Residents tour Warren’s oldest cemetery
Packard researcher tells ‘buried’ stories
Trending
WARREN -- Facts about the Packard family and others buried in Oakwood Cemetery were shared Sunday during the last cemetery tour of the year hosted by the Packard Museum.
The rain held off for the hourlong tour conducted by Charles Ohlin, director of education and research at the museum, as a group of 10 residents meandered through one of the city's oldest cemeteries, which was established in 1849.
Several members of other local historical societies went on the tour.
"We try to hold fun cemetery tours and share stories that people may not know about the Packard family and others buried here," he said.
The tour was part of the Packard Genealogy Tours.
Ohlin said one of the first Packard family members to buy cemetery plots came in 1855. Ohlin said Kirtland Fitch was a local bank cashier who embezzled $80,000 from Second National Bank in Warren in the 1880s.
He said Fitch disguised himself as a woman and fled Warren and federal authorities and later was caught by law enforcement near Boston, Mass., trying to get into Canada. Fitch spent several years in prison.
"He was among the elite in Warren at that time. The story made national news and was on the front page of the New York Times," Ohlin said.
Ohlin said Warren Packard, the patriarch of the family who was in the hardware business, is buried in the center of the cemetery. He said Packard provided lumber for the transcontinental railroad ties.
"When he died in 1897, his obituary said he was one of the most respected businessmen in Ohio. All the businesses in Warren closed down so the owners could attend his funeral. Joseph Butler of the Butler Museum said Packard was a very respected businessman and always able to wiggle out of difficult situations but often ended up getting into bad situations," Ohlin said.
Ohlin said Warren Packard III was a local businessman born in 1892 and worked for his father, but his life was cut short when he died in a plane crash in 1929.
"He took a plane to a Packard sales convention in Detroit and was taking some of the sales people there when the engine lost power and the plane was not able to land properly. It crashed into a marsh outside of Detroit," he said.
Packard's sister, Carlotta Packard, was regarded as a great hostess at the family's mansion in Warren, but her dog Chico got her into trouble. While in New York in 1932, her Belgian griffin dog Chico ran through Central Park without a muzzle and bit people. Ohlin said a judge fined her $5, which is the equivalent of $100 today.
Ohlin said the local health department reported more than 75 people per day were bitten by unmuzzled dogs in New York City.
"A newspaper article described Carlotta as very upset claiming her dog was thoroughly harmless. The article described Chico as no bigger than a plump mouse," Ohlin said.
Ohlin said Carlotta Packard moved in her late 30s to New York City but did not take her dog, Towzer, the mascot for the Packard Car Company, who later died of loneliness.
"There was an obituary in the local paper after Towzer died, saying he died of a lonely heart after Carlotta moved to New York City without him," he said.
Pam Clower of the Vienna Historical Society said the Vienna society also conducts tours regularly of the Vienna Cemetery.
Suzette Liddle of the Howland Historical Society said her relatives are buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
She said her father told her the first dental society that formed in Warren was to remember Cordyon Palmer, who had a dental office in the Union Savings Bank Building and died in an elevator accident.
"Years ago the elevators in some buildings did not have all the safety features that they have now, and Cordyon Palmer was decapitated in an accident. The other dentists in the area came to the funeral and named the dental society to remember him. They called it the Cordyon Palmer Dental Society. His grave is on a corner in Oakwood Cemetery," Liddle said.
Cindee Mines of Champion said the Howland Historical Society is planning a cemetery tour for early November to showcase Howland's cemeteries.
Participants also visited the graves of William Doud and James Ward Packard, who founded Packard Electric and the Packard Motor Car Company, along with the final resting places of their wives, father, sister, aunt, uncle and cousins, along with W.D.'s son, grandchildren and a few assorted in-laws.