New Cathedral Cemetery, now 150 years old, is final resting place of humble and famous

The oldest grave in New Cathedral Cemetery belongs to Margaret Mary Bevans. Her burial March 13, 1871, in Lot 69, Section D, is duly noted in a handwritten note in Plat Book Number 1.

Since that date, 150 years ago, New Cathedral Cemetery has become the resting place of more than 111,000 people, including priests, nuns and notable Marylanders such as Gov. Herbert R. O’Connor, Baltimore Mayor Clarence “Du” Burns, sports writer John Steadman, and businessman Reginald Lewis.

Also buried there are four members of the Baseball Hall of Fame – more Hall of Famers than any other cemetery, noted Susan Schmidt, who has worked at the cemetery for more than 30 years. They are Orioles manager Ned Hanlon, Joseph Kelley, Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw, a former Oriole who became manager of the New York Giants. A baseball and Giants cap hang on the mausoleum door where McGraw is buried.

James and Bernardine Keelty, who funded construction of St. Bernardine Church in West Baltimore, and Thomas O’Neill, a businessman whose bequest led to the construction of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen and Good Samaritan Hospital are at New Cathedral Cemetery, as well as members of Charles Carroll’s and Francis Scott Key’s families.

Rock musician Frank Zappa isn’t there, but his grandparents are.

Mother Mary Lange, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, was buried at the cemetery after her death in 1882. But in 2013, her body was moved to the sisters’ motherhouse in Arbutus. “All the nuns came,” recalled Sharon Zepp, the cemetery’s office manager.

A monument to Mother Mary remains, along with the earthly remains of her fellow sisters.

Not only the famous and the influential are remembered at New Cathedral Cemetery.

Some of the gravestones belong to those who died too soon.

A lifelike monument of Daniel and Eleanor O’Donovan has brought visitors to their grave. The children, carved in marble, stand side by side in lace-trimmed frocks. Eleanor wears a scarf wrapped around her neck by a thoughtful visitor. Toys have been laid at their feet.

The children died in 1905 during a scarlet fever epidemic. Daniel, who was three, died first, Jan. 2, 1905; 5-year-old Eleanor died 25 days later. Their parents, Daniel and Lily O’Donovan, sent likenesses of them to carvers in Italy to have a lifelike monument made, according to Schmidt.

New Cathedral Cemetery, owned by the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replaced two earlier cemeteries. The oldest, St. Peter’s Kirkyard, opened in 1770. The original Cathedral Cemetery was established in 1816. All remains, monuments and gravestones, and their records were moved to this “new” location, according to director Nathan Nardi.

“It took 17 years to move people,” Schmidt said.

Then, in 1936, St Patrick Parish moved its cemetery to New Cathedral Cemetery from Fells Point. Its headstones are the oldest in the cemetery.

More recently, graves from the Trinitarian Monastery in Pikesville and a Dominican gravesite in Catonsville were transferred there. The new graves included vaults, original or replaced headstones and special monuments, according to Nardi.

The cemetery was begun on the 45-acre Bonnie Brae property. It grew to 125 acres with the subsequent purchase of adjacent farmland.

More than 160 are buried every year, though that number rose during the Spanish flu epidemic when as many as 29 were buried in a single day, according to Schmidt.

“The families were digging the graves. The cemetery couldn’t keep up,” she said.

Because of growing interest in cremation, a new cremation garden had been established, according to Nardi. There are a variety of granite monuments to hold one urn, or up to four, he said. An angel statue stands watch over the space, which is handicapped-accessible.

Two full-time and one part-time office employees and three maintenance staff are dedicated to taking care of these final resting places. Nardi estimates burials will continue at the cemetery for another 30 to 50 years – and perpetual care investments ensure the cemetery is maintained forever, Nardi said.

In addition, notes about all the graves are carefully kept, not only in the original hand-written plat books but in databases. Basic genealogy information is available on the cemetery’s website, newcathedralcemetery.org. More detailed information may be obtained for a fee.

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