Stories in Stone from Woodland Cemetery

If you ever get a chance to tour Woodland Cemetery with Archie Cook, you really should. Just add it to the list of things to do before you kick the bucket: To learn about those who already did.

Cook didn’t have much interest for history when he was in high school, and he worked construction for the first 20 years of his career. But then he switched gears and taught history for another 20 years at North High School, determined to spark his students’ curiosity in a way that his own teachers never had. He’s a great storyteller.

On a recent sunny afternoon, he led a tour for the State Historical Society of Iowa and introduced 40-some visitors to a few of the 80,000 “residents” who lie beneath Woodland’s 69 hilly acres just northwest of downtown Des Moines.

Here are a few things the group learned, in no particular order …

The Hubbell Mausoleum

One of Des Moines’ founding fathers, Frederick M. Hubbell, married Frances Cooper Hubbell, who was distantly related to author James Fenimore Cooper (“The Last of the Mohicans”). Their daughter Beulah’s 1899 wedding to a Swedish count, at Terrace Hill, was written up in the New York Times.

Fun fact: The Hubbell Mausoleum houses a casket elevator.

Gold Star Memorial

This section is the second (the first burial being in France) and final resting place of Iowa soldiers killed in World War I. Among those buried here is Medal of Honor recipient, Lt. Col. Emory J. Pike. Pike earned the honor for rendering aid to a wounded soldier during a heavy artillery shelling. Lt. Col. Pike was severely wounded himself when another shell burst while he was rendering aid. While waiting to be brought to the rear, Lt. Col. Pike continued in command, still directing the reorganization until the position could be held. He died of the wounds he received.

Another is Captain Edward Fleur, who was killed in France during World War I is buried across the cemetery lane from his wife, Minnie, who was a county recorder in the 1920s — a rare job for women in those days. Since wives weren’t allowed to be buried with the soldiers, the Fleurs’ across-the-street arrangement was the closest they could get.

The Allen Graves

Iowa’s first millionaire was Benjamin Franklin Allen. He built Terrace Hill but eventually lost his fortune in a financial downturn in the 1870s. When he died, a friend had to buy Allen’s burial plot for him, right next to the plot of his wife, Arathusa, who allegedly died from the stress of losing their fortune. They’re both buried under plain inexpensive tombstones.

Des Moines Children’s Home

When kids from the unfortunately named Des Moines Home for Friendless Children died in the late 1800s and early 1900s, they were often buried in used apple or peach crates purchased from a fruit market on the East Side. Nearly all the children buried here were less than one year old. The orphanage eventually became known as Orchard Place.

Grand Army of the Republic

Scores of Civil War veterans are buried in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) section, including one Henry Tolliver, “USCI.” The letters behind his name stand for United State Colored Infantry.

The Hillis Grave

Cora Busey Hillis was a prominent educator and social reformer. When she lobbied the Iowa Legislature to set aside $25,000 for a child-development center, the legislature used the money instead to build the sheep barn at the Iowa State Fair. But Hillis eventually prevailed, and her work led to the creation of the pre-school program called Head Start.

The Polk Family Lot

After Jefferson and Julia (Herndon) Polk lost three children, all under 10 years old, the parents built a tombstone in the shape of a bed, complete with three small stone pillows. The couple lived in the Herndon mansion (still standing next to Central Academy, on Grand Avenue), and Julia Polk would often spend hours, day and night, mourning her children. Her worried husband had a pedestal built at the site to hold a candle or lantern and required the carriage driver to stay at the cemetery during her visits.

The City Receiving Vault

Up until about 1910, the bodies of those who perished in the winter months between December and April would be stored in the City Receiving Vault until the ground thawed enough for them to be buried in the spring. The vault is made up of two rooms, the visitation room where family could gather to pay their last respects, and the coffin room where the bodies were stored.