Roscoe Conkling Park, Utica, NY

Our trip to the Roscoe Conkling Park was brief, but it is a beautiful park and we hope to return. The park is perched atop Utica’s high hills, and overlooks the city and the Mohawk Valley with breathtaking views.

The park is named for Utica resident and mayor Roscoe Conkling. He was a popular mayor and national congressman, and also rubbed elbows with national political luminaries, such as Senator Thomas Pratt and President Chester Arthur. As a matter of fact, it was even speculated that Conkling has something to do with the assassination of President James Garfield so that Conkling’s pal (and Vice-President) Chester Arthur could become president. Conkling was influential in the nomination of Ulysses S. Grant as president.

When we wandered the park, we were alone, except for a few joggers. At the top of the hill are various monuments to local philanthropists.

We have visited the historic homes of the men noted here. See our visit to Fountain Elms in Utica to read about our great trip.

A curious tin chair rested in the ground. It looked out of place!

The best thing of all is the view of the valley. The Val Bialas ski lift begins up here. What a beautiful view! In the summer evenings, the city must look spectacular, all ablaze in a glittering symphony of fanciful Hinkley lighting.

Also down the hill is the Utica Zoo– we love the Zoo. Read about our wintertime exploits here. Roscoe Conkling Park is lovely– it must be a wonderful and peaceful repose from the hectic city living below.

Forest Hill Cemetery, Utica, NY

Last week, I took the opportunity to drive to nearby Utica, NY, to visit the Forest Hill Cemetery in the city. Utica is an amazingly historic town, and walking through Forest Hill Cemetery is like stepping back in time. Many of New York State’s most notable citizens are buried here. I won’t list them all! but I’ll show you a few of the sites we found. Behind Forest Hill Cemetery is the Roscoe Conkling Park. I’d never even known this place was there! What a beautiful park, and it sits perched on a high hill overlooking the city in the valley below. Breathtaking. I took photos– keep reading.

Forest Hill Cemetery was founded in 1850. It is a huge plot of land, established when people were becoming more aware of sanitation for urban areas. It’s a beautiful cemetery. The Gothic-style gate opens into several small park-like islands.

I found the old resting place of the Oneida Stone, that famed stone of the Oneida Indian Nation! It was taken from the Oneidas in 1849 and placed here during the cemetery’s opening ceremony. The stone has been returned to the Oneidas since 1974. According to Anthony Wonderley in his book, Oneida Iroquois Folklore, Myth, and History, the stone now sits at the Oneida Nation council house, on their historic land given to them after the American Revolution (on the old Honyoust tract).

I’ve done a variety of posts about the Oneida Indian Nation: The Skenandoah Boulder in Oneida, NY, The Turning Stone Casino, and The Shako:wi Oneida Indian Cultural Center.

The cemetery, like I’ve said, is filled with the buried remains of hundreds of luminaries from New York State history. New York State governor and Utica native Horatio Seymour is buried here.

Roscoe Conkling, a long-term Utica mayor and national figure, is buried here, too.

Also among those resting here are James Schoolcraft Sherman (vice-president under William Taft), John Adams’ granddaughter, John Jay’s personal secretary, Jedidiah Sanger (who founded New Hartford, NY), Moses Bagg (an influential merchant) and local philanthropists James Watson, Thomas Proctor, Alfred Munson, and Rachel and Maria Williams. I also found a few famous folks from the American Revolution, including Captain Benjamin Walker who was an aide of George Washington and Baron von Steuben (who is buried north of here and whose memorial site we have visited).

And we also saw the burial site of Amariah Brigham, that groundbreaking doctor who believed mentally ill patients could be treated, and began his practice at the very famous Utica Insane Asylum. The link will take you to my post about that, and this link is my post about our visit there.

One thing that caught our eye was a very peculiar memorial in the more “modern” section of the cemetery. I’d never seen anything like it.

I did some reading and this is a memorial to Justus Henry Rathbone of Utica. He founded the Knights of Pythias, and became extremely influential in politics and business. The Knights of Pythias sounded occultic to me (the oracles at Delphi in Greece worshiped the fortune-telling snake, Pythias)! I did some quick research and found that the Knights of Pythias is from the Greek myth Damon and Pythias. Huh. Wikipedia says this of Rathbone:

Justin H. Rathbone was the founder of the international fraternal order of the Knights of Pythias. He was born October 29, 1839 in New York. He graduated from Colgate University and attended Carlisle Seminary. He was a music composer and actor. In 1863 he moved to Washington D.C. as a government clerk in the Treasury Department, where he founded the Knights of Pythias on February 19, 1864. Rathbone wrote the ritual for the Knights of Pythias which is based on the mythological friendship of Damon and Pythias. He died in 1889.

It was a very interesting visit, and I don’t think I even scratched the surface of all the history to be discovered. I’ll have more about our visit to the Roscoe Conkling Park up the hill, and about the Oneida Stone, in future posts.