John Hay and his angel

No less illustrious a figure than St. Michael the Archangel stands over the grave of John Hay. Never heard of John Hay? Many people haven’t, but he shaped the diplomatic world of the United States in the late 19th century.

Hay’s rise to political prominence began with a streak of luck – as an aspiring young lawyer, he happened make the acquaintance of an older lawyer in Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln was elected President, he selected Hay as his assistant private secretary, a position Hay held until 1864. Hay served in the Civil War but was still moving in political circles, and was present at Lincoln’s deathbed. He and Lincoln’s secretary John G. Nicolay later published a biography of the slain president.

Hay practiced law in the United States and abroad until President Rutherford B. Hayes pointed him as Assistant Secretary of State. President William McKinley made him ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1897. The next year, McKinley named him as Secretary of State. Theodore Roosevelt retained him in the position until Hay died in 1905.

In all of that service, Hay negotiated dozens of treaties, that included defining such things as the boundaries of Alaska and preparing for the construction of the Panama Canal. He was a proponent of the Open Door Policy with China. Overshadowed by his political career, he was also a poet and a writer.

And how did John Hay come to be buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland? He married Clara Louise Stone, daughter of millionaire Clevelander Amasa Stone, and lived here with her for a time to sort out her late father’s affairs.

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Carl B. Stokes

On this date in 1967, Carl B. Stokes was sworn in as the Mayor of Cleveland, making him the first African-American mayor of Cleveland and, according to some, a major United States city. (I have not been able to find anything that clarified what qualifies as a “major” city , as he was not the first black mayor in the U.S.) A native Clevelander, Stokes was raised by his mother after his father passed away when he was still a toddler. After serving in the U.S. Army, Stokes earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law. He became a lawyer and embarked on a political career, serving in the Ohio House of Representatives before he won election as Cleveland’s mayor.

Stokes’ time as mayor reflected the unrest common in much of the country. His accomplishments included raising the city income tax, passage of the Equal Opportunity Ordinance, improvement of sewage treatment facilities, and increased city funding of education, public welfare, and public safety. He initiated a program called “Cleveland: Now!” to fund a rehabilitation of Cleveland. Unfortunately, that program ultimately served as a detriment, when the leaders of the Glenville Shootout were revealed to have misused funding from the program to purchase firearms.

After his time in office, Stokes became a news anchorman in New York City and then returned to Cleveland to serve as a judge from 1983-1994. President Bill Clinton appointed Stokes as ambassador to Seychelles. In 1996, Stokes succumbed to cancer of the esophagus. He is buried in Lake View Cemetery near the pond behind Wade Chapel. Cleveland has honored their son by naming the Federal Court building downtown for him.

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Enjoying a day off today?

If you are enjoying today as a holiday in the Buckeye state, you have a man buried near this monument to thank.

John Patterson Green (1845-1940) was the representative in the Ohio House of Representatives who introduced the bill that established Labor Day in Ohio. Over the course of his career, he was a lawyer, justice of the peace, state representative, state senator, and Government Stamp Agent. A Republican party member, he was an advocate for civil rights.

(Apologies for photo quality – this side is for two of Green’s sons.)

Despite his political career and its historical significance – he was the first African-American elected to office in Cuyahoga County and to the state Senate (and only second in the state House) in addition to founding Labor Day – the monument does not indicate his burial here. His name appears only as a husband and father. The cemetery foundation has been able to verify his interment through cemetery records.

The back side of the monument is blank, possibly meant for him.

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What you are remembered for…

I found this metal plaque mounted in front of the grave maker for the Barretts in Lakeview Cemetery and photographed it because it was much more interesting than the stone itself.

Information on J. Laurence Barrett has been elusive so far, complicated by the fact that there was a 19th century actor named Laurence Barrett. But I’ve been able to guess at some details of his life based on the fraternity he helped found.

The law fraternity Delta Theta Phi resulted from a 1913 merger of 3 existing fraternities: Delta Phi Delta, Alpha Kappa Phi, and Theta Lambda Phi. A fourth fraternity, Sigma Nu Phi, was added in 1989. Even though Delta Theta Phi did not exist until 1913, the fraternity dates its existence from the founding of the first chapter of Delta Phi Delta at the Cleveland Law School at Baldwin-Wallace College in 1900. (This law school later joined with John Marshall School of Lawand moved to Cleveland State University as the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law.) Based on his age and designation as founder, it seems likely that barrister Barrett was a founder of Delta Phi Delta in 1900, and therefore gained the designation as Delta Theta Phi founder when the merger occurred. I wonder if he knew that, out of everything he did in his life, membership in a professional fraternity would follow him to the grave.

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