Share and share alike

Today's graveyard excursion takes us to fashionable Winter Park.

Ye rabbits have probably already experienced the chic shopping and cultural opportunities up and down Park Avenue, or maybe even attended the renowned annual Sidewalk Art Festival here in the spring.

But, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from those hot-spots is the Palm Cemetery at 301 West Webster Street.

The stone that caught my attention on this visit belonged to the Richmond family. It is somewhat hard to read in this photo, so I'll type out a transcription for you:


Andrew Richmond
Nov. 18, 1819
Aug. 31, 1906
Eliza H. Sullings, wife of
Andrew Richmond
Mar. 19, 1828
Jan. 1, 1914
Edgar Richmond
Feb. 26, 1852
Mar. 2, 1888

Squeezing all this genealogical info onto one stone tells me either this was a very frugal family, or they just liked to share!

Lucky Andrew got his name on the stone twice.

I didn't want to assume that Edgar was the son of Andrew and Eliza, since his relation is not specifically stated. So, I did a little sleuthing, and found that was indeed the case according to the 1860 Census.

Evidently, the Richmonds were one of the many Yankee families who flooded into Winter Park after the arrival of the railroad in 1880. They and their cohorts are the reason Winter Park still has the feel of a New England town.

Mr. Richmond was a dry goods merchant by trade--though he did try selling fire insurance in the Chicago area for a while. He and Eliza retired to Winter Park by 1900, but Edgar was down here as early as 1880 and had a wife and at least two daughters. I wonder where they are buried . . . maybe, they're here with the rest of the Richmonds, but there's just not enough room on this crowded stone to tell us?!

References:
*1860 Census, New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts, page 620.
*1870 Census, Ashford, Windham County, Connecticut, page 299b.
*1880 Census, Evanston, Cook County, Illinois, page 317a; and 3rd Division, Orange County, Florida, page 439a.
*1900 Census, Winter Park, Orange County, Florida, page 40a.
*1910 Census, Winter Park, Orange County, Florida, page 205a.

Distribution of graveyards

Well, rabbits, this week yours truly conducted a very unscientific survey to determine which were the most active graveyards in this little corner of heaven.

I say "unscientific," because all I did was keep a tally while reading the obit page of the Orlando Sentinel for seven straight days--a total of 94 entries.

Here are the results with commentary:

51% of obituaries made no mention of a final resting place at all. I can only assume that this includes the increasingly large number of cremations, as well as families who simply want their privacy.

20% were either out of the area (particularly at the national cemetery in Bushnell) or out of state entirely. This definitely reflects the transient nature of Central Florida's population. Very few of us are actual natives.

That left only 29%, distributed as follows:

8 at Woodlawn in Gotha--hands-down the "winner" in the busiest graveyard category.

4 at Osceola Memory Gardens down in Kissimmee.

2 each at Greenwood-Orlando, Glen Haven Memorial Park, and Winter Garden.

1 each at Chapel Hill, Congregation of Reform Judaism (never heard of this one before!), Edgewood-Apopka, Ocoee, Palm, Pineywood, San Pedro Catholic in Winter Park (also never heard of this one before!), Temple Israel in Gotha (is this new, too?), and Washington Park.