A LOOK AT MAPLEWOOD CEMETERY

There can only be one place that a person could ever begin touring Maplewood Cemetery. The Wooldridge Monuments have long been one of Mayfield's Favorite Tourist Attractions. The monuments are located in the southwest corner of the cemetery. They have been dubbed as

"THE STRANGE PROCESSION WHICH NEVER MOVES"

The 18-figure group was erected in the late 1890's by Henry G. Wooldridge. He is the only person entombed on the lot. Colonel Wooldridge raised, raced, and sold horses in the Mayfield / Graves County area. He never married after his first and only love died in a riding accident years before in Tennessee. About 1880, as Col. Wooldridge neared 60 years of age, he moved to Mayfield, where he lived until his death on May 30, 1899. The group of monuments consist of two statues of Henry- one astride his favorite horse, Fop and another with him standing beside a lectern.

According to folklore, the Illinois Central Railroad supplied a special flatcar with "new-type air brakes" to transport from Paducah, KY to Mayfield the large statue of Col. Wooldridge astride his horse. It was told that Mayfield's "town drunk" happened to be in Paducah when the flatcar left for Maplewood Cemetery. The story goes that he climbed aboard the horse and rode behind Col. Wooldridge's statue to enter Mayfield in grand style.

The other life size statues depict his mother, Keziah, his brothers, Alfred, W.F., John, and Josiah. Also include are his sisters, Susan Neely, Narcissa Berryman, Minerva Nichols, plus his two nieces, Maud Reeds and Minnie Neely.

There is a story that the statue of Minnie, is Henry's childhood love who died in the riding accident. However, family records prove that Minnie was actually one of the Colonel's great-nieces.

There are also included in the grouping, two hunting dogs, Towhead and Bob, a fox, a deer, and the Colonel's vault.

Another story (which has never been verified) is the metallic casket which Henry had ordered from D.A. Saffold was too long to go inside the elaborate vault. Stone Masons had to be hurriedly called in to enlarge the vault on the day of Henry's burial.

An interesting bit of information brought to our attention by one of Henry's descendants (Sandy Joyner) is that there is no depiction or mention of Colonel Wooldridge's father Josiah in this unusual group of statues.

The Wooldridge Monuments are known across the country, partially due to the T.V. show "Ripley's Believe It or Not" which featured the monuments in one of its episodes in September 1984 and partially to the many stories which surround the monuments. The Wooldridge Monuments are probably Maplewood's largest attraction, but there are other interesting grave sites as well. In the 1890's the Graves County Confederate Veterans Association erected a monument which memorializes a young man, Henry Bascom Hicks. Hicks was killed by order of General E.A. Paine "on the streets of Mayfield, Kentucky" (quoting the inscription on the monument) in August of 1864. The 18 year old student, accused of being a spy, refused to be blindfolded as he faced his executioners, saying "I can look you in the eye"... (again, quoting one side of the monument). In 1990, Tilghman-Beauregard Camp No. 146-- sons of Confederate Veterans, had a new monument carved since the original was becoming faded.

An interesting stone at the foot of Mr. R.J. Beaumont, bears the interesting wording "Brought from Bethlehem in the Holy Land".

Four members of the United States Congress are interred beneath the beautiful maple and magnolia trees. Plus, former members of the U.S. House of Representatives buried here are Judge Andrew R. Boone, who served in the early and mid-1870's and ex-Confederate Colonel Edward Crossland, who served in the late 1870's. Brothers, Voris and Noble Gregory, who served back-to-back terms in the House of Representatives from the early 1930's until the late 1950's, are also buried in Maplewood.

Another monument with interesting folklore behind it is the tall angel rock on the Slayden lot. According to folklore, when the monument was erected the angel was holding a full stalk of grapes in her extended hand. As time past, one by one, the grapes began to fall and disappear. Legend has it that when the last grape falls the world will end.

The first woman sheriff in Kentucky, Mary Lois Roach, is buried in Maplewood Cemetery. Mrs. Roach was appointed to that office after her husband, John T. Roach, was shot shortly after having won the sheriff's election on August 6, 1921.

The Wooldridge monuments may be Mayfield's best know tourist attraction, but the grave site of the Drew/Lawrence family is the most mysterious. Dubbed "One of the Unsolved Mysteries", this grave contains the ashes of (11) people (Ottis and Lorie Riley Drew, their three children (Harry K., Adell, and Madine), a brother Delmer Drew, also Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Lawrence and their three children) mysteriously died in a house fire at Hickory, KY. on June 25, 1921. The cause of the fire has never been determined. According to ,Martha Babb, (just had to give this sweet lady a plug) a blackman named Fred Ellsworth was hired to enter the house and put the remains of these families in a bag (since nobody else would go in) so they could be buried. Sometimes called "Graves County's Greatest Mystery", this story has been featured in an episode of the TV show, "Unsolved Mysteries".

As you can see, Maplewood contains many interesting grave sites. Many stories have been told about the Wooldridge Monuments and the Drew/Lawrence family plot. But Maplewood still withholds some of its secrets even today. As recent as 1994, a visitor related the story of how James A. Wright was stabbed to death during a church service at Wrights Chapel Church by John P. Ballew. According to the visitor, James Wright was baby-sitting for John Ballew's grandson, James Thaxton Beadles. The grandson was left unattended by Mr. Wright and ran off to swim in Mayfield Creek with the "Burton boys" and drowned.

Many people find cemeteries to be haunting places, but instead they can be a wealth of information and a "Vault for many untold stories and secrets'.