For more up to date information on the cemeteries, check out this chart on our website:
http://defiancecountygenealogy.org/cemeteries.html)
Riverside Cemetery
6. Names of important persons buried there (continued):
- Captain Sprague, soldier and Civil War Captain, who lost his life in the War, born 1806 and killed in action, 1864. Buried in old part of the cemetery. He was an attorney of note before the war of 1861.
- Elias Shirley, 1807 - 1848, young pioneer settler of note, land owner, factory man and president of a bank, killed while hunting one Thanksgiving Day in 1848. Son of this Mr. Shirley later was proprietor of the Old Shirley House, a famous Civil War days hostellery, now torn down.
-Captain Walter Wilhelm, born in Defiance in 1884, educated in the Defiance schools, a brilliant young man who, during the World War, was general manager of the Eddstone Plant at Eddystone, Pa. Died of pneumonia in 1918. Capt. Wilhelm is a brother of Don.Wilhelm, noted short story writer and journalist, a critic with the Doubleday -Doran Book and Publishing Company. Capt. Wilhelm's mother, Mrs. John Wilhelm, lives in Defiance on Holgate Avenue. By marriage, they are related to the Holgates.
- Dr. Charles M. Zellar (Zeller),
noted physician and manufacturer, half owner of the Automatic Screw Machine Products Company of Defiance, Ohio. Born in 1873 and died in 1928. The Zellar plot is in the Catholic section of the new graveyard on consecrated ground.
He has the finest, as well as the most expensive monument on this lot of any other in the whole cemetery. The large marker or main tomb is six feet long, three and one half feet high and two feet thick, setting on the back of the lot which faces one of the driveways and is backed by a hedge of imported evergreen bushes. In front is an urn four feet high, always filled with flowers, and at the sides of the larger marker are two benches two feet high; all of these and including three headstones on the lot, are made of solid Italian marble. The cost of all this was five thousand dollars.
-Stanley Lewis, 1889 - 1931, Defiance College professor and chemist, gassed while making poison gas in the World War and never fully recovered. Professor was a contributor to various scientific periodicals, especially The American Chemist, a technical magazine. At the time of his death, he held the Chair of Science and Chemistry at Defiance College. He is buried in the new part of the graveyard - a brown granite marker is erected to his memory.
- Sylvis Garver, Spanish-American War veteran, politician and superintendent of the Soldiers' Home at Springfield, Ohio until 1931. Born in 1871 and died in 1936. In the new graveyard.
- Francis E. Blanchard, brilliant musician, concert player and composer of world renown, born in Defiance, Ohio in 1874, died in 1933 at the height of his career. Buried in consecrated ground in the Catholic Cemetery, a large white sandstone marker erected to his memory.
- Lon W. Moore, famous clown of the Hagenback and Wallace Circus, born in 1865 and died in 1920. Lon Moore was killed in an automobile wreck in Colorado while traveling with the circus through that state in the summer of 1920. Two years before, he narrowly escaped death in the fatal train wreck of this circus when thirty-two persons were killed and as many of the animals. Every circus that comes within fifty miles of Defiance makes the trip to his grave to deposit a wreath upon it. His grave is in the third section of the new graveyard and is marked by a headstone.
To be continued...
(The Works Progress Administration was formed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in reaction to the Great Depression as a means of employing Americans and stimulating the economy. Established in 1935, one of the projects of the W.P.A. was to conduct Historical Records Surveys, one of which included finding information on cemeteries and the graves of veterans. The W.P.A. was disbanded in 1943, but the historical information provided on these surveys continue to be of interest and are, thankfully, preserved.)
- Captain Sprague, soldier and Civil War Captain, who lost his life in the War, born 1806 and killed in action, 1864. Buried in old part of the cemetery. He was an attorney of note before the war of 1861.
- Elias Shirley, 1807 - 1848, young pioneer settler of note, land owner, factory man and president of a bank, killed while hunting one Thanksgiving Day in 1848. Son of this Mr. Shirley later was proprietor of the Old Shirley House, a famous Civil War days hostellery, now torn down.
 |
| Capt. Walter Wilhelm at www.findagrave.com |
 |
| Charles M. Zeller at www.findagrave.com |
noted physician and manufacturer, half owner of the Automatic Screw Machine Products Company of Defiance, Ohio. Born in 1873 and died in 1928. The Zellar plot is in the Catholic section of the new graveyard on consecrated ground.
He has the finest, as well as the most expensive monument on this lot of any other in the whole cemetery. The large marker or main tomb is six feet long, three and one half feet high and two feet thick, setting on the back of the lot which faces one of the driveways and is backed by a hedge of imported evergreen bushes. In front is an urn four feet high, always filled with flowers, and at the sides of the larger marker are two benches two feet high; all of these and including three headstones on the lot, are made of solid Italian marble. The cost of all this was five thousand dollars.
 |
| Stanley Lewis at www.findagrave.com |
- Sylvis Garver, Spanish-American War veteran, politician and superintendent of the Soldiers' Home at Springfield, Ohio until 1931. Born in 1871 and died in 1936. In the new graveyard.
- Francis E. Blanchard, brilliant musician, concert player and composer of world renown, born in Defiance, Ohio in 1874, died in 1933 at the height of his career. Buried in consecrated ground in the Catholic Cemetery, a large white sandstone marker erected to his memory.
 |
| Orlando "Lon" Moore at www.findagrave.com |
To be continued...
(The Works Progress Administration was formed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in reaction to the Great Depression as a means of employing Americans and stimulating the economy. Established in 1935, one of the projects of the W.P.A. was to conduct Historical Records Surveys, one of which included finding information on cemeteries and the graves of veterans. The W.P.A. was disbanded in 1943, but the historical information provided on these surveys continue to be of interest and are, thankfully, preserved.)
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