10 Vice Presidential Grave Facts
ISSUE NO. 22 // 10 VP GRAVE FACTS
I’m excited to turn this issue over to a guest, Kurt Deion. When he’s not sneaking into cemeteries, Kurt is a public historian and newly published author. He dug up 10 facts about vice presidential graves.
Enjoy!
Presidential Doodler
PS If this isn’t enough VPs for you, I have more and so does Kurt.
10 Vice Presidential Grave Facts
Mapping it Out
There are 43 deceased U.S. vice presidents, and their graves are spread out across 21 states, plus Washington, D.C. New York has the most VP graves, with 10. Indiana is in a distant 2nd place, with 4.
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A Horde of Hoosiers
Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana, contains a record 3 vice presidential graves: Thomas Hendricks, Charles Fairbanks, and Thomas Marshall are all interred in the 550-acre burial ground. Crown Hill’s other permanent residents include sports franchise owner Robert Irsay, bank robber John Dillinger, President Benjamin Harrison, and the inventor of the Gatling gun.
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Hide and Seek with a Veep
When George Clinton died in office in 1812, he was buried in Washington, D.C.’s Congressional Cemetery. In 1908, efforts were undertaken to dig up his body and return it to his hometown of Kingston, New York. However, workers struggled to locate Clinton’s triple-layered coffin at first. They eventually found it by probing the ground with pikes. The group took the remains to a naval hospital close by, where evidence confirmed it was the former VP, buried in his general’s uniform from the American Revolution.
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America’s Hottest Old Cemetery is…
Although George Clinton was exhumed, Vice President Elbridge Gerry’s body still rests at Congressional Cemetery, which is known as “America’s Hippest Cemetery.” This cemetery has everything: yoga sessions, book club meetings, movie nights, concerts, a death doula, an off-leash dog walking club called the K-9 Corps, and bees that make honey — jars of which are periodically sold in the office gift shop.
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Murder in a Cemetery… Kinda
VP Richard Mentor Johnson was a colonel during the War of 1812. He is alleged to be the person who killed Shawnee chief Tecumseh at the Battle of Thames. This possibility is depicted on Johnson’s grave in Frankfort, Kentucky. A carved figure of Johnson sits astride his horse and fires a pistol at Tecumseh, who clutches at his fresh, fatal wound.
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Hobart’s Not-So-Humble Home
The largest vice presidential grave is the tomb of Garret Hobart in Paterson, New Jersey. With the Hobart plot too small to accommodate her plans, Second Lady Jennie Hobart purchased 11 additional, adjoining lots at Cedar Lawn Cemetery. A massive mausoleum with imposing columns, marble sarcophagi, and an angelic stained-glass window was then constructed on the site. A 1901 newspaper reported that the project was projected to cost $80,000. In 2023 money, that amount is equivalent to $2.8 million.
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John C. Calhidden
John C. Calhoun was removed from his grave during the Civil War because locals feared — should Charleston fall to Union forces — that the body of South Carolina’s most noted pro-slavery statesman would be desecrated. Calhoun’s iron coffin was secreted across the street to a different churchyard until Charlestonians determined the Yankee threat had passed.
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Rocky’s Restricted Rest
One vice president’s grave is inaccessible to the general public: Nelson A. Rockefeller’s in Sleepy Hollow, New York. His ashes are buried in the private Rockefeller Family Cemetery.
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Minneapolis Miracle or Mystery?
One dead vice president does not have a grave… yet! Walter Mondale died in April 2021, and no news about his final disposition was announced until around the time his memorial service was held over a year later, in May 2022. A newspaper article from that month states that Mondale’s family plans to eventually lay him to rest at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the same cemetery where Hubert Humphrey is buried. But as of March 2023, the Mondales still have not contacted the Lakewood office.
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Ashes to Ashes
Walter Mondale’s ashes are contained in a ceramic pot that was crafted by his late wife, Joan. Mrs. Mondale’s own cremains used to occupy the handmade urn, but her husband later scattered them from the banks of the St. Croix River. The Mondale children had no idea their father did this until they picked up the urn and discovered it was empty!
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Kurt Deion is a public historian, author, guest speaker, and the presidential expert for RoadsideAmerica.com. He holds an M.A. in history. At age 14 he launched kurtshistoricsites.com as a means to both document his travels and to encourage others to visit gravesites and engage in hands-on history. His website and his cemetery pilgrimages were the subject of a 2015 interview on the C-SPAN show Q&A. Read about his quest in his book, Presidential Grave Hunter: One Kid's Quest to Visit the Tombs of Every President and Vice President.
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