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Frankfort Cemetery

The Frankfort Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located on East Main Street in Frankfort, Kentucky. The cemetery is the burial site of Daniel Boone, the famed frontiersman, and contains the graves of other famous Americans including seventeen Kentucky governors and a Vice President of the United States.

The cemetery is built on a bluff overlooking the Kentucky River with views of the Kentucky State Capitol, the Kentucky Governor's Mansion, downtown Frankfort, south Frankfort, and the Capitol District.

History

The cemetery was created by Judge Mason Brown, son of statesman John Brown, inspired by a visit to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston. Brown enlisted other Frankfort civic leaders and on February 27, 1844, the Kentucky General Assembly approved the cemetery's incorporation. The 32-acre (13 ha) property, then called Hunter's Garden, was purchased in 1845 for $3,801. Additional land was purchased in 1858 and in 1911 for a total of 100 acres (40 ha).

Brown hired Scottish-born landscape architect Robert Carmichael to design the cemetery. The cemetery is laid out in a style similar to Mount Auburn, with curving lanes, terraces and a circle of vaults. Carmichael imported and planted trees and flowering shrubs from the mountains of Kentucky, intending the cemetery to double as an arboretum in a time when residents could not easily travel to see mountain plants not native to the region. Carmichael is also buried in the cemetery.

There are numerous monuments and memoria in the cemetery. A central feature is the State Mound, featuring a Kentucky War Memorial designed by Robert E. Launitz and inscribed with the names of officers killed in numerous wars. During the American Civil War, Frankfort Cemetery was used for the final resting place of soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Corporal, Lyman B. Hannaford of the 103rd Ohio Infantry notes in his letter dated April 2, 1863, "They are planting (as soldiers term it) a good many soldiers here—almost one per day. That is a good many for the number of troops here."

Interments

Kentucky Governors

Eighteen Kentucky governors are buried there:

Other notable people

Other notable people buried at Frankfort Cemetery include:

Rufus B. Atwood, president of Kentucky State University
Bland Ballard, soldier and statesman
William T. Barry, member of the United States Senate and United States Postmaster General
George M. Bibb, U.S. Senate and United States Secretary of the Treasury
Daniel Boone, American pioneer
Rebecca Boone, American pioneer and the wife of Daniel Boone
John Brown, lawyer, statesman
Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., U.S. Army general, World War II
Johnson N. Camden Jr., U.S. Senator
Henry Clay, Jr., soldier and statesman
Henry Crist, Kentucky pioneer, member of the Kentucky General Assembly and the United States House of Representatives
George Bibb Crittenden, Confederate Army general
Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, Union Army general
Anthony Crockett, Revolutionary War soldier and politician
John Milton Elliott, judge, murdered
Thomas Y. Fitzpatrick, U.S. Representative, County Judge, County Attorney
Gilbert Genesta, magician, drowned
Martin D. Hardin, politician
Parker Watkins Hardin, politician, Attorney General of Kentucky 1879–1888
Joel Tanner Hart, sculptor
Elizabeth Ann Hulette, professional wrestling manager
Enoch Edgar Hume, physician and former mayor of Frankfort, Kentucky
Andrew J. James, lawyer and state representative, who served as Attorney General and as Secretary of State of Kentucky
Willard Rouse Jillson, Kentucky historian, geologist
Richard Mentor Johnson, Vice President of the United States
William Lindsay, U.S. Senate
Humphrey Marshall, U.S. and Confederate States Congressman, Confederate Army general
Thomas Francis Marshall, lawyer, politician, Kentucky House of Representatives
John Calvin Mason, attorney, U.S. Representative
Silas B. Mason, construction contractor who built the Grand Coulee Dam, racehorse owner/breeder who won the 1933 Preakness Stakes
Samuel McKee, law, U.S. Representative
Presley O'Bannon, U.S. Marine credited as first to raise the American flag over foreign soil in 1805 at the Battle of Derna.
Theodore O'Hara, poet, newspaperman, soldier
Lucy Phenton Pattie, 1842–1922, the only honorary initiated female member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity
Thomas H. Paynter, U.S. Senate
Paul Sawyier, Kentucky artist
Solomon P. Sharp, Attorney General of Kentucky murdered in the Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy
John Simpson, soldier, member of the Kentucky General Assembly, Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives, and Congressman-elect
Daniel Weisiger Swigert, 1883–1912, Thoroughbred racehorse breeder, owner of Elmendorf Farm
Isham Talbot, U.S. Senate
Landon Addison Thomas, businessman and member of the Kentucky General Assembly from Frankfort, Kentucky
Thomas Todd, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
South Trimble, Kentucky House of Representatives, U.S. Representative, Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman, businesswoman and philanthropist from Frankfort, Kentucky, was an early supporter of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
John White, served in the Kentucky House of Representatives and in the U.S. House, where he served as Speaker of the House