Behind every headstone at Syracuse’s Oakwood Cemetery is a story, a piece of the city’s history.
In one of the historic cemetery’s older sections, stands a heartbreaking memorial to a young woman, Ella Rosa Burt, who passed away on Feb. 17, 1872, at just 19 years old.
Her ornate tombstone features a woman sitting, her hands in her lap, cradling a bouquet of flowers.
The head of the statue is sadly missing, perhaps the result of long-ago vandalism or simply the passage of time. It’s one of several monuments in every cemetery that have lost pieces or fallen apart over time.
This led us to wonder about who this young woman was and whether anyone knows what happened to the missing head.
We know Ella Rosa Burt was the eldest daughter to a prominent Syracuse family.
The news of her illness and passing in Syracuse newspapers only add to her mystery.
Her father, Oliver Teall Burt, was the son of one of the city’s earliest founders.
He studied law and had several business interests including the Lake Ontario Steamboat Company and was president of the Central City Bank. He was alderman of Syracuse’s Fourth Ward to the Common Council.
Oliver Teall Burt committed suicide on Dec. 3, 1887 after months of depression and despondency.
For a period, he and his wife, the former Rebecca Johnson, were among the most sociable couples in Syracuse.
“Mrs. Burt was regarded as one of the most brilliant hostesses of her day,” a 1904 Post-Standard story said.
She was born in 1826 at County Tyrone, Ireland and came to America six years later. She stayed active in Syracuse society until her death in 1919 at the age of 92. She was one of Syracuse’s first fervent fans of motion pictures.
She was buried at Oakwood alongside her husband and oldest daughter.
Ella Rosa Burt is a frustrating mystery.
Her name did not appear in local newspapers after she became sick on Valentine’s Day, 1872.
“The numerous friends of Mr. O. T. Burt will regret to learn that his eldest daughter is dangerously ill of typhoid fever at the family residence,” the Daily Standard said. “Very little hopes are entertained for her recovery. They have the sympathy of the entire community in this their hour of trial.”
The newspaper’s notice of her passing five days later was beautifully written but is aggravatingly vague about who this young woman was.
It said in part:
“The beauty of her person was but the index of the truer beauty of the mind and soul with which she was endowed. She was a student of attainments, rare in one of her age and size, the ornament of all social circles in which she moved, the idol of her home, the devoted member of the church with which she was associated, alike trusting in and illustrating its generous teachings. None envied her gifts, for she was sweetly conscious of them. The world opened brightly before her just as she was called to leave it.”
Ella Rosa Burt’s death left Syracuse “awe stricken at its suddenness” and “sadly marveling of its meaning.”
Today, we wonder if the head which once graced the top of her beautiful monument is still around.
If you know anything, please email jcroyle@syracuse.com.
If nothing else, Ella Rosa reminds us all today to take care of our precious monuments, tombstones and graves.
“[Oakwood] is not a park,” said Oakwood Cemetery’s executive director Alvin Herrington. “Just be respectful. Don’t lean on or sit on monuments. Treat it like it’s your family.”
