The Chariton Cemetery's Stanton Vault, until it was demolished about 1960, was something of a landmark, albeit a creepy one to 20th century eyes. I've written before about the vault and the 16 unfortunate Lucas Countyans interred in it in hopes of a secure resting place --- but disinterred and reburied in a mass grave when the structure's end came.
Although there are a couple of snapshots in city files taken during demolition, I've never seen an image of the vault intact. It probably looked something like the receiving vaults built into hillsides that still may be seen in several Iowa cemeteries --- including Woodlawn in Des Moines and Ottumwa City Cemetery. The roof apparently was above grade. Had you been standing in the top photo looking east you'd have been facing the 10-foot-high entrance facade with doorway in the center. The map below shows the location.
I happened upon the following description of the vault, completed during the fall of 1887, in The Chariton Herald of March 7, 1889, under the headline, "Commendable Enterprise."
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At last our enterprising townsman, Dr. J. E. Stanton, has realized the consummation of a long cherished purpose in the completion of his finely arranged and substantial Burial Vault in the Chariton Cemetery which affords a nice, clean, dry and secure place for either a temporary or permanent resting place for the bodies of deceased friends, to which access may be had at any time that may be desirable, and which to many people is far preferable to burying their friends in an ordinary grave, and much more endurable than much costlier monuments.
The vault proper is 20 feet square. The walls are built of hard stone laid in cement and are two feet thick, covered with a roof of artificial stone and closed by a strong door of plate iron on the inside with an iron lattice door outside of that and a storm door still outside of that, all of which are securely locked.
Entering the Vault from the west, immediately in front and across the east side of the Vault is found 6 tiers of crypts or pockets 5 in number rising one above another, reaching to the ceiling, made of solid brick laid and covered with cement each 9 feet long east and west. In five tiers the crypts are two feet square. In the other tier they are 4 inches wider to admit extra large burial cases, the whole furnishing room for 30 adult bodies. These crypts are arranged so as to be hermetically sealed besides being closed by a heavy iron door securely locked.
Besides these, on either side of the entrance are tiers to smaller crypts affording room for the bodies of 16 children. The front end of each crypt is furnished with a marble slab on which to place any inscription that may be desired.
The front or entrance to the Vault is surrounded by a solid wall 10 feet high, laid in cement and plastered with same, which forms an area 20 by 25 feet square, having somewhat the appearance of a prison yard. The vault is built at the crest of a declivity which slopes off to the west and the entrance from the west is on a level with the surface, thus adding to the convenience.
The Doctor has seven burial lots lying contiguous to those occupied by the vault and area, and those adjoining on the west and extending north to the main driveway he has graded down so as to make a convenient approach to the vault entrance besides laying a substantial board walk. These contiguous lots will soon be set in evergreens, shrubbery and flowers and in time Stanton's Vault will be the most attractive feature of the Cemetery.
The Doctor will be pardoned for any seeming excess of pride manifested in this success of his undertaking, as it is an enterprise of which more pretentious men might well be proud. The entire expense amounts to about $3,200 and the price of the crypts for permanent burial is $200 each.
Take it all in all, the Chariton Cemetery has been much improved during the past year and its general appearance greatly enhanced. The vacant ground on the south has been surveyed and platted, walks and drives staked out, graded, ditched and bridged, evergreens have been planted on either side of the driveways, the main driveway macadamized with coal cinders, etc., in all of which Dr. Stanton, as president of the Cemetery company, has taken an active part with a view of beautifying the resting place of our sacred dead and for which he is deserving of the thanks of the community.
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Dr. James E. Stanton (1828-1908) was an original investor in the Chariton Cemetery Co., developers in 1864 and thereafter of the cemetery. By the 1880s, he owned controlling interest in it and eventually acquired title to the entire operation, sold to the city of Chariton by his heirs during 1929.
His branch of the Stanton family used the vault for family interments --- 10 in all. Other crypts were sold. And the vault also served as a holding area for the remains of many others while loved ones decided what to do about permanent burial. The original occupants of the Copeland mausoleum and the Lockwood crypt, for example, awaited completion of their final destinations here, for example.
The final remains placed in the vault were the ashes of Gertrude (Aughey) Stanton, who died in Chicago during 1940 (the date on her tombstone is a mistake).
I've never found a published report describing exactly why the vault was demolished, but it probably was related to physical deterioration of the structure and the unwillingness of the city to fund repairs and restoration. Nor does there seem to have been newspaper coverage of the demolition itself.
The last of the original occupants whose family wished to move their remains elsewhere in the cemetery were Maria (1834-1890) and Lewis (1830-1899) Bonnett, disinterred and reburied during November of 1959. Their family took the doors to their crypts, now badly deteriorated, with them.
That left ten Stanton family members still in the vault --- James E. Stanton and his wife, Mary Jane (Hobbs) Stanton; their son, Dr. John H. Stanton, and his wife, Gertrude (Aughey) Stanton; Tom and Minnie (Stanton) Guylee; and Mary E. Stanton, Emma Stanton, Ruth (Stanton) Mead and her daughter, Clara Mead.
Others who remained in the vault were Andrew Swan, John W. and Henrietta Perry, Dr. Henry C. VanWerden, Louise Mallory Thayer (stillborn) and Minnie G. Kirk.
Stanton descendants provided a new tombstone for the four senior family members. The graves of all the others are marked by funeral home markers, now deteriorating, embedded in strips of concrete.
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