Woodlawn Cemetery - Lima Ohio

12/25/2025

12/18/2025

Perhaps the memorial that attracts the most attention and comment as one enters Woodlawn Cemetery is the monument to John Wheeler and family. It is a huge block of granite with a bronze plaque on top and is on a raised platform. A railroad flatcar and special equipment were required to bring it to the cemetery and erect it. It bears the date 1903 and the text of Revelations 14:13. "And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which died in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." Mr. Wheeler had been a grocer in Lima from about 1858 on. He erected the Wheeler Block on the southeast corner of Market & Elizabeth in 1889. He died a wealthy man in 1901. His widow, Milleretta (Carlin) Wheeler, married again to Dr. Wm. C. Watson and survived until 1905. All three of their sons (Carlin, Charles and Harry) died before their mother, having never married.

12/12/2025

Joseph C. Thompson, patriarch of the Thompson family, was an early Lima dry goods merchant who expanded his view to the banking realm. He founded the Ohio National Bank, which later changed its name to the Old National Bank. His son, Marshall S. Thompson, followed him in banking, and is buried in the mausoleum here with him. Both men died of accidents - the father falling on a fence in 1919, and the son in an auto-pedeestrian accident in 1926. Ironically, the son of the next generation became a well known name in automobile sales and buildings, though he chose to take his family to another cemetery. J.C. and Marsh's wives are here as well - Sara C. (Smeltzer) Thompson (d. 1904), and Carrie A. (Clemmenger) Thompson (d. 1936), as is the daughter of Marsh and Carrie - Helen (Thompson) Gayer (d. 1952), with the cremains of her husband, Harold I. Gayer.

12/04/2025

Robert J. Plate, associated with the Deisel-Wemmer Cigar Company, the Lima Trust Company, Colonial Finance, Superior Body, among others, and, at one time, president of the Woodlawn Cemetery Association, was a very frugal man. However, he was thought highly of, and the memorial arch at the entrance to Woodlawn bears his name. Mr. Plate's benevolence, particularly toward the YMCA and Trinity M.E. Church will always be remembered. Both he and his widow, Bernice (Willaman) Plate, died in 1965, had no offspring, and their grave marker is very modest.

11/20/2025

The mausoleum which serves the Maire family is symmetrical, with the end containing the entrance serving the Maire family, and the windowed north end the Grosjeans. The Maire brothers, Edward and Frank, came to Lima to develop oil interests, bringing with them sisters Julia and Frances. Frances was an artist and Julia a philanthropist. Edward was part of Maire Bros. Oil. Frank was president of the Old National City Bank and had an interest in the Lima Cord, Sole, & Heel Co. Maire Bros. were owners of the Faurot Opera House building, which they had purchased from John D. Rockefeller. Julia died in 1917, Edward in 1927, and Frank in 1938. Pearl (Grosjean) Maire, who had continued Julia's interest in the YWCA, survived until 1958.

11/13/2025

John R. Hughes was a dealer in stoves, furniture and china, as well as Civil War mayor of Lima and one of the incorporators of Woodlawn Cemetery. He built the home at 649 W. Market Street that for many years housed the YWCA. Hughes' first wife, Elizabeth S. Wilcox, died in 1854. Five years later, he married Sarah Ellen Carpenter. Their first child, daughter Laura, was born in 1864 and lived only two months. She wsa named after Sarah's sister, Laura Emily, who was a missionary in china. The child was buried in the Old Lima Cemetery, as was her namesake two years later. The monument on the Hughes family plot at Woodlawn is a tall, narrow shaft. One side is inscribed with a memorial to the missionary: "She being dead, yet she speaks." Mrs. Hughes died in 1905 and her husband in 1921. Also on the site is the family of their daughter Gertrude and her husband, William A. Walter, who had been with the Standard Oil Company and had lived in Rumania, Burma, and in Indian in the early 1900s. Their other Hughes daughter, Florence, was the mother of Ellen (Mead) MacDonell, wife of James A. MacDonell, long-time president of the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.

11/06/2025

Fred C. Herold at one time operated the Shook-Mosier Laundry, and later in his life was a mail carrier. His mausoleum is of classical design. His wife, Addie M. (Koch) Herold, preceded him in death in 1918. Mr. Herold died in 1954.

10/30/2025

The Cunningham family goes back to the beginning of Lima, settling here in January, 1831. William was Lima's first doctor. William and his wife Anna's son, Theodore E. "Doan" Cunningham was a well-known attorney in Lima. His son, "Lou" Cunningham, was manager of the Faurot Opera House in its heyday. William died of typhoid in 1842. Doan died in 1889. Lou survived until 1926. A simple monument adorns their family plot. William and Anna rest in the Old Lima Cemetery section of Woodlawn.

10/27/2025

https://www.hometownstations.com/news/allen_county/runners-race-through-woodlawn-cemetery-for-kiwanis-club-s-howl-oween-trick-or-trot/article_c653989c-a504-4540-b25b-6dc1b600fc00.html

The Lima Kiwanis Club’s annual Howl’oween Trick or Trot brought runners, costumes, and community spirit together to raise funds for local student programs and scholarships.