Giles-Seward Cemetery Update

From the Aurora Advocate

by Ken Lahmers, Editor

Aurora — A project which has been 11 years in the making is nearing completion on the south side of Aurora Lake Road at the northern end of the Hawthorn of Aurora development.

On Aug. 22, United Civil Contractors installed a 32-foot long by 4-foot wide metal pedestrian bridge, which spans a small creek and provides access to the city-owned Giles-Seward Cemetery.

According to Ron Lowe, architectural adviser for the city’s landmark commission, work should be completed at the site by mid-September and a dedication is planned afterward.

Lowe said the “ball got rolling” in 1997 when then-Harmon School history teacher and Aurora resident Bob Luckay informed then-mayor Ralph Keidel a burial ground was located there.

Lowe said some of Luckay’s students found some broken headstones on the overgrown property which previously was owned by the Constantinos, developers of Hawthorn of Aurora.

“In the 1990s, most of the people who were longtime residents of the area had forgotten about the cemetery, and newer residents never even knew it existed,” Lowe said.

“There was one lady I talked to who remembered wandering onto the parcel as a girl in the 1940s and 1950s and seeing several headstones piled up.”

LOWE AND Service Director John Trew, who also serves as sexton for city cemeteries, said there are an estimated 35 to 45 burial plots there, including one containing the remains of a Revolutionary War soldier.

Lowe said the burial grounds measures about 100 by 112 feet, but the original parcel took up about 74 by 66 feet.

“This site is basically a memorial dedicated to a handful of pioneer families and some former residents of the Geauga Lake area,” Lowe said. “It’s more of a park, and there will be no future burials.”

City Engineer Ross Brankatelli said the bridge installed Aug. 22 was prefabricated by ConTech Bridge Solutions and was transported through town on a trailer in the morning hours. He said it was erected on concrete pier foundations that were poured Aug. 16.

Lowe said final landscaping was to begin earlier this week. Landscape by Design provided construction services.

Stones from the old Kennedy house, which stood along Route 43 near the Bertram Inn and Conference Center, will be used to mark the corners of the cemetery.

Trew said the project has cost the city about $125,000, which includes the $17,000 bridge, engineering, piers, compaction of the ground and landscaping, and a 100-year floodplain study.

Acquiring the land from the Constantino family took several years, according to Trew. The parcel was deeded to the city in 2002, and Trew said Law Director Alan Shorr helped negotiate the deed transfer after Mayor Lynn McGill took office.

LOWE POINTED out ramps to the bridge are still one of the projects to be completed. A temporary parking area will accommodate two vehicles, and the parking area could be improved when an Aurora Lake Road upgrade is carried out in the future.

The plot is surrounded by a split-rail fence, and Lowe said a flag pole and a couple of benches will be placed soon, as well as three historical markers.

A marker at the entrance to the grounds will identify the cemetery, one interior marker will list names of the known burials and a third marker will be in honor of Revolutionary War soldier Joel Seward.

There also will be two signs designating parking along Aurora Lake and two directional signs on Route 43 facing north and south as one approaches Aurora Lake Road.

One of the informational signs will read as follows:

“The Seward family settled in Aurora in 1812 and farmed this land for three generations. Revolutionary War veteran Joel Seward (1733-1826) was the first known burial on this site.

“In 1851, Alvin Seward, Aurora’s shoemaker, deeded the burying ground to Nathan Seward, Benjamin Williams, Joel Giles, Joel Giles Jr., Sullivan Giles, Daniel Giles, Thomas Marshall and Joshua McClintock — residents of Aurora, Bainbridge and Solon.

“It is believed these families each buried relatives in this cemetery. The individual names of the Western Reserve pioneers here interred are long forgotten as their gravestones have crumbled to dust.”