Gardens of Stone --- A Cemetery Blog by Alexandra Kathryn Mosca

  When President Ulysses S. Grant died on July 23, 1885, two undertakers were called to prepare his remains. At the suggestion of Grant's physician, Dr. John Douglas Ebenezer Holmes was contacted. Holmes brought his patented invention, the “Corpse Cooler Casket,” to preserve the body in the summer heat until the embalming process could be carried out. Later, Reverend Stephen Merritt Jr. arrived to handle the embalming process with associates Daniel Harrigan, Felix Sullivan, and a small group of assistants. Sullivan was an expert in embalming who had previously worked on President Garfield and had recently opened the New York School of Embalming. Meanwhile, Merritt had taken over his family's undertaking business in the 1870s and was one of the most well-known and respected undertakers in New York City. Harrigan handled the funeral arrangements for Albany, while Merritt took care of those in New York City.However, conflict arose between Merritt and Holmes over payments and libel...

  A cenotaph in Staten island's Moravian Cemetery memorializes Eberhard Faber. Although Faber is buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood, graves of many of Faber's family members, including his brother and his sons, are here. Faber was born into a family making pencils since 1761. In 1848, he moved to New York City, where he opened his first pencil factory on 42nd Street near the East River. Unfortunately, the factory was destroyed in a fire in 1872. The businessman built a larger factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He was the first pencil manufacturer to put rubber erasers on his pencils. Although there is a cenotaph monument in his memory, his burial place is at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.