Walking amongst the cedar trees and monuments of Highland, Calvary and Maple Grove, it is not difficult to understand how the sites of Wichita’s earliest cemeteries were chosen. They offer what are surely the most romantic and spectacular vistas in Wichita. At Calvary and Highland cemeteries these views west toward the river valley must have been especially breathtaking during the early years of white settlement. It is likely that, one bright June day in 1863, James R. Mead first laid eyes on the river valley at the very place that within a decade would become Highland Cemetery. He recounted the impression his memoir: Here a vision of beauty and interest greeted our eyes, such perhaps as no other spot on the plains could furnish. A level valley spread out before us as far as the eye could reach. The fresh green grass, cropped close by the buffalo and bordered by belts of timber resembled a well-kept park. Through this valley wound the great and little Arkansas Rivers, their banks fringed with stately trees. Scattered about over this landscape were groups of buffalo, fit and sleek, their bodies covered with a new coat of fur., black as jet. Some were grazing and others were lying down in the warm sun, or standing motionless as if asleep. This was their country and their home and in all the broad valley there was no human being to disturb them. Such beautiful hilltop environs, physically closer to heaven, constituted a typical choice for the location of a cemetery in mid-nineteenth century America. There must have been some comfort in looking toward the bluffs east of town and knowing it was the place where family and friends rested. Until the dawn of the nineteenth century, America, like Europe, depended upon the unseemly churchyard and the even more derelict potter’s field for disposition of the dead. The grave sites in urban burial grounds were ghastly and crowded. As time progressed, these grounds became unhealthy and were considered a primary source of disease. For all but the highest strata of society, a grave was of limited tenure and seldom marked. The old burying grounds were not tended in any way outside of what was necessary to continue their essential function. Taking the lead from Europeans, Americans began developing the rural garden cemetery, designed on more genteel principles. With the Enlightenment, Western culture turned to ancient classical times for inspiration. The very word cemetery is Latin for place of repose or sleeping room. By the 1830's, Americans began to redefine their funerary and burial customs to suit budding middle-class affluence and popular Victorian virtues. A sentimental and respectable means of disposition and permanent memorialization of a deceased family member was a new luxury and one the public took to quickly. The rural garden cemetery, with its intentionally planned beauty, became immensely popular by mid-century. By this time older cities had adopted the concept and new towns began with rural garden cemeteries. Permanent memorials quickly became available to the common person, where a century before they would have been unheard of. In 1887, when plans for Maple Grove were proposed, some townspeople complained that is seemed frivolous and unnecessary to consider a new cemetery across the street from Highland, an established cemetery. As soon as the ground was laid out, however, many of those with family members interred at Highland immediately contracted to have the grave sites moved to Maple Grove. Records also indicate that some rural families relocated grave sites on farms to the new cemetery. In a time when cemeteries commanded great consideration, it is not difficult to imagine the attraction of Maple Grove over that of Highland. Ellis’s plan transformed what was formerly David Fox’s sheep pasture into a formal and naturalistic Victorian garden cemetery. Wide curving avenues corresponding to the natural lay of the land and waterways set the stage for the planting of trees. This endeavor occupied to Hyde family for nearly a decade. The Hyde children spent entire summers hauling buckets of water from the creek to the newly planted trees, establishing what is today a major urban forest. The fact that a variety of cemetery lots in Maple Grove were laid out in an asymmetrical fashion augmented the natural landscape and offered a departure from the old “marble row” appearance found at the other cemeteries. The original plan called for each lot to contain no more than one upright monument, while marking individual grave sites with a single tablet at lawn level, which in those days could reach a height of nearly two feet before being considered scandalous. The idea of memorial regulations was also a departure form the old style of cemetery management in which there were no rules. Lots in the other cemeteries were often enclosed by a fence or curb, making routine maintenance extremely difficult if not impossible. The scarcity of marble memorials is noticeable at Maple Grove compared with other local cemeteries. By the time Maple Grove Cemetery was planned, technology sufficient to carve much harder and more durable granite had been developed. The inverted torch, the draped urn, the broken column, each a symbol mourning life’s end, were much more difficult to carve three dimensionally in granite. New technology ultimately saw the demise of most ornate memorial imagery favored during the Victorian era. Nonetheless, noble attempts were made to carve granite with the same detail as chiseled marble. Maple Grove abounds with memorial art inspired by the classical revival. Some, such as James R. Mead, favored the exotic in memorial art. Mead chose from timeless and eternal Egyptian designs for his family’s mausoleum. Other citizens relied upon the more common Romanesque designs such as floral garlands and festoons. Greek temples peak out many intentionally half-carved monuments, conveying the idea that even more might have been possible had death not cut short life’s accomplishments. These stone statements allowed one to be remembered and to speak to those left behind and those yet to come.