Michael Hissam has been involved in a number major remodeling and construction projects throughout the city of Mentor over the years. When he was hired three years ago to be the new Mentor Municipal Cemetery sexton, Hissam’s boss had high hopes for the property at 6881 Hopkins Road.
“He told me he wanted it to look like Arlington (National Cemetery),” Hissam recalled.
Since then, his crew has done their best to continuously improve the 60-acre property – including planting more varieties of trees and flowers for additional color and leveling out crooked stones in the older sections.
And those aren’t the only improvements; last year, the City replaced an 80-year old maintenance building with a new office and maintenance facility. This year, plans are being developed to create a centralized veterans’ memorial and garden.
Mentor’s cemetery was originally located at the intersection of Mentor Avenue and Center Street on property deeded to the schools. The current location came to be in 1854 with a commitment to upkeep.
When many of the early residents returned to visit their former homes in New England, they noticed the churchyard burial plots were neglected and overgrown with briers. To avoid a similar situation in Mentor, they set out to create a cemetery that would be “kept up,” according to longtime resident Jeannette Munson in a 1954 interview with the Painesville Telegraph.
The cemetery is the final resting place for a number of prominent Mentorites whose names are familiar, including the Reynolds, Munsons, Sawyers, Parkers, and of course, the Garfields.
Although President James A. Garfield and first lady Lucretia are buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, a number of their family members are in Mentor Cemetery Section 15.
In Section 14 lies Deputy Marshal Lawrence R. Yaxley, who was hired in 1926 as Mentor Village’s first-full time law enforcement officer. Yaxley’s career was soon over at the age of 21 when he died after his weapon accidentally discharged while attempting to cover an open manhole on Mentor Avenue. Yaxley’s name is listed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. and will be placed on the city’s memorial to fallen police officers and firefighters set to be unveiled this summer.
Section 14 is also home to Melvin E. Wyant, Sr., a commercial grower with a worldwide following as “The Rose Specialist.” In 1925, Wyant bought 10 acres on Johnnycake Ridge after hearing Mentor was an ideal climate for growing roses. He later would name a hybrid tea rose after the city.
The Sawyer family is buried in Section 4. Joseph Sawyer established the first grist mill in Mentor in 1810 using waterpower from Marsh Creek. The Sawyers became nurserymen and once owned property along Mentor Avenue. Daniel’s home, built in 1843, was known as the Sawyer house and was occupied by multiple businesses over the years once serving as headquarters for Wayside Gardens.
Section 2 is home to Col. Warren Corning, who bought a square mile of real estate from Center Street west along Mentor Avenue in 1810. He donated land for the first school and first church in the city. When he retired, he and his wife, Elizabeth, moved in with their son, Nathan, to what is now known as the Corning-White House. Nathan Corning became the first mayor of Mentor Village in 1855.
Warren Corning’s youngest daughter, Harriet, would go on to sell some of the property she inherited from her late husband, James Dickey, to Congressman James A. Garfield in 1876. The Dickey Farm – originally built as a two-room cabin – would later become known as Lawnfield during Garfield’s successful 1800 presidential campaign.
Today, the Mentor Cemetery contains nearly 800 graves in each of its 37 sections, with about 39 of its 60-acres in use.
Hissam said that people like the fact that Mentor, unlike some cemeteries, doesn’t have restrictions on stone size or carvings as long as it fits on the plot and is not disrespectful.
“We have stones with cats, boats – even one in the shape of a Model T Ford, said Hissam. “One that’s kind of interesting is in the older section,” he said, “They have the family monument in the middle with the names on it. They usually put little stones like `Father’ and `Mother.’ But the matriarch just says, ‘This is me.’ It’s interesting to see how personalities are reflected in memorial.”
Learn more at cityofmentor.com or contact the Cemetery Clerk at 440-974-5733.
Article written by Tracy Read and originally published in the 2021 edition of Mentor City Magazine.