A Rural Cemetery
The Rural Cemetery Movement influenced the Kline Cemetery and other cemeteries in Tompkins County. In 1831, Mount Auburn Cemetery was laid out in a rural setting outside of Boston as a park-like resting place for the dead. The design, with curving paths and ornamental trees and flowers, was immediately copied, marking the beginning of the rural cemetery movement. The rural cemetery was seen as a sanitary place to bury the dead and a peaceful place for families to visit their departed loved ones. Maps of Pleasant Grove Cemetery (shown below from 1870, 1877, and 1884) reveal the expansion of the cemetery from the simple rectangular “Old burial ground” and “Potter’s Field” to include such enhancements as mounded, circular group plots.
At the state level, New York’s rural cemetery law enacted in 1847 set rules for the formal incorporation of rural cemetery associations. By 1863, trustees Peter Kline (1823-1912), William McKinney (c. 1825-1910),[1] and Comfort Hanshaw (c. 1822-1897)[2] had established the Kline District Cemetery and acquired land from the Bush Farm. They purchased acreage for $30 from Charles S. and Maria Bush “for the purpose of a cemetery.”[3]
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The cemetery trustees came from well-established farm families in the Hanshaw’s Corners area. William and Jane McKinney owned 120 acres of land along today’s Pleasant Grove Road southeast of the cemetery. Peter Kline’s father Phillip Kline owned the red brick “Kline Farmhouse” (currently 830 Hanshaw Road) and the surrounding lands. Peter and Emeline Winters Kline’s 100-acre farm centered on what has become known as the “Cradit-Moore farmhouse” (originally 128 Pleasant Grove Road; moved to 172 Pleasant Grove Road in 2000) south of the cemetery.[4] Comfort Hanshaw co-owned the Hart & Hanshaw flour mill.[5] His parents, James and Christina Hanshaw, owned a 92-acre farm just to the north of the cemetery.[6]
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The New Topographical Atlas of Tompkins County from 1866 shows the location of the Pleasant Grove Cemetery and the farmhouses of William and Jane McKinney and Peter and Emeline Kline.
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In 1869, Kline, McKinney, and Hanshaw served as the original trustees of the newly incorporated Pleasant Grove Cemetery Association, with Kline as president and McKinney as treasurer.[7] In 1874, the trustees oversaw the further expansion of the cemetery lot. The cemetery more than doubled in size with the $1000 purchase of 6.29 acres from farm owners Charles A. and Sarah A. Bush.[8]
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In the same year that the Pleasant Grove Cemetery Association was established, 13-year-old local resident Carrie Manning (1856-1875) kept a daily diary. She documented her farm chores and school days, as well as keeping track of births and deaths. Funerals and burials were major events attended by many community members, and Carrie mentioned at least five funerals in that year. On a very cold, snowy day in late January, Carrie and her classmates at the Kline Schoolhouse watched “quite a good many” wagons in the procession for the burial of three-year-old Hattie Bush (1865-1869).[9] On July 14, Carrie and her family went to the funeral of Hattie’s grandfather, prominent Lansing farmer Daniel Stroud Bush (1796-1869).[10] She noted that “there were 37 wagons in the procession.”[11] (Read the Ithaca Journal's October 24, 2015 "Then and Now" article, "Girls make connections across the centuries," to learn more about Carrie Manning's life and impact.)
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Carrie Manning died when she was eighteen, of consumption. Her birth and death dates are shown on her mother’s gravestone. Caroline Drake Manning died in 1881, six years after her daughter’s death. (Photo by Patricia Longoria)
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Hattie Bush's small headstone sits next to that of her parents' gravestones. (Photo by Patricia Longoria)
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A framed photograph of Pleasant Grove Cemetery (ca. 1880s) by Joseph D. Eagles shows the entrance marked by an arched gate and a picket fence. At right is a hitched horse and buggy, and at left a circular turnaround for wagons.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Year: 1860; Census Place: Ithaca, Tompkins, New York; Roll: M653_868; Page: 519; Image: 523; Family History Library Film: 803868; Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1892 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012; Year: 1900; Census Place: Ithaca Ward 3, Tompkins, New York; Roll: 1169; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0154; FHL microfilm: 1241169; Name William McKinney; Probate Date 5 Apr 1910; Probate Place Tompkins, New York, USA; Inferred Death Year Abt 1910; Inferred Death Place New York, USA; Item Description Minutes, Orders, Decrees, Vol 55a, 1908-1914
[2] Name: Comfort Hanshaw; Probate Date: 1 Mar 1897; Probate Place: Tompkins, New York, USA; Inferred Death Year: Abt 1897; Inferred Death Place: New York, USA; Item Description: Letters Testamentary, Vol 10h-11i, 1881-1897
[3] Tompkins County Clerk’s Office Deed, Ithaca Book 1, Page 437, November 13, 1863.
[4] Peter Kline, Farmer, 100 acres; William McKinney, Farmer, 120 acres. Ithaca Business Directory, 1868-1869. Tompkins County, NYGenWeb Ithaca Business Directory, http://www.nytompki.org/bus06.htm
[5] US. Census 1870 Year: 1870; Census Place: Ithaca, Tompkins, New York; Roll: M593_1104; Page: 310B; Image: 626; Family History Library Film: 552603; Ithaca Business Directory, 1868-1869. Tompkins County, NYGenWeb Ithaca Business Directory, http://www.nytompki.org/bus06.htm
[6] 1850 U.S. Census: Year: 1850; Census Place: Ithaca, Tompkins, New York; Roll: M432_606; Page: 263B; Image: 130; Ithaca Business Directory, 1868-1869. Tompkins County, NYGenWeb Ithaca Business Directory, http://www.nytompki.org/bus06.htm
[7] Pleasant Grove Cemetery Association incorporated by certificate dated June 5, 1869; recorded in Tompkins County Clerk’s Office Liber 2 of Misc Records at Page 383. (Source: Ithaca Deed Book 829, Page 234)
[8] Tompkins County Clerk’s Office Deed Ithaca Book 8, Page 588, February 1870.
[9] William Heidt, Jr. (editor), Carrie Manning’s Diary 1869, DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Inc., Ithaca, New York, 1962, P. 10; Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original Data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.
[10] 1850 and 1860 U.S. Census, Ancestry.com; John H. Selkreg (ed.), Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York, D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, New York, 1894.
[11] William Heidt, Jr. (editor), Carrie Manning’s Diary 1869, DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Inc., Ithaca, New York, 1962, P. 32.
[1] Year: 1860; Census Place: Ithaca, Tompkins, New York; Roll: M653_868; Page: 519; Image: 523; Family History Library Film: 803868; Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1892 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012; Year: 1900; Census Place: Ithaca Ward 3, Tompkins, New York; Roll: 1169; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0154; FHL microfilm: 1241169; Name William McKinney; Probate Date 5 Apr 1910; Probate Place Tompkins, New York, USA; Inferred Death Year Abt 1910; Inferred Death Place New York, USA; Item Description Minutes, Orders, Decrees, Vol 55a, 1908-1914
[2] Name: Comfort Hanshaw; Probate Date: 1 Mar 1897; Probate Place: Tompkins, New York, USA; Inferred Death Year: Abt 1897; Inferred Death Place: New York, USA; Item Description: Letters Testamentary, Vol 10h-11i, 1881-1897
[3] Tompkins County Clerk’s Office Deed, Ithaca Book 1, Page 437, November 13, 1863.
[4] Peter Kline, Farmer, 100 acres; William McKinney, Farmer, 120 acres. Ithaca Business Directory, 1868-1869. Tompkins County, NYGenWeb Ithaca Business Directory, http://www.nytompki.org/bus06.htm
[5] US. Census 1870 Year: 1870; Census Place: Ithaca, Tompkins, New York; Roll: M593_1104; Page: 310B; Image: 626; Family History Library Film: 552603; Ithaca Business Directory, 1868-1869. Tompkins County, NYGenWeb Ithaca Business Directory, http://www.nytompki.org/bus06.htm
[6] 1850 U.S. Census: Year: 1850; Census Place: Ithaca, Tompkins, New York; Roll: M432_606; Page: 263B; Image: 130; Ithaca Business Directory, 1868-1869. Tompkins County, NYGenWeb Ithaca Business Directory, http://www.nytompki.org/bus06.htm
[7] Pleasant Grove Cemetery Association incorporated by certificate dated June 5, 1869; recorded in Tompkins County Clerk’s Office Liber 2 of Misc Records at Page 383. (Source: Ithaca Deed Book 829, Page 234)
[8] Tompkins County Clerk’s Office Deed Ithaca Book 8, Page 588, February 1870.
[9] William Heidt, Jr. (editor), Carrie Manning’s Diary 1869, DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Inc., Ithaca, New York, 1962, P. 10; Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original Data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.
[10] 1850 and 1860 U.S. Census, Ancestry.com; John H. Selkreg (ed.), Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York, D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, New York, 1894.
[11] William Heidt, Jr. (editor), Carrie Manning’s Diary 1869, DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Inc., Ithaca, New York, 1962, P. 32.
