Take a walk through the Cemeteries in Utica and you can see many of the final resting places of the people who built this community and the remembrances chosen to memorialize them.
In Old/New Forest you find military heros, politicians, business people who all helped to shape the Mohawk Valley in the first 100-150 years. Some of the statues are grandiose and inspiring
like the Justus Rathbone-Knights of Pythias Memorial . Others are simple and difficult to find like Mother Lavendar's site, which sits about a hundred yards or so to the left of the Rathbone statue. In Old Forest many of the ornate Victorian chairs and trappings are damaged or gone but you can still almost see the ducks and swans on the ponds as the women with hooped skirts escorted by their men strolled through the parks on Sunday after church to enjoy the scenery and reflect on the departed buried there. Back then I understand that was a common place to spend the an afternoon in the park-like beauty and serenity the cemetery offered visitors then. Walk around and feel like you've stepped back in time.
