Blog: Erie Street Cemetery

10.06.07 Erie Street Cemetery | Cleveland, OH

Erie Street Cemetery sits across the street from Jacobs Field, in Cleveland, OH. It was established in 1826, but it's first burial was in 1803, when it's initial location was the Ontario Street Cemetery, which they moved for more space. The cemetery is no longer active and has 17,935 interments, many of which are sunken in, damaged, and illegible.

There are at least two real Native American Indians buried, Chief Thunderwater, a Niagara Indian, who was a Cleveland celebrity and dubbed "the official Cleveland Indian" by fans.

The there was Joc-O-Sot, a chief of the Fox or Mesquakie tribe, who fought against the US in the 1831 Black Hawk War. After a European tour in 1844, he fell ill and hoped to make it home (Wisconsin or Minnesota) to be buried close to his ancestors. He made it as far as Cleveland and died there. Rumor has it that his ghost walks around at night, bitter and angry that he is buried so far away from home, and that he shattered his original tombstone.