My Ohio: Legends of Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery

CLEVELAND - The world’s first billionaire and a U.S. president are both resting in peace at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, and there is a mystery surrounding another famous person’s grave.

It was an autumn Cleveland day when hoses clip-clopped, pulling a hearse bearing the body of the murdered president. In 1881, Cleveland-area-born President James Garfield had been assassinated and his body brought to the cemetery.

“Mr. Garfield was born and raised in northeast Ohio, born in what is now Moreland Hills, lived, of course, in Mentor,” said Mary Krohmer, with Lake View Cemetery.

At the cemetery’s highest point is the Garfield Monument. When the funeral procession came up the hill, Garfield’s body was placed elsewhere, but a few years later, the monument was ready and his remains were moved.

"The president's casket is the only presidential casket that is on what we call full display. You can see the casket on a beautiful platform,” Krohmer said. “All the other presidential caskets are either buried in the ground or in some time of structure."

Next to President Garfield’s casket is that of his wife, and the ashes of their daughter and son-in-law.

The world’s first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, is also buried in the historic Cleveland cemetery. A monument stands of the family burial spot. Legend has it, if you leave money on Rockefeller’s gravestone, then the wealth will find you. Money left there goes to charity.

There is another burial spot with a legend. Ray Chapman was the only Major League Baseball player to die directly from the game. Playing for the 1920 Cleveland Indians, a pitched ball caught him in the head. Chapman died that day.

In tribute, Cleveland fans raised money for the gravestone. Since 1920, mysteriously, baseball items regularly appear at Chapman’s grave.

"You'll see baseballs, gloves, hats, pennants, jerseys. And you actually see money on the headstone,” Krohmer said.

In 1869, when Lake View Cemetery first opened, it was initially thought to be a place for Cleveland’s socially well-known and financially well-to-do. It’s certainly grown beyond that.