Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

by Andrew Carroll

Incorporated in 1844, the cemetery was proposed by a local judge named Mason Brown who had visited Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts, returned home, and encouraged his fellow Kentuckians to create a burial ground equally as picturesque. I’d say they succeeded. Overlooking the Kentucky River, Frankfort Cemetery is one hundred acres of beautifully landscaped hills and gardens connected by winding paths and walkways. More than twenty thousand people are buried here, including an impressive assembly of statesmen, artists, writers, and war heroes. On our way up a sloping macadamized road, Steve and I pass the marker for Presley O’Bannon, the young Marine lieutenant who was the first American to raise a U.S. flag on captured foreign soil. This happened during the April 1805 Battle of Derne at Tripoli and inspired the lyrics in the Marines’ Hymn: From the halls of Montezuma, To the shores of Tripoli; We fight our country’s battles In the air, on land, and sea. Farther up the rolling lane, Steve points to a fifteen-foot-high obelisk on our right surrounded by a black wrought-iron fence. “That’s Boone’s grave.” Once we get closer, I can make out carvings on each side of the memorial that appear to be scenes from Daniel Boone’s life. “He never would have worn that,” Steve says, shaking his head, as he sees me examine one panel featuring Boone in his famed coonskin cap. “Daniel was originally raised a Quaker, and like other long hunters he wore a Quaker-style felt hat.” This is ...