Friends of Greenlawn Cemetery Foundation

11/29/2025

11/28/2025

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving."
~ W.T. Purkiser

Happy Thanksgiving!

11/24/2025

Monument Monday 🪦

Walter Penman Stewart
Born-July 23, 1845
Died-July 9, 1865

Walter P. Stewart was one of the young men of Portsmouth, Ohio, whose life was sacrificed for his country. He was the son of William Stewart and Jeannette Bryden. His mother, Jeannette, was born near Raven Rock in Washington Township. He spent nearly his entire life in the vicinity of Portsmouth.

He enlisted in Battery L. First Ohio Light Artillery on August 21, 1863 at the age of eighteen. He was in all the battles in which Battery L. participated in until October 8, 1864, when he was captured near Harrisburg, Virginia, and taken to Libby Prison.

He was exchanged on April 11, 1865, but his confinement in prison destroyed his health and his father procured his discharge on June 26, 1865, at New Creek, West Virginia, and took him home, but only to die there.

The entire Battery was discharged and mustered out on July 4, 1865. Walter died on July 9, 1865, only five days after his battery was mustered out.

“He was at enlistment a handsome youth, fair, florid and pleasant to look upon, and his life and character were as attractive as his personal appearance.”

“The grief of his aged father at his untimely death, when all were rejoicing on the return of the soldiers, was heartbreaking. He visited his grave daily and kept it in order as long as he lived. The memory of this handsome and brave young soldier is precious to all who remember him and to the coming generation who will read this. The memory of his life will be cherished while the Republic endures.”

Walter Stewart died at nineteen years old and is buried in the Methodist hill section near the Grant Street entrance.

11/17/2025

Monument Monday 🪦

Samuel Coles
June 3, 1808
March 8, 1871

Samuel Coles was born at Glen Cove, Long Island, New York. His parents, Benjamin and Hannah Coles, were of the Quaker faith. His father was a farmer.

He first settled in Rising Sun, Indiana, then moved to Franklin, Ohio, where he worked building a part of the Ohio Canal.

In 1830, he came to Portsmouth with his brother-in-law, Lemuel Moss. He was the superintendent of the terminus of the canal and also for the excavations of the channel of the Scioto River at its mouth.

In 1835, he commanded the steamboat “Fairy Queen.” Later he built the steamboat “Home”, and ran her on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

He married Nancy Ellen Peebles on October 6, 1836. She came to Chillicothe from Neville, Pennsylvania, in 1828, and later settled in Portsmouth.

Samuel Coles was one of the owners of Moss’s Mill, near Portsmouth, from 1837 to 1849. He built a tannery at Springfield, Kentucky, with J.V. Robinson. He also was in a commission business known as Robinson, Waller & Coles.

In 1854, he moved to Hanging Rock after purchasing an interest in Hanging Rock Coal Works and Pine Grove Furnace.

In 1864, along with his former associates, he purchased the eastern division of the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad. He moved to Ashland after becoming the President of the Company. He had supervision of all of its interests until his death.

He was stricken with paralysis in July of 1869 and never recovered.

He died on March 8, 1871. His wife, Nancy Ellen, died on April 9, 1885.

The Coles were parents of 13 children. One child, Thomas K. Coles, was killed on November 19, 1864, near Bunker Hill and is memorialized on the tombstone of his parents.

Lieut. Thomas K. Coles
Born
Dec. 25, 1844
Killed in a Skirmish
Near Bunker Hill, VA
Nov. 18, 1864

This beautiful monument is located near Soldier’s Circle on south side.

11/11/2025

Today, we honor our Veterans.

THANK YOU for the years you gave, the miles you marched, and the burdens you carried for the rest of us.

♥️🇺🇸🪖

11/10/2025

Monument Monday🪦

Thomas Waller Terry

Born-February 9, 1841
Died-March 3, 1864

Thomas Waller Terry was born at Portsmouth, Ohio, on February 9, 1841, and died at Camp Burnside, Kentucky, on March 3, 1864.

When the rebellion broke out, Thomas William Terry was a student at Marietta College. He was under age, but felt the call of patriotism to serve his country in her hour of need. The dutiful son sent a telegraph to his father, “The boys are going; May I go too?” The answer came back instantly, “Go, but don’t get shot in the back.”

He volunteered in Company G. First O.V. Infantry on April 16, 1861. He served until June 11, 1861, and was discharged to receive an appointment as Cadet in the Military Academy at West Point and entered at once to take on duties that might be better fitted to serve his country.

After being there for nearly two years, he wrote to his father asking his consent to resign, and to return to active service in the army. His father urged him to remain, and graduate, but he still insisted on resigning.

In one of his letters to his father, he writes, “Father, I wish you to give me your consent to resign, as I can not study here while I know my country needs my service in the field, and I think it is my duty to go, as it is every other young man’s. While I write, our very Capitol is being threatened by rebels, and I wish to be one who can say in after years with pride, ‘I helped to defend it.’ I must go.”

He left West Point in June 1863, and came home. He enlisted in Co.I the First Ohio Volunteer Heavy Artillery as a Private in October of 1863. He was made Second Lieutenant and then was appointed Acting Assistant Quartermaster by commanding General S.S. Fry.

“He drew his mules, some five hundred, part of which had been broken and the remainder young and unbroken.The drivers were about as green as the mules.” The weather was cold and wet but the destination was reached much sooner than expected. He was highly complimented by his General for his success.

Supplies were low and he made the trip three more times in the mud, rain, and snow. The last trip he was very sick and Typhoid fever had set in. He breathed his last breath in a cedar cabin on the Cumberland River on March 3, 1864. His last words were “Forward March!” showing in his delirium that he thought he was at the post of duty.

His remains were sent home and interred in the family lot in Greenlawn Cemetery.

Resolutions were passed noting his highly honorable service as a soldier and an officer. His West Point classmates spoke of his honorable character, integrity, and patriotism. “The patriotism that caused him to leave West Point before graduating, to enter the service of his country and die early in life, affords an example of disinterested patriotism worthy of emulation.”

His father writes in a letter to a West Point classmate of his son, “Thus passed from earth, and I hope and trust to heaven, a true patriot, a true friend, and a beloved son, one that thought more of his country than he did of his own life.”

This 23 year old patriot is buried in the Evergreen 3 section.

We should never forget the sacrifices these young soldiers made for our country.

Everyone of them has a story.

11/08/2025

We are forever grateful for days like today.

This morning we were joined by the Collier Company as we together received a State Historic Preservation Award at the Ohio History Connection in Columbus for the restoration of Soldier’s Circle. We all remember the dramatic transformation of our watchful Soldier as he was restored by Jeff Hale and the Collier Company. This project would not have been possible without this team effort. Debbie Gambill, Matt Collier, and Jeff Hale represented our groups and spoke about this restoration.

Thank you to everyone who has donated, supported us, or attended our events. It means so much to us that our community sees the importance of preserving and restoring this historic cemetery. We have many more people to thank! Watch for our video early next week as we showcase this project and how so many people came together to see it come to fruition. Stay tuned!

11/07/2025

Next stop, Mexico! Fueling up in Soldier's Circle for the trip.🦋

11/05/2025

"Don't ever think that just because you do things differently, you're wrong." - Gail Tsukiyama

11/04/2025

We've enjoyed these beautiful flowers all summer. Thank you Kevin Doyle, hope they make it until December! 😊

11/03/2025

Monument Monday 🪦

Bernard Augustin

Born - December 26, 1830
Died - 1917

Bernard Augustin was born December 26, 1830, in the kingdom of Hanover, at Meppen, Germany, a town of about four thousand.

His father, Joseph Augustin was a wholesale grocer in Meppen and also served two terms as Mayor. His grandfather, Karl Augustin, was a dry goods merchant. His mother was Margaret Drexler.

Mr. Augustin attended the common schools until the age of fourteen and then studied in the gymnasium at Meppen for the next five years. He was reared as a Catholic. It was the intention of his parents to educate him for the priesthood “but seeing his natural inclination for the fair sex” those plans were abandoned and he was taken into his father’s store until he was twenty five years old. He then started a glass manufactory of his own.

He sold out to his mother at the end of five years and came to the United States in 1868. He stopped first near Catlettsburg, Kentucky, and went from there to Pittsburgh with the intention of getting a position in the glass factories there. He could not secure a position which his education and knowledge of the business would have commanded in his native country, due to his inability to speak the English language.

He came to Portsmouth in 1869, and was first employed by Valentine Rheinhart, a manufacturer of candy. He worked there for three years and saved his money and started his own candy making business. To this he added a small grocery store and kept branching out and adding to his stock until he became a large and exclusively wholesale business at the corner of Front and Court Streets.

He was a communicant of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church. He married Anna Schleinhege on November 5, 1858. They had seven children with two dying in infancy and one drowning in the Scioto River.

“Mr. Augustin is an example of what can be accomplished by strict attention to business methods. He became employed in a candy manufactory and soon took the business onto himself. Later finding that manufacturing candy was not profitable, he undertook the wholesale grocery business and in that has been very successful and has made and accumulated a fortune. His standing as a business man in the community is the very best. It is always good for a man to have a failure early in life, that is if there is any outcome in him. Mr. Augustin had one in his glass business in Germany and thereby learned how to retrieve his fortune and has done so in a wonderful degree. He is one of the most substantial citizens of Portsmouth.”

The Augustin family plot is located in the circle of the Holy Redeemer section.