Place:Erie Street Cemetery, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States

http://www.deadohio.com/eriestreet.htm

Website with pictures and history of Erie Street Cemetery across from Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians baseball team.

Family stories say that Ann Eliza (Seaman) Gardner died in Dec 1851 along with her recently born child in the midst of a severe winter. The ground was so frozen that it was impossible to dig a grave at Erie Street Cemetery, so she and the infant were placed in a sarcophagus and placed aboveground. Years ago, in high school, before I knew anything about Ann Eliza, I walked through this cemetery and noticed several aboveground graves with unreadable inscriptions. Sadly, most of them have now disappeared, either through decay or vandalism. A librarian at the Cleveland Public Library told me that a "common grave" was created for them in the 1980s with, as yet... no marker to note their names.

Location

2291 East 9th Street

Resources

• Find A Grave: Erie Street Cemetery