The mausoleum of Mary Watkins (1907-1949) is shown on April 14, 2024 in the Old Circle gravesites area of Spring Hill Cemetery in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. The bronze doors are an important example of Art Deco style. Watkins was a member of a prominent ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä family in the steamboat business.
The grave marker of Rachel Grant Tompkins at Spring Hill Cemetery in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Tompkins was a mother of 12 children and the aunt of the 18th U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
A Mother's Day stroll past the final resting places of West Virginia's first woman legislator, the favorite aunt of President Ulysses S. Grant, and lesser-known Kanawha Valley women and mothers who exemplified pioneer perseverance will take place Sunday at ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä's Spring Hill Cemetery Park.
The free walk is part of the Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery Park and Arboretum's monthly Sunday Saunter history walk series, which take place on the second Sunday of each month, and happens to fall on Mother's Day this year.
"We try to have a certain theme to each hike, and since it's Mother's Day, we will walk the Old Circle and Spring Hill Historic District portions of the cemetery with special reference to the women buried there," said Chris Higgins, walk leader, with the Friends of Spring Hill organization.
The grave marker of Rachel Grant Tompkins at Spring Hill Cemetery in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Tompkins was a mother of 12 children and the aunt of the 18th U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
Among stops along the approximate half-mile walk over paved roads will be the gravesite of Rachel Grant Tompkins, who is said to have taught the alphabet to her nephew, Ulysses S. Grant, who would later lead the Union army to victory in the Civil War and become the nation's 18th president.
An Ohio native, Rachel Tompkins married William Tompkins, a pioneer in the Kanawha Valley's salt industry, in 1831 and moved into a large brick home at Cedar Grove, which remains in use today. There, Rachel Tompkins raised five children, while her husband invented and put into use a salt-making process that relied on natural gas to heat and evaporate salt brine.Â
Since William Tompkins — who died shortly before the Civil War began — was a known Southern sympathizer, Ulysses Grant, as a newly elevated brigadier general, provided his favorite aunt with a letter for her to show to questioning Union troops, cautioning them not to harm the home or its occupants.
Grant, as president, visited his aunt in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä in 1872, 10 years before her death.
The mausoleum of Mary Watkins (1907-1949) is shown on April 14, 2024 in the Old Circle gravesites area of Spring Hill Cemetery in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. The bronze doors are an important example of Art Deco style. Watkins was a member of a prominent ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä family in the steamboat business.
CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE | Gazette-Mail file photo
Other gravesites likely to be visited on Sunday are those of Anna Johnson Gates and Caroline Gentry.
In 1922, Gates, a ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä resident who was born in East Bank, became the first woman to be elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates. Her election came during the first election cycle to follow passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.
Among five bills she introduced and saw through to passage during her one term as a Kanawha County delegate was one creating a state welfare program to provide income to any woman with children whose husband was unable to support the family. She also chaired the House Committee on Arts, Science and General Improvements.
Those on the walk are also expected to visit the gravesite of Caroline Gentry, West Virginia's first woman filmmaker, who wrote scripts for silent movies and directed/edited documentaries, including "The River of Doubt," a 1928 release covering Theodore Roosevelt's 1913 expedition to explore a previously uncharted Brazilian river.
In addition to Sunday Saunter history walks, the Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery Park and Arboretum host weekly walking and jogging sessions through the 168-acre ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä cemetery at 5 p.m. every Tuesday.
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