Sisters hope to return Old Brooklyn’s Brookmere Cemetery to former glory

Linda Cameron and Karen Parks know what at least part of their futures hold. It will be restoring and preserving the rich past of Brookmere Cemetery.

Tucked away at the end of Broadview Road in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood, many never realize how close they are to a cemetery that contains the graves of people important to Cleveland’s  history, people who served under George Washington or built Old Brooklyn’s oldest home. Brookmere Cemetery opened in 1843.

The two sisters said they are passionate about restoring the cemetery because they have family members buried there. And also knowing Brookmere Cemetery’s role in being the final resting place for so many vital to Cleveland’s story. 

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Cameron and Parks have formed the Brookmere Cemetery Preservation Coalition and have filed the paperwork for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

“That way we will be able to fundraise,” Cameron said.

Parks said there are 3,581 gravesites at the cemetery which is just under three acres.

Notable people in Brookmere

Among the notable people buried there are:

Amos Brainard, an American Revolutionary veteran who served under Gen. George Washington and Col. Samuel McClellan, came to Cleveland in 1814. In total, 24 Brainards are buried at Brookmere.

Jeremiah and Phoebe Gates were some of the earliest settlers of the area. They built the oldest home in Old Brooklyn on the northeast corner of Memphis Avenue and West 35th Street (still standing today 205 years later) built with handmade bricks. The family worked as millers and provided lumber and grain to pioneer families. There is a large family monument at the back of the cemetery.

Ella Estabrook rests there. She petitioned Cleveland in 1920 for a community house where people could go to feel safe and enjoy recreational activities without judgment or bias – finally it became a reality in 1957 and was dedicated to her.

“It’s too bad that they did not build it (the recreation center) in her own lifetime,” Cameron said.

The Selover Family.  Asher Selover ran the Cleveland House Hotel on Public Square in 1837, his sons were stock merchants and mining brokers, and owned a dry goods/hardware store. They were also involved in real estate. Also, Lola Selover (married to Cornelius) was a big deal with hundreds of newspaper mentions around the country as the major authority on parliamentary law in all the women’s clubs of the day.

A large German settlement once was in Old Brooklyn and many of the inscriptions on the gravestone and monuments are in German. Some of the most memorable are also the most tragic. 

The Ohnacker monument has a heartbreaking inscription in German. Translated, it reads: 

“Here rest the remains of our five sons – Rudolph, Jacob, Ludwig, George and Phillipp who died in a fire September 18 1851. Rest, therefore, in this quiet valut till the Savior calls you. Meanwhile we praise Him quietly and suffer as His will requires it.”

Then there is the epitaph of a 30-year-old woman named Ellen Brunner:

“A previous one from us is gone

                A voice we loved is stilled

                A place is vacant in our home

                Which never can be filled”

There also is a set of graves with bells strung around them. The reason? During the Victorian era people were so terrified of being buried alive that grave diggers installed coffin safety bells.  string would be attached to the deceased’s hand and run up to the bell. If you woke up in the grave, you were supposed to ring the bell so you could alert someone and be saved. There is not one documented case of the bells ever being used.

Now, the cemetery is considered inactive. That means the city is no longer selling gravesites there. The only people being buried in Brookmere are those that bought a gravesite before the city stopped selling them.

That translates into one or two funerals a year, Cameron said.

What is done; what comes next

The sisters concentrate their efforts on cleaning up the cemetery. They go every weekend during the warm weather and bag up debris and fallen limbs and pine needles. Cameron drives from Cleveland Heights and Parks comes from her home in Parma.

“It’s a lot of raking every weekend,” Cameron said.

There has been some vandalism over the years, but the main antagonist has been Mother Nature. Many headstones have toppled over due to storms, or erosion and age, with some partially or completely buried.

Some of the needed repairs are beyond their capabilities, Cameron said. And that’s where the 501(c)(3) nonprofit would come in. They also know that the city can provide limited help because of financial constraints.

For example, a nose is broken off the Gates monument in the back of the cemetery.

“We need to hire an artisan to do that,” Cameron said. “They’re not going to fix that for free.”

The sisters hope for the future? That Brookmere Cemetery becomes a beautiful final resting place once again.