Near Hiawatha, Kansas, stands a group of gravestones that boggles the imagination. A farmer named Davis, a self-made and determined man, managed to amass a considerable fortune, but had few friends and no relatives for whom he cared.
When his wife died, Davis erected an elaborate statue showing both her and himself sitting at the opposite ends of a loveseat. So pleased was he with this monument that he commissioned the sculptor to create another, this time showing him kneeling at her grave with a wreath in his hand. And that made such a fine impression upon him that he set out to erect still another tombstone depicting his wife kneeling at his future graveside with a wreath. He even put wings on her back as she now resided in another world. So, as time passed and one idea led to another, he eventually spent over a quarter of a million dollars on monuments to his wife and himself.
Davis had no interest in aiding his fellowmen or benefiting his nearby town. Nor did he become a blessing to the church, for he used all of his resources on shrines to self. He died at the age of 92, a resident of the poorhouse, and his cherished stones are slowly but surely sinking into the Kansas soil, victimized by vandalism and neglect, weathered by time.
[corrected by David Holwick; see bottom articles for more accurate details]
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Another version from Pastor Stephen Muncherian:
A while back I read about a strange group of tombstones not far from Lincoln, Kansas [should be Hiawatha – Lincoln is 150 miles away but Kansas City is closer]. A man named John Davis, a farmer and self-made man, had them erected. Davis began as a lowly hired hand and by sheer determination and frugality he managed to amass a considerable fortune. In the process, however, Davis didn’t make many friends.
When his wife died, Davis erected an elaborate statue in her memory. He hired a sculptor to design a monument which showed both her and him at opposite ends of a love seat. He was so pleased with the result that he commissioned another statue – this time of himself, kneeling at her grave, placing a wreath on it. That impressed him so much that he ordered a third monument – this time of his wife kneeling at his future gravesite placing a wreath. He had the sculptor add a pair of wings on her back giving her the appearance of an angel. One idea led to another until he’d spent over a quarter million dollars on the monuments to himself and his wife!
After using up all his money on stone statues – John Davis died at age 92, grim-faced and poor. And the monuments – each one is slowly sinking into the ground – each becoming victims of time – vandalism – neglect. In a few years they’ll be gone.
One other thing. Very few people attended Mr. Davis’ funeral. Only one person seemed genuinely moved by any sense of personal loss. He was Horace England – the tombstone salesman.
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The Davis Memorial
by Keith Stokes
< http://www.kansastravel.org/davismemorial.htm >
Mount Hope Cemetery
606 Iowa Street
Hiawatha, Kansas 66434
(785) 742-7643
The most famous attraction in Hiawatha, Kansas, is a 1930’s tomb sitting in Mount Hope Cemetery near the southeast edge of town.
John Milburn Davis came to Hiawatha in 1879 at the age of 24. After a short time, he married Sarah Hart, the daughter of his employer. Her family did not approve. The Davises started their own farm, prospered and were married 50 years. When Sarah died in 1930, the Davises were wealthy. Over the next 7 years, John Davis spent most of that wealth on Sarah’s grave.
The amount spent on the Davis Memorial has been estimated at anywhere between $100,000 and several times that amount. In any case, it was a large amount and included the signing over of the farm and mansion – this during the Depression when money was tight.
Several reasons are offered for the extravagance including great love or guilt, anger at Sarah’s family, and a desire that the Davis fortune be exhausted before John’s death.
The Davis Memorial grew by stages, which is bit of a shame. If it had been planned, it might have been built on a larger lot and be more attractive.
The memorial began with a typical gravestone, but John worked with Horace England, a Hiawatha monument dealer, making the gravesite more and more elaborate. There are 11 life-size statues of John and Sarah Davis made of Italian marble, many stone urns and a marble canopy that is reported as weighing over 50 tons.
The last addition to the tomb was marble granite wall surrounding the memorial to keep people from entering. Unfortunately there wasn’t much room left on the lot and the wall is esthetically too close to the figures. The wall hasn’t been entirely effective, one of the urns is broken off and the head has been removed from one of the statues.
It takes only a few minutes to visit the Davis Memorial and thousands of people do every year. Visitors from all over the world sign the guest register. The Memorial has been featured in newspapers, magazines, television, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and hundreds of web sites, making it one of the best known tourist attractions in northeast Kansas.
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The Strange Grave of John Milburn Davis
by Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, Mike Wilkins
< http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2505 >
John Milburn Davis was wealthy and very sad. His wife of 50+ years, Sarah, had died. After mourning in private for a couple of years, Davis decided to make his grief public. He commissioned the construction of an elaborate grave monument, begun in 1932 and not completed until 1940. Ten life-size Italian marble statues depict John and Sarah as they age. The 11th statue is of John alone, missing his left hand (he’d lost it in a farm accident), sitting next to “The Vacant Chair” where Sarah would have sat. This set of statues is made of granite, supposedly because Davis had exhausted his life savings on the project.
One statue, of a kneeling Mr. Davis next to a kneeling angel version of Mrs. Davis, had been decapitated before our last visit. Teens at the Hiawatha Pizza Hut had some leads: “That head was throwed in a pond is what we heard” (It was later recovered and reunited with Davis’s body).
John Davis reportedly enjoyed spending his last lonely years hanging around his work in progress, explaining it to visitors. He died, age 92, in 1947. At the time the town hated him for wasting his money on himself, but it has since profited considerably from having one of the most popular oddball attractions in Kansas.