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United States Department of the Interior
<br />National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
<br />NPS Form 10 -900 OMB No. 1024 -0018
<br />South Bend City Cemetery St. Joseph, Indiana
<br />Name of Property County and State
<br />Rebekahs, named for the Biblical character Rebekah, are the women's auxiliary of the I.O.O.F..
<br />Colfax returned to his duties and activities with Odd Fellows and other civic organizations. His
<br />only child, Schuyler Colfax II, was also involved in many activities, business ventures and
<br />followed his father into public service as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana; thereby keeping the
<br />family and family name in the public eye.
<br />Sadly, Schuyler Colfax's rigorous schedule was his undoing. On January 13, 1885, Colfax
<br />walked three quarters of a mile in -30 degree weather to change trains in Mankato, Minnesota
<br />enroute to Rock Rapids, Iowa. Just five minutes after arriving at the second depot, Omaha
<br />Depot, Schuyler Colfax silently suffered a heart attack due to the extreme cold and exhaustion.
<br />Depot employees barely noticed, thinking that a passenger had fallen asleep waiting for a train.
<br />When they tried to rouse him, they discovered his death, and had to check his travel itinerary and
<br />tickets in his breast pocket to learn his identity. His body was returned to South Bend, lain in
<br />state, and buried with a most somber and elegant funeral and interment in South Bend City
<br />Cemetery befitting a leader and a gentleman well regarded by his fellow citizens of South Bend.
<br />There are many physical memorials and tributes throughout the United States that attest to the
<br />service and legacy of Schuyler Colfax. Streets are named for Colfax in South Bend, Indiana,
<br />Grant City, New York, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Roselle Park, New Jersey, Chicago, Illinois,
<br />Springdale, Pennsylvania, Benton Harbor, Michigan, Concord, California, Aurora, Denver and
<br />Lakewood, Colorado. Entire cities are named for Schuyler Colfax in California, Washington
<br />State, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Colorado and New Mexico. With the exception of Colfax
<br />Avenue, and a small stone marker that designates the former home (now demolished) site of
<br />Schuyler Colfax at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Taylor Street, there are no other tributes to
<br />Colfax in his adopted home town of South Bend. Designation of South Bend City Cemetery
<br />would go a long way in reversing this obvious oversight. In 1937, a bronze tablet was dedicated
<br />at the grave, provided by post No. 50, American Legion. The grave site, in its prominent place in
<br />South Bend City Cemetery, is the last direct connection to Schuyler Colfax in South Bend, and
<br />most deserving of the a place on the National Register of Historic Places.
<br />Among other noted persons buried at City Cemetery is William G. George who became the first
<br />mayor of South Bend in 1865. James and Mary McKinley, paternal grandparents of William J.
<br />McKinley, former President of the United States, are also buried here, both passing away August
<br />20, 1847 on their 43`d wedding anniversary. From the information obtained, their cause of death
<br />was typhoid fever, an epidemic that swept the South Bend vicinity in 1847. A two foot high iron
<br />fence erected around a seven foot obelisk on a three foot base at their grave site are said to have
<br />been erected by the President soon after he had taken office in 1897, although there is no
<br />evidence of this today. A bronze tablet was dedicated at the grave in 1937, provided by the Harry
<br />O. Perkins Camp 25 of the United Spanish War Veterans.
<br />Additionally contributing to the Political significance are the tombs of soldiers involved in every
<br />major conflict with United States involvement from the Civil to the Gulf War. City Cemetery
<br />holds servicemen from the Civil War, Spanish- American War, WWI, WWII, Korea, and
<br />Vietnam. Also deserving of recognition are the tomb John Auten, the first soldier from St. Joseph
<br />County and possibly the first Hoosier to be killed in the Civil War in 1861 and of Private Enoch
<br />Section 8 page 18
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