The grave of this 19th-century lawyer-turned-American president, who succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage, remained unadorned almost three years after his death. Displeased by such a stark state of affairs, his friends banded together and raised $10,000 — an impressive sum for that era — to commission an appropriately ornate and thoughtful tombstone. In response, well-known sculptor Ephraim Keyser crafted a life-size bronze angel gracefully laying a palm frond atop the black granite sarcophagus that the president shares with his wife.
This now-lavish gravesite can be marveled over at one of the region’s most bucolic cemeteries, wherein a number of notable political figures — many from the Civil War era — are buried. It is located in the northern Valley village close to the president’s childhood home, along with the church, now a post office, where his controversial abolitionist father once served as pastor.
Can you identify the name of this onetime president and the location of his final resting place? Submit your answer using the form below. The first reader with the correct response wins a prize. Good luck!
