Woodlawn Cemetery - Lima Ohio

08/27/2026

This large slab of granite is a tribute to the family of Alfred C. Baxter, Jr., the nephew of Samuel A. Baxter of the mausoleum. His was apparently an unhappy existence. Some of it may have been in the genes - his father had committed su***de at the age of 32 on the death of his mother, and was buried at the Old Lima Cemetery. Alf started out in banking with the Baxter Bros., and went on to being clerk with his uncle and Calvin Brice's Lima Gas Light Co. In 1885, he married Ben Faurot's daughter Carrie, and they had six children; however, Carried died at the birth of the youngest. Faurot had erected a magnificent home called Oak Hall for the young couple on what later became the site of Faurot School. Alf married again in 1902. Two years later, twin daughters were born to the couple, but the mother died at their birth. By this time, Alf was back in banking, but dabbling in mining interests. For some reason he had not had his mother buried at her death, but placed in Woodlawn's Receiving Vault. His daughters were raised by hired help under the eye of an attorney. Alf died of acute alcoholism in a sanitarium in 1915 and his mother was buried along with him.

08/20/2026

The C**t family were farmers in Erie County, PA before coming to Lima where they were active in the gas and oil wells in this area and in Kansas. Brothers Burt H. C**t died in 1916, Mack P. C**t was buried here in 1948. A dignified memorial stone marks their family plot.

08/13/2026

Frank J. Banta brought his family to Lima from Troy in 1881. He started in fruit and groceries, but expanded to the manufacture of candy and gum. His candy factory was on the southeast corner of Central & Elm, although there was an earlier one on W. North Street which went up in flames in 1902. Their products included hard candies, creams, chocolates, and gums that had names like "Sweet Clover," "Banana," Blood Orange," Lima Fruit," Florida Fruit," Smacks," and Pepsin," among others. A lawsuit with the Beeman Company ensued over the gum manufacture, but Banta stuck with all sorts of candy and gum until going under in the Depression. In 1893, Mr. Banta had a house built in the Golden Block of W. Market Street, designed by local architect Frank Leech, which was later sold to John Van D**e of the Solar Refinery, and eventually became the property of the Allen County Museum and Historical Society, thanks to the generosity of then-owner James A. MacDonell. The house is now known as the MacDonell House, is furnished in Victorian style and open to the public for tours. Mr. Banta died in 1945. He was predeceased by his first wife, Mamie (John) Banta in 1900. His second wife, Cora (Sullivan), survived until 1952. Strangely, headstones mark the graves of both Mrs. Bantas, however, none graces the resting place of their husband who is buried between them.

08/06/2026

Built into a hillside is the mausoleum of Samuel P. Collins, in which he and many members of his family were buried from 1891 to the last burial in 1966. Samuel was a grocer and Allen County sheriff. His son, Perry C. Collins, was active in real estate. The Collins block at the northwest corner of Town Square was one of the early downtown banking and office locations. It has since been demolished.

07/31/2026

Frank Baker is remembered as the baker of Plezol bread (the bakery later became Nickles). His wife, however, was the one who was a national - even international - celebrity. Dorothy K. Beecher was born to a family of former abolitionists, suffragettes, and free thinkers. Her Grandmother Beecher took her to a Baha'i event when she was barely a teenager, and she became a believer. Eventually, after marrying Mr. Baker, she hosted local programs and became involved in the faith on a national and international level. She was made one of the faith's nine "Hands of the Cause of God" in the world. She was on a Baha'i trip in 1954 when her plane exploded over the Mediterranean. Her remains were never recovered. Her husband Frank continued her evangelistic work, though not on as high a level, and died in 1963. Her mother, Dr. Luelia K. (Gorham) Beecher (an obstetrician) outlasted both, dying in 1966. The family's memorial bench honors them with a saying of the Baha'u'llah: "I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve?" Dr. Luelia Beecher's mother-in-law, Ellen Virginia (Tuller) Beecher, is ther with the family as well.

07/23/2026

James Ernest Cheuvront, who built a handsome mausoleum and was buried in it in 1909, was an oil producer who had come to Lima from Parkersburg, WV in the 1890s, and lived in the five and six hundreds blocks of W. Spring Street. His widow, Amelia (Greyman) Cheuvront, later married Charles D. Keil and was remembered for her dahlia and gladioli gardens on the Harding Highway. She was buried here in 1954.

07/16/2026

Captain Martin "Mart" Armstrong could be considered Allen County's first hero. Mart came from a long line of patriotic men. His father, William Armstrong, was Brigadier General of the Ohio Militia, and his grandfather and HIS brothers served in the Revolution. In 1861 when the call went out for volunteers to serve the Union, despite his engagement to Catherine Olivia Melly, he enlisted in Capt. (later Maj.) Lamison's Co. F. 20th O.V.I. and served for three months, during which time he was promoted to the captaincy. Immediately upon his release, he recruited a three year company on his own, (Co. B. 81st O.V.I), and led them through Missouri to Tennessee. They eventually came to Pittsburgh Landing (Shiloh), where, on April 6, 1862, just after he uttered the command, "Close up and don't dodge!" he was struck in the head by grapeshot and killed. Mart was the first "boy" from Lima to be lost in the bloody conflict. His body lay in state in Ashton's Hall on the Public Square prior to his funeral. His remains were buried at the Old Lima Cemetery, where his mother and father would join him. Eventually, in 1906, on the death of her husband Theodore Mayo, Martin's younger sister, Harriett C. (Armstrong) Mayo moved all the immediate family to her husband's family lot in Woodlawn Cemetery.

07/09/2026

One of the most famous native sons was Sen. Calvin Stewart Brice. His homes were on Market and Metcalf Streets. He was a financier, a founder of the Nickel Plate Railroad system, and legal counsel for many different railroads. He had a home in New York City and spent time traveling abroad. Sen. Brice died in 1898. His wife, Catherine Olivia (Melly) Brice, a former teacher and benefactress of Western College for Women at Oxford, Ohio, died in 1900. Though never documented, it is believed that their memorial was designed in the studio of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the famed sculptor who lived in Europe and New York, and who modeled and designed many equestrian statues, as well as much of the work at the University of Virginia and West Ponit.

07/04/2026

07/02/2026

An impressive granite shaft of considerable height in hexagonal contour marks the burial place of the Zetlitz family. Eggert Zetlitz came to Ohio from Norway as a youth. He worked his way up from being a gardener to becoming Lima's formost florist in the early 1900s. He had a shop on W. Market Street, and several greenhouses where his magnificent flowers were grown. He and his wife Emilie (Berner) lie here, along with their son, Thor, who died in 1917 - the first Lima soldier to die in WWI (he succumbed to pneumonia). Eggert died in 1930 and Emilie in 1949; their children surround them: Thor, Ronda (McPheron), Borghild (Fletcher) and family.