Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Joc-O-Sot, Dead Guy

They wanted to go out this morning. They had been out at 3:15 this morning. I tried to dissuade them at that time, but Boxers are called that because they jab almost as effectively as Muhammad Ali in his prime; and there was no way to delay them until morning. On the positive side, they waited until 8 to give me the look:

On a normal Sunday morning, nobody is on the streets; but this morning the dogs were not harassing me at 5:45, and festivities were already in full swing because the Browns would be hosting their hated arch-rival, the Cincinnati Bengals, at 1 p.m. The tailgate and tent parties had started; the grills were heating up, and the beer was flowing.

We took a walk, ending up on the street originally named Erie Street and the Erie Street Cemetery, which was, like in most bigger cities, once located on the fringe of the City and is now in the heart of it. The Ontario Street Cemetery succumbed to urban expansion and the inhabitants of the cemetery were moved to the present site in 1826. The first permanent settlers of Cleveland, Lorenzo Carter and his wife, Rebekah, are buried here, just inside this gate, across the street from the Jake, now known officially as Progressive Field. The gravestones are unreadable and were replaced by a granite marker.

More interesting than the granite Carter marker is the gravestone of the Sauk Chief Joc-O-Sot, who came to Cleveland from the wilderness that later was named Iowa, after fighting in the Black Hawk War. He tried to earn money for his tribe by conducting hunting and fishing expeditions in the area. He never made it back to his homeland, died in Cleveland, and remains interred here in the Erie Street Cemetery.

There are other once-famous and once-influential people buried here, not as many as in Lakeview Cemetery, in which President James A. Garfield and John D. Rockefeller are buried, which is located a bit further to the east.

The dogs did not desecrate any graves during the making of this blog post.

Posted by Bill at October 4, 2009 02:53 PM