Boxwood Cemetery Tour

The Friends of Boxwood worked to restore the stained-glass window at the chapel last year, and had this building spiffed up inside so it is again suitable for events.

 

This cemetery is one of four in Orleans County on the National Register of Historic Places. The others include Mount Albion, Hillside in Holley/Clarendon and Millville in Shelby.

 

These cemeteries are park-like settings and have been well cared for final resting places for community residents for well over 150 years.

 

Boxwood was established in 1850. A year earlier Medina resident David Card expressed his dying desire: “to be buried on the hill north of Medina.” Card got his wish, and his burial was the catalyst for establishing Boxwood Cemetery.

Boxwood was established in the Rural Cemetery manner in 1850. The Rural Cemetery style is characteristic of a rolling landscape and individual fenced family plots. The cemetery on Route 63 grew in size, and later sections were added in the Lawn Park and Memorial Park styles.

 

Some other prominent residents buried at Boxwood include:

Don Bent, who established the local opera house that was a major center of civic, educational, and social affairs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

 

Charles Newton Hood, who ran the opera house and was also a newspaperman.

Edward Davey, an award-winning carriage maker.

 

May Howard, a survivor of the Titanic sinking on April 15, 1912.

 

Albert L. Swett, a prominent businessman who helped put Medina on the map with his company, Swett Iron Works. He is also responsible for bringing electric power to Medina by damming Oak Orchard Creek, located just to the east behind Boxwood Cemetery, thus creating Glenwood Lake as a reservoir to run his electric-generating plant.

 

John Ryan, who opened the first commercial quarry of Medina sandstone.

 

Levan Merritt, a successful businessman who helped lay out Boxwood Cemetery.

 

W.B. Robbins, part owner of a foundry and four-time village president.

 

Silas M. Burroughs, a general in the New York State Militia, a state assemblyman, and a representative in the U.S. Congress.

Henry A. Childs, a Supreme Court Justice for the Western District of New York.

 

Robert Waters, who was an active community booster and the publisher of The Journal-Register. Waters died at age 90 on July 29, 2015. He led the Medina Sandstone Society and helped find a new use for the Medina Armory, among his many community efforts. He also loved to wear a bow tie.

 

Edwin Franklin Brown, a wounded Civil War veteran who went on to be the military mayor of Vicksburg, MS during Reconstruction and then became the inspector general of the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. A hospital in Dayton, OH, was named in his honor.

 

Major General John S. Thompson, who as a captain during World War I was decorated with the British Distinguished Conduct Medal, Belgian Medal, French Service Cross and United States Medal.

 

George Shattuck, whose books on penmanship were used throughout the world.