ST. ANTHONY’S CEMETERY
Elm St. & Berlin St.
Milan, Ohio 44846
Established: Unknown
Acres: Unknown
No Official Website
Bella Morte Rating: 1 Tombstone
This small, mostly unremarkable, cemetery is adjacent to (and shares a common road with) Milan Cemetery. What makes it worthy of a place on Bella Morte is the presence of the truly remarkable Valentine Fries family mausoleum, a structure that would not be out of place among some of the grandest cemeteries we have visited.
Fries was born in Germany, but his family moved to the U.S. (Massillon, Ohio) when he was five years old. At the age of 20, he moved to Milan, where he used money he’d saved while working as a drug store clerk in Massillon, to open his own grocery store. While running his business, he continued to save money and embraced the study of shipbuilding. In 1861, his patience, discipline and skill paid off when he built his first schooner, The Hyphen. Over the next several years, he oversaw the construction of several more ships. He sold the grocery and wholeheartedly pursued his dream of making his shipbuilding company flourish; however, when the Huron River Dam (located in downtown Milan) burst, the canals were left without a water supply. All shipbuilding businesses in the town moved out…save Fries Landing, Shipbuilding & Warehousing. Determined to stay in Milan, Fries made a deal with the owners of Ben Abbotts’ property (see Milan Cemetery for more info on Mr. Abbott) to move the business there, where access to the Huron River was readily available. Having thus rearranged things, Fries went on to become a millionaire, building a number of schooners and moving products in and out of Milan and other river towns for several decades.
Fries retired in 1883 at the age of 57. Six years later, he married Anna Crone of Massillon, Ohio and the following year, the couple’s only child (Valentine A. Fries) was born.
In 1900, at the age of 64, Fries died and was buried in Milan Cemetery. His widow, however, had other ideas for his postmortem dwelling. He had lived and died a Catholic and she wished him to be buried in a cemetery belonging to that faith. Accordingly, she commissioned Smith Monumental Works in Norwalk, Ohio to construct a grand mausoleum on the grounds of neighboring St. Anthony’s.
The structure is composed of sandstone and features cathedral glass in the ceiling as well as several stained glass windows.
Photo: Window One
Photo: Window Two
Photo: Stained Glass Dome
Nine simple in-wall crypts against the back wall, arranged in rows of four across and three down, were constructed to contain Valentine’s body as well as the bodies of other family members.
The mausoleum was completed in 1906 and Valentine was duly transferred to the regal tomb.
Although Anna wed again (she married a man named Harry Chapin in 1907), upon her death in 1919 she was entombed beside her first husband in the Fries Mausoleum. The couple’s son died in 1937 and is also entombed in the structure.
In addition to the Fries Mausoleum, St. Anthony’s also features a fairly impressive crucifixion scene dedicated in honour of Reverend Leonard Lentsch, a Redemptorist priest who, judging by the monument, was well-loved by his parishoners.
The main figure (crucifix) is the creation of John Baptiste Verment, a well-known sculptor who moved from France to Massillon, Ohio. The four panels at the base of the cross bear the following inscriptions:
Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
It is therefore a holy & wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.
2 Machabees 12:46
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:12
A.D. 1884
The Reverend’s tombstone is a grey ledger with a chalice engraved at the top under which is the following inscription:
This is my body which is given for you.
Do this for a commemoration of me.
Rev. Leonard Lentsch
Born April 25, 1850
Ordained Sept 1, 1877
Died March 7, 1812
Requiescat in Pace
[F]
Elm St. & Berlin St.
Milan, Ohio 44846
Established: Unknown
Acres: Unknown
No Official Website
Bella Morte Rating: 1 Tombstone
This small, mostly unremarkable, cemetery is adjacent to (and shares a common road with) Milan Cemetery. What makes it worthy of a place on Bella Morte is the presence of the truly remarkable Valentine Fries family mausoleum, a structure that would not be out of place among some of the grandest cemeteries we have visited.
Fries was born in Germany, but his family moved to the U.S. (Massillon, Ohio) when he was five years old. At the age of 20, he moved to Milan, where he used money he’d saved while working as a drug store clerk in Massillon, to open his own grocery store. While running his business, he continued to save money and embraced the study of shipbuilding. In 1861, his patience, discipline and skill paid off when he built his first schooner, The Hyphen. Over the next several years, he oversaw the construction of several more ships. He sold the grocery and wholeheartedly pursued his dream of making his shipbuilding company flourish; however, when the Huron River Dam (located in downtown Milan) burst, the canals were left without a water supply. All shipbuilding businesses in the town moved out…save Fries Landing, Shipbuilding & Warehousing. Determined to stay in Milan, Fries made a deal with the owners of Ben Abbotts’ property (see Milan Cemetery for more info on Mr. Abbott) to move the business there, where access to the Huron River was readily available. Having thus rearranged things, Fries went on to become a millionaire, building a number of schooners and moving products in and out of Milan and other river towns for several decades.
Fries retired in 1883 at the age of 57. Six years later, he married Anna Crone of Massillon, Ohio and the following year, the couple’s only child (Valentine A. Fries) was born.
In 1900, at the age of 64, Fries died and was buried in Milan Cemetery. His widow, however, had other ideas for his postmortem dwelling. He had lived and died a Catholic and she wished him to be buried in a cemetery belonging to that faith. Accordingly, she commissioned Smith Monumental Works in Norwalk, Ohio to construct a grand mausoleum on the grounds of neighboring St. Anthony’s.
The structure is composed of sandstone and features cathedral glass in the ceiling as well as several stained glass windows.
Photo: Window One
Photo: Window Two
Photo: Stained Glass Dome
Nine simple in-wall crypts against the back wall, arranged in rows of four across and three down, were constructed to contain Valentine’s body as well as the bodies of other family members.
The mausoleum was completed in 1906 and Valentine was duly transferred to the regal tomb.
Although Anna wed again (she married a man named Harry Chapin in 1907), upon her death in 1919 she was entombed beside her first husband in the Fries Mausoleum. The couple’s son died in 1937 and is also entombed in the structure.
In addition to the Fries Mausoleum, St. Anthony’s also features a fairly impressive crucifixion scene dedicated in honour of Reverend Leonard Lentsch, a Redemptorist priest who, judging by the monument, was well-loved by his parishoners.
The main figure (crucifix) is the creation of John Baptiste Verment, a well-known sculptor who moved from France to Massillon, Ohio. The four panels at the base of the cross bear the following inscriptions:
Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
It is therefore a holy & wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.
2 Machabees 12:46
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:12
A.D. 1884
The Reverend’s tombstone is a grey ledger with a chalice engraved at the top under which is the following inscription:
This is my body which is given for you.
Do this for a commemoration of me.
Rev. Leonard Lentsch
Born April 25, 1850
Ordained Sept 1, 1877
Died March 7, 1812
Requiescat in Pace
[F]