The Frankfort Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located on East Main Street in Frankfort, Kentucky. The cemetery is the burial site of Daniel Boone, the famed frontiersman, and contains the graves of other famous Americans including seventeen Kentucky governors and a Vice President of the United States. The cemetery is built on a bluff overlooking the Kentucky River with views of the Kentucky State Capitol, the Kentucky Governor's Mansion, downtown Frankfort, south Frankfort, and the Capitol District.

History

The cemetery was created by Judge Mason Brown, son of statesman John Brown, inspired by a visit to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston. Brown enlisted other Frankfort civic leaders and on February 27, 1844, the Kentucky General Assembly approved the cemetery's incorporation. The 32 acre property, then called Hunter's Garden, was purchased in 1845 for $3,801. Additional land was purchased in 1858 and in 1911 for a total of 100 acres. Brown hired Scottish-born landscape architect Robert Carmichael to design the cemetery. The cemetery is laid out in a style similar to Mount Auburn, with curving lanes, terraces and a circle of vaults. Carmichael imported and planted trees and flowering shrubs from the mountains of Kentucky, intending the cemetery to double as an arboretum in a time when residents could not easily travel to see mountain plants not native to the region. Carmichael is also buried in the cemetery. There are numerous monuments and memoria in the cemetery. A central feature is the State Mound, featuring a Kentucky War Memorial designed by Robert E. Launitz and inscribed with the names of officers killed in numerous wars. During the American Civil War, Frankfort Cemetery was used for the final resting place of soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Corporal, Lyman B. Hannaford of the 103rd Ohio Infantry notes in his letter dated April 2, 1863, "They are planting (as soldiers term it) a good many soldiers here—almost one per day. That is a good many for the number of troops here."

Interments

Kentucky Governors

Eighteen Kentucky governors are buried there: • John Adair • J. C. W. Beckham • Luke P. Blackburn • William O'Connell Bradley • Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sr. • John J. Crittenden • Julian Carroll • William Goebel • Christopher Greenup • Robert P. Letcher • George Madison • Charles S. Morehead • James T. Morehead • Edwin P. Morrow • Charles Scott • Augustus O. Stanley • Lawrence Wetherby • Simeon Willis

Other notable people

Other notable people buried at Frankfort Cemetery include:

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