Woodlawn Cemetery - Lima Ohio

02/26/2026

Among our many building contractors was one exceptionally talented one who was well known for the many fine schools, municipal buildings and theatres he built in Lima and the surrounding area. Andrew Gerald "Gerry" Sawyer (d. 1962) was owner of Green & Sawyer Contractors. He had come to Lima from Cincinnati as an engineer on the B&O Railroad. He soon went to work for the Green contracting company, and eventually became a partner. His wife was Mary Christine Jones (d. 1980). Their children were Adelaide C. (d. 1992), Thomas G. (d. 1979), and Sylvia (Mrs. Martin Knapp). Their gray granite stone bears a quotation from Psalm 30: 5: "Weeping endureth for a night, joy cometh in the morning."

02/12/2026

Frederick Agerter was born in 1833 and died in 1883. Associated with the machine business known as Carnes, Agerter, & Co., which later became the Lima Locomotive Works, Mr. Agerter was born in Switzerland and apparently his family wanted posterity to recognize this fact, as his monument bears the inscription, "Canton Berne, Switzerland." His widow, Martha J. (Browne) Agerter (d. 1909), is by him, and the rest of the family is nearby on the same lot. The family further emphasized their Swiss ancestry by naming Frederick's nephew, William Tell Agerter, for the Swiss national hero. Born in 1859, William T. Agerter was also an official of the Lima Locomotive Works and a president of the Woodlawn Cemetery Association. He died in 1944 and is on an adjoining lot with members of his family, including his wife, Charlotte (Disman) Agerter.

02/05/2026

Dorothy K. Beecher was a national, even international, celebrity. She was born to a family of former abolitionists, suffragettes and free thinkers. Her Grandmother Beecher took her to a Baha'i event when she was barely a teenager, and she became a believer. After marrying Frank Baker, baker of Plezol bread (the bakery later became Nickles), she hosted local programs and became involved in the faith on a national and international level. She was made one of the faith's nine "Hands of the Cause of God" in the world. She was on a Baha'i trip in 1954 when her plane exploded over the Mediterranean. Her remains were never recovered. Frank continued her evangelistic work, though on not as high a level, and died in 1963. Her mother, Dr. Luella K. (Gorham) Beecher (an obstetrician) died in 1966. Dr. Luella Beecher's mother-in-law, Ellen Virginia (Tuller) Beecher also rests here. The family's memorial bench honors them with a saying of the Baha'u'llah: "I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve?"

01/22/2026

The Curtin family came to Ohio with the oil boom, working first in Auglaize County, then Allen County. Emmett R. Curtin branched out into utilities and banking. He was president of the Lima Natural Gas Co. (precursor to West Ohio Gas), Lima Telephone & Telegraph, and the First American Bank & Trust Co. Emmett R., Sr. was buried at Woodlawn in 1931. The Curtin mausoleum dates to 1937 with the death of E. R., Sr.'s wife Effie (Allen) Curtin. E.R., Sr. was transferred there at that time. His son, Emmett R., Jr., followed in his father's footsteps in gas and oil, as well as various Lima utilities and banking endeavors, and was buried there in 1949, followed by his wife Hazel (Wright) Curtin in 1958.

01/15/2026

An impressive granite shaft marks the burial place of the Zetlitz family. Eggert Zetlitz came to Ohio from Norway as a youth. He worked his way up from being a gardener to becoming Lima's foremost florist in the early 1900s. he had a shop on W. Market Street and several greenhouses where his magnificent flowers were grown. He and his wife Emilie (Berner) lie here, along with their son, Thor, who died in 1917 - the first Lima soldier to die in World War I (he succumbed to pneumonia). The florist died in 1930 and his widow in 1949. Their children surround them: Thor, Ronda (Zetlitz) McPheron, Borghild (Zetlitz) Fletcher and family.

01/08/2026

This large slab of granite is a tribute to the family of Alfred C. Baxter, Jr., the nephew of Samuel A. Baxter. Alf started out in banking with the Baxter Brothers and went on to become a clerk with his uncle and Calvin Brice's Lima Gas Light Co. In 1885 he married Ben Faurot's daughter Carrie, and they had six children. Carrie died at the birth of the youngest. Faurot had erected a magnificent home called Oak Hall for the young couple on what later became the site of Faurot School. Alf married again to Elizabeth Moore. Two years later, twin daughters were born to the couple, but the mother died at their birth. Alf died of acute alcoholism in a sanitarium in 1915.

01/01/2026

12/18/2025

Perhaps the memorial that attracts the most attention and comment as one enters Woodlawn Cemetery is the monument to John Wheeler and family. It is a huge block of granite with a bronze plaque on top and is on a raised platform. A railroad flatcar and special equipment were required to bring it to the cemetery and erect it. It bears the date 1903 and the text of Revelations 14:13. "And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which died in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." Mr. Wheeler had been a grocer in Lima from about 1858 on. He erected the Wheeler Block on the southeast corner of Market & Elizabeth in 1889. He died a wealthy man in 1901. His widow, Milleretta (Carlin) Wheeler, married again to Dr. Wm. C. Watson and survived until 1905. All three of their sons (Carlin, Charles and Harry) died before their mother, having never married.

12/12/2025

Joseph C. Thompson, patriarch of the Thompson family, was an early Lima dry goods merchant who expanded his view to the banking realm. He founded the Ohio National Bank, which later changed its name to the Old National Bank. His son, Marshall S. Thompson, followed him in banking, and is buried in the mausoleum here with him. Both men died of accidents - the father falling on a fence in 1919, and the son in an auto-pedeestrian accident in 1926. Ironically, the son of the next generation became a well known name in automobile sales and buildings, though he chose to take his family to another cemetery. J.C. and Marsh's wives are here as well - Sara C. (Smeltzer) Thompson (d. 1904), and Carrie A. (Clemmenger) Thompson (d. 1936), as is the daughter of Marsh and Carrie - Helen (Thompson) Gayer (d. 1952), with the cremains of her husband, Harold I. Gayer.

12/04/2025

Robert J. Plate, associated with the Deisel-Wemmer Cigar Company, the Lima Trust Company, Colonial Finance, Superior Body, among others, and, at one time, president of the Woodlawn Cemetery Association, was a very frugal man. However, he was thought highly of, and the memorial arch at the entrance to Woodlawn bears his name. Mr. Plate's benevolence, particularly toward the YMCA and Trinity M.E. Church will always be remembered. Both he and his widow, Bernice (Willaman) Plate, died in 1965, had no offspring, and their grave marker is very modest.