Historic and Haunting Oakdale Cemetery

2012-03-06T17:07:00.000-05:00

ARTHUR BLUETHENTHAL

Born November 1, 1891, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Son of Leopold and Johanna Bluethenthal. Educated Phillips Academy, Exeter, and Princeton University, Class of 1913. Business, Tobacco Products Corporation, New York. Joined American Field Service, May 6, 1916; attached Section Three, France and Balkans, until May 11, 1917. Croix de Guerre for conspicuous bravery around Verdun. Enlisted French Aviation, June 7, 1917. Trained Avord and Pau. Breveted September 22, 1917. Leave in America. Attached observation groupe,Sergent. Killed in combat over the lines, near Maignelay, June 5, 1918, region of Amiens. Croix de Guerre with palm. Buried Esquennoy, Oise, north of Breteuil. Body transferred to Wilmington, North Carolina. Escadrille Bréguet 227, March 17, 1918,

WHEN Arthur Bluethenthal joined the Field Service in May, 1916, he could not sign up for the full six months because he had a contract to coach the Princeton football team that fall. So it was arranged with the French authorities to reduce slightly in his case the period of enlistment. But, when the time came for him to return to America, it was his own deliberate choice to obtain a release from his engagements at home and to continue the career which was to lead, from honor to honor and without one regret or looking back, to his death, two years later, in aerial combat above the German lines.
In the fall of 1916 the Field Service was expanding rapidly and "Bluie," as we called him, had come to the fore as a leader. He was the sort of man to whom others instinctively looked for guidance and the sort of man who radiated a spirit of ready and cheerful co-operation, qualities which were of great value, when every liner brought scores of new and undisciplined recruits from America and when the Service was extending its work to Northern Greece and Albania.
"My life does not belong to me now," he wrote on one occasion to a friend in America. "It belongs to France, to the Allies, to the cause to which I have pledged it. And, if I should never come back, I do not want you to feel badly. I am glad I have had a chance to live in times like these and to do my bit for the future of the world. . . . . At home it was a holiday all the time. Here it is the stern facts of life and death. And it is hard to explain the way we feel about it all, especially about France, we who have volunteered to fight for her."
When America entered the war, "Bluie" was serving with Section Three in the Balkans. Returning with his Section to France in May, 1917, he enlisted at once in the Foreign Legion, from which he was transferred to the Air Service. He received his preliminary training at Avord and later instruction at Pau.
After a four weeks' leave, which he spent with his parents in Wilmington, North Carolina, he joined an observation group at the front. In this work he at once made his mark. "You remember," wrote a friend, "Bluie's easy-going, complacent confidence in football days? Well, it is still a part of him when we fly over the German lines. He gets in his plane and goes up and does his work just as calmly as he sits down to breakfast. That sort of nerve helps us all, the old flyers as well as the new."
Towards the end of May, 1918, he was transferred from the French service to the American Naval Aviation. But he refused to leave his comrades while they were engaged in the desperate aerial fighting, which marked the second of the great German drives in 1918. This gallant act was recorded in official dispatches and endeared him to his comrades in a way that only an airman who has flown at the front through an attack can fully appreciate. It was a fateful decision for "Bluie," for his life ended in this battle. He was killed "while directing distant artillery fire" on June 5th and buried with all military honors by his comrades in the cemetery at Esquennoy, near Breteuil, in the Amiens sector."
He was cited posthumously in Army orders. A palm was also added to his Croix de Guerre. And, when news of his death reached Wilmington, where a host of friends had followed his career with increasing pride since first he went away to college, all business houses closed for an hour, all flags were flown at half mast, and a very impressive memorial service was held by the citizens in the Opera House.

"Let us pause a moment," read the proclamation of the mayor, "and do honor to one who has died for us, died in the full strength of young manhood, died in the conflict of battle, and dying has emphasized the creed of the soldier --- better a grave in France than citizenship in a dishonored country." http://www.ourstory.info/library/2-ww1/AFShist/Mem4.htm

The Jewish Cemetery

2012-03-06T16:51:00.000-05:00

Temple of Israel 1875

Fourth and Market Street

Jewish Cemetery at Oakdale Cemetery

The Temple of Israel congregation was made up of German Jews who had immigrated to Wilmington around 1840 and had become well established in the city. Families associated with the Temple include the Bluehtentals, the Dammenhaums, the Jacobs, and the Bears. The Jewish Reform cemetery is a part of the Oakdale cemetery and is encircled with a fence ornamented with a Star of David.

Source: A Pictorial History of Wilmington by Anne Russell

Book available at Two Sister Bookery At the Cotton Exchange.

A Captain and his dog

2012-01-07T15:50:00.001-05:00

Captain William Ellerbrook and his faithful dog, Boss

This monument in Oakdale Cemetery commemorates the deaths of Captain William Ellerbrook and his faithful dog Boss, who gave up his life in an effort to drag his master from a burning building at the corner of Front and Dock Streets. Captain Ellerbrook was master of a Heide Company tugboat and a volunteer fire fighter.

One fateful night in 1880, Captain Ellerbrook answered a call to save the burning store. Running into the burning building, Ellerbrook was caught by failing timbers, hearing his owners screams for help, his dog, Boss dashed into the burning building, only to be found the next day beside Ellerbrook’s body with a piece of cloth torn from his master’s coast sill in his mouth. The dog was buried in the casket with Captain Ellerbrook. Much loved and respected, their funeral was attended by hundreds of Wilmington Citizens.

Source: A Pictorial History of Wilmington by Anne Russell

Hebrew Cemetery-Oakdale Cemetery Wilmington NC

2012-01-02T15:51:00.000-05:00

Ghost at Oakdale Cemetery

2011-12-30T12:53:00.000-05:00

We were out in Oakdale Cemetery doing some history research when we discovered the Murchaison family plot. As soon as we stepped into the plot, we both got chills and felt like some one was watching us.
We took these pictures thru the window of the crept. Can you see the faces? The weirdest part is, everytime I look at these pictures, the faces seem to change. !!!!

Bellamy Row

2011-12-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

“Bellamy Row”

By Lori Erwin Rose

Year after year thousands of people step into the Bellamy’s lives. As a quest you will be introduced to this family’s history and get to know them on a more personal level. As a volunteer you have the opportunity to fix up their home, renew their garden and perpetuate their stories; and how grade of a feeling that can be.

Visiting the Bellamy House is one thing but visiting the Bellamy’s themselves is entirely something else. You will find most of the main family buried in Oakdale Cemetery-Section M. They call it “Bellamy Row”. For those unfamiliar with Oakdale, you will find this

Serene Cemetery located at the end of 15^th street off of Market. Established in 1852 and purchased for $1,100 the first 65 acres began to take shape forming rolling hills and majestic landscapes. The perfect place to rest where trees will shield you and sunlight will dance on your stone. Now its 165 acres and in this gals opinion one of the most beautiful locations in Wilmington. Its quiet there, its peaceful there but most of all it’s a place to ponder your past and think about your future. Where will you decide to be laid to rest? Will your monument be tall like Robert Bellamy’s grave or small and plain like sisters Eliza & Ellen’s. Their graves match as do Marsden & Willies. Baby Kate’s marker is tiny, symbolizing a short life yet reflecting a great loss. The Bellamy family member’s grave markers are not huge & foreboding, but rather plain and ordinary. There are no elaborate ornaments and bold claims. Everyone faces in the same direction. Fitting I think, after all, the civil war laid out for the Bellamy’s the path that would shape their future lives. Curving and winding as old views turned into new and change was inevitable… As this family once stood together united to their cause and firm in their convictions they now lay together in the same way.

So take a moment won’t you? The next time you have the chance to visit the Bellamy’s. You have seen their mark they made @ 503 Market Street now walk among them at Oakdale Cemetery.

Reflex on this family; what they stood for, their beliefs, ideas and morals. Their markers are a reminder of their past, but far greater is the lesson of how frail we all are.

Before John Bellamy died he gathered his children beside him and asked of them to be kind to each other. Not to quarrel and to treat their mother with respect. The Bellamy children honored their father’s request and they left us all with treasures to enjoy. Thank you. Thank you.

May many happy blessings come your way….warm regards Lori

Bellamy Family Grave Sites Section M

2011-11-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

About Oakdale Cemetery

2010-05-21T15:18:00.002-04:00

About Oakdale Cemetery

By Janet Seapker

Photo by Eric Kozen

Oakdale was part of the Rural Cemetery Movement that swept the US in the mid-Nineteenth Century. Rural cemeteries converted large tracts of land into garden settings. As families purchased lots, they mixed ornamental plants in with the native vegetation, making Oakdale one of the city’s most beautiful spots. The cemetery is resplendent with blooming plants all year around, but especially so in the spring.
In 1852, prominent Wilmington businessmen purchased 65 acres for a new cemetery to be located beyond the town limits, which was 8th Street. The cemetery became known as Oakdale and was NC’s first rural Cemetery. The first burial occurred on February 5, 1855—Annie DeRosset, the six-year old daughter of the cemetery president, Dr. Armand John DeRosset.
Oakdale Cemetery contains the graves of the movers and shakers of Wilmington, NC. The eloquent epitaphs and symbolic funerary art tell stories of those who lie beneath and bring them to life for the living. The graves represent veterans from all wars and all branches of service, politicians, mayors, congressmen, artists, architects, writers, developers, merchants, planters, fraternal order members, insurance men, exporters, immigrants, victims of Yellow Fever epidemics, wives, mothers, infants and children, and a female Confederate spy.
Oakdale is an active cemetery conducting burials and selling lots. The Board of Directors of the non-profit Oakdale Cemetery Company oversees the development of land and future planning for the cemetery.

A Rural Cemetery

During the 19th Century, the rural Cemetery Movement emerged as an alternative to crowded urban, generally church graveyards. Oakdale exemplifies this movement. In the romantic spirit of the Victorian era, the rural cemetery generally was located on hilly terrain and featured winding paths, large shade trees, flowers and shrubs, and appealing vistas. It was meant for the living as well as departed loved ones—just like Oakdale today. The rural Cemetery concept was a forerunner of public park development in America.
Rural cemeteries began in 1831 with the opening of Mount Auburn in Cambridge, near Boston, Massachusetts. A succession followed, among which were:

Laurel Hill, Philadelphia, 1836
Greenmount, Baltimore, 1838
Spring Grove, Cincinnati, 1844
Allegheny, Pittsburgh, 1845
Hollywood, Richmond, 1847
Elmwood, Detroit, 1849
Magnolia, Charleston, 1850
Oakland, Atlanta, 1850
Calvary & Rosehill, Chicago, 1859
Cedar Hill, Hartford, 1863

Oakdale Cemetery History

2010-05-21T15:13:00.000-04:00

Of Oakdale Cemetery, a 1911 pamphlet stated, “ . . . nature seemed to have molded the ground for that purpose and left it for man to beautify.” If nature’s contribution defines its beauty, the monuments and sculptures contained within enhance Oakdale’s reputation as a place of history and wonder. Ornate inscriptions, stained glass and massive mausolea contrast with simpler monuments and markers, all of which together relate the story of a city and its people. Finely crafted monuments alternate with the flora that tower high above. Oakdale is truly an outdoor museum and arboretum. Still an active cemetery, these hallowed grounds still today offer comfort and inspiration to the living.

Photo courtesy of New Hanover County Library by Louis T. Moore

Oakdale Cemetery was chartered on December 27, 1852 by the General Assembly of North Carolina. The founders purchased 65 acres for $1,100. The acreage now has grown to 165 acres of natural beauty. Created during the era of the Rural Cemetery Movement in the US, Oakdale was the first in the state, only fitting for the most populous city in the state at the time. It was five blocks beyond the town boundaries.

Confederate Day

2010-05-19T07:53:00.000-04:00

Poor Nance

2010-05-18T17:16:00.000-04:00

Oakdale Cemetery

2010-05-18T17:09:00.000-04:00