the Civil War broke out. He led the regiment in major engagements such as the Battle of Shiloh.

Born in Massachusetts, William Thayer served with distinction as leader of the First Nebraska Regiment during the Civil War, promoted from colonel to major general in the course of the conflict.

After the war, Thayer helped secure Nebraska’s admission to the Union in 1867 and was appointed as the first U. S. Senator from the new state. He also served as the appointed Governor of the Wyoming Territory from 1875 to 1879.

According to the guide book, Thayer’s second two-year term as governor of Nebraska was extended by a controversy surrounding the election of 1890, in which he did not run. On inauguration day, former Governor Thayer refused to turn over the office to Governor-elect James Boyd (born in Ireland) on the grounds that the latter was not legally qualified because he was not a citizen of the United States.

William Thayer stirred up controversy after his last term as Nebraska governor.

Governor James Boyd had to wait a year to officially begin his term due to questions raised by his predecessor (Thayer) regarding his citizenship. Photo source: Nebraska State Historical Society.

As a result, Thayer held the office an extra year until the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that Boyd had been “naturalized” as a citizen automatically when Nebraska was admitted to the Union. Boyd, for whom the state’s Boyd County is named, is buried at Omaha’s Forest Lawn Cemetery (which I visited later that week).

Next week, I’ll feature some of what I know you’re eager to see, Wyuka’s stunning statuary. I’ll also spotlight some of the more unique gravestones and stories. I hope you’ll join me as I continue the tour.

Lincoln, Nebraska began as a tiny village located on salt flats called Lancaster when it was first settled. Nebraska became a state in 1867 and Lincoln was chosen as its capital over Omaha (which had been the capital of the Nebraska Territory) with the reasoning that most of the state’s population lived south of the Platte River. The decision was a hotly contested one at the time. You can read more about it here.

Lincoln’s capitol building is the second tallest in the country (Louisiana has the tallest). Don’t miss the opportunity to tour it, the murals and art deco design are beautiful. Photo source: Frankcanfly at Panoramio.com.

I visited Lincoln some years ago with Christi but at that time, I wasn’t a hard core “hopper”. I didn’t know about Wyuka Cemetery. Located close to the University of Nebraska (and Cornhusker Stadium!), Wyuka covers 80 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds and rolling hills.

Wyuka Cemetery was established by an act of the Nebraska Legislature in 1869 to provide a ‘Lincoln State Cemetery” for the new state’s capital city. Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, established in 1831, was a model for Wyuka. Because the cemetery is owned by the city, it can’t be bought by a large conglomerate like Dignity. I found that comforting to know.

Wyuka is Lincoln’s city cemetery, established just two years after Nebraska became a state.

Wyuka got its name from the original Wyuka Cemetery in Nebraska City, established in 1855 (it’s still operating today). I found two different origins for the word Wyuka. One site said it’s from the Otoe Indian language, spelled as an English-speaker might hear the Native American phrases signifying “he lies down” or “place of reclining.” The cemetery’s web page says Wyuka is Lakota Indian for “to rest.”

We stopped at the office to purchase a copy of the invaluable guide book to Wyuka. This is no flimsy pamphlet but a comprehensive book with detailed bios about the famous (and some not so famous) people buried there.

I had the pleasure of meeting Wyuka’s president, Michael Williams. When I tell people I’m writing a blog post about their cemetery, I sometimes see raised eyebrows in response but not at Wyuka. Michael, a funeral director of 30 years, was happy to answer my questions and offer any help we needed.

Originally built in 1908-1909 and on the National Register of Historic Places along with the cemetery, Wyuka’s stables formerly housed the horses that transported caskets to the cemetery. Once automobiles took the place of the horses, the stables were used for storage.

Built in 1908-1909, Wyuka’s stables recently underwent a $1 million renovation.

A $1 million renovation to the stables was completed in October so they can hold events such as meetings, company retreats and wedding receptions. Since 2000, it’s also been the home of the Swan Theater and the Flatwater Shakespeare Company. When we were visiting, an open air production of Hamlet was scheduled for that evening.

The first stop on our tour was the Rudge Memorial Chapel, which was locked. Completed in 1928, the chapel is made of Indiana limestone in the Gothic Revival style. The cost of the chapel ($30,000) was donated by the family of Charles H. Rudge, who owned the Rudge & Guenzel Department Store in Lincoln before his death in 1921. Funerals and occasional weddings are held at the chapel, which seats about 75.

Postcard of Lincoln’s Rudge & Guenzel Department Store, which closed in 1942. Charles H. Rudge died in 1921. He injured his hand while working on one of his properties in Minnesota and it became infected.

Built in 1938, Rudge Memorial Chapel was designed by Lincoln architects Ellery Lothrop Davis and Walter F. Wilson.

I was happy to see that Wyuka had a handful of my favorite “white bronze” markers. These are actually made of zinc. This one, according to the guide book, was made by the Western White Bronze Company of Des Moines, Iowa.

At the time they were popular, you could select one from a catalog and have it shipped in pieces to you for easy construction. They are hollow inside, too. The Western White Bronze Company operated for 22 years, closing in 1908.

Samuel Merrill was born in England in 1805 and died in Pleasant Dale, Nebraska in 1884. Before that, the family had lived in Ohio and Canada. The three links of chain depicted on the monument symbolize the IOOF or International Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization.

Not far from Merrill’s monument is a very faded stone that I would have passed without stopping if not for the guide book. The grave of Hughina Morrison is apparently the oldest in Wyuka. She died at the age of 44, buried beside her husband.

Hughina Morrison was buried in Wyuka the year it opened in 1869. A carved hand on her gravestone points skyward toward a nearly illegible inscription that originally read “Gone Home.”

One thing we noticed throughout the cemetery were the water spigots so guests could water the flowers/plants placed on graves. All of them had the ominous sign “DO NOT DRINK” hung on them. If you’ve spent enough time in historic cemeteries, this is quite normal. The water may be okay for the flowers/shrubs but you don’t want to drink it. I saw similar signs on the faucets at Chicago’s Rose Hill Cemetery.

It’s okay for the flowers, not okay for the humans.

One monument not in the guidebook is that of Cyrus Carman, a native of Ohio who moved to Nebraska to work as a shoemaker. He died at 41, leaving a wife and two children. His marker bears the Woodman of the World seal, one that you’re bound to see often in Nebraska since WOW is based in Omaha.

While it’s not in the shape of a tree (many WOW markers are), Cyrus Carman’s grave stone is quite impressive.

The Latin motto of the Woodman of the World, “Dum Tacet Clamat” translates as “Though silent, he speaks.”

Another reason Carman’s marker is different from many WOW markers is that it lists the lodge he had membership in, Lincoln Forest Camp No. 6. Most WOW markers are for people who just had WOW insurance policies but Cyrus Carman was an early member of the Modern Woodman of the World, which was similar to the Masons and Elks. They held meetings, wore woodsmen costumes and even tossed axes in unison in parades.

The gentleman on this 1910 postcard wears the insignia of the Modern Woodman of the World, which had an axe, mallet, wedge, five stars, and branches of palm. This particular member probably belonged to a MWA camp in Montana.

Th large brown granite marker for Walter Dameron is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Walter, a fireman, was killed when two trains of the Burlington Railroad collided head on near Indianola, Neb. Killed in the wreck were 18 passengers and crew members, with more than 30 injured.

The logo of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is one I have seen on graves in Georgia cemeteries. Please forgive the fact you can see my reflection in the stone, I hate when I do that.

Some members of the Western League’s Omaha and Denver baseball teams were killed in the 1911 Indianola, Neb. train wreck. The dead included the Western League’s Denver team president James McGill.

Situated among the mausoleums of some of Lincoln’s prominent residents is Wyuka’s receiving tomb. Built in the Romanesque Revival style in 1886, it is the oldest building in the cemetery. Made of limestone and built into a hillside (similar to the Horatio May Chapel in Chicago’s Rose Hill Cemetery), the receiving tomb stored caskets when the ground was frozen during the winter and was too hard to dig into for burials.

Wyuka’s receiving tomb was designed by John H.W. Hawkins, a Cornell graduate. Hawkins designed several of Lincoln’s buildings during the five years he lived there.

The last stop for this post is the grave of Gordon MacRae, the actor/singer best known for his roles in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Carousel. A New Jersey native, MacRae got his big break when he appeared on Broadway in 1946 and was offered a contract with Warner Brothers.

Besides appearing in several movies, MacRae had his own radio show until 1954. He made several albums and appeared frequently on television. He battled alcoholism in the 1960s and overcame it in the 1970s, often counseling others struggling with addiction.

MacRae starred as Curly Maclain in both the Broadway production and movie of Rogers & Hammerstein’s musical, Oklahoma!.

MacRae’s second wife, Elizabeth, was a native of Davenport, Neb. The couple settled in Lincoln in 1980. MacRae said he felt at home in Lincoln because it reminded him of his hometown of East Orange, N.J. He died in 1986 of pneumonia as a result of complications from cancer of the mouth and jaw.

This post barely scratches the surface of my day at Wyuka. There’s so much more to see. Come back next week for Part II!