Gravestones, statues, and sculptures across Kansas cemeteries reveal stories of devotion, artistry, and historical legacy.
Across Kansas, cemeteries are home to more than headstones—they're open-air galleries of personal tribute and historical storytelling. From the masterful John Davis Memorial in Hiawatha to the hand-wrought iron crosses of Ellis County, these works of cemetery art reflect enduring love, faith, and craftsmanship. Each site invites visitors to pause, reflect, and appreciate the artistic ways Kansans have honored their loved ones through time.
John Davis Memorial
Mount Hope Cemetery, Hiawatha
Some say it was built out of spite; others say it was built from a great love. Either way, the John Davis Memorial in Hiawatha is an enduring, masterful work of art.
John and Sarah Davis’ frugality and hard work resulted in a prosperous farm and great wealth. After Sarah died in 1930, John put aside his thriftiness to replace her humble headstone in Hiawatha’s Mount Hope Cemetery with a massive memorial.
The first phase was a 52-ton Vermont granite canopy on six granite pillars surrounding her grave. Davis sent a photograph taken on the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary to artisans in Carrara, Italy, where two life-sized statues of the couple were carved of marble; Sarah’s likeness was praised for capturing her delicate facial features. Davis was so pleased with the results that he added seven more marble statues, all carved in Italy and reflecting their life together.
The last two installments were granite: an empty, overstuffed chair engraved with the words “The Vacant Chair” next to a second chair where an elderly Davis is seated.
“Not only are they beautiful statues, they are museum-quality marble statues in the middle of Kansas,” says Katie Miller, president of the Hiawatha Chamber and Visitors Bureau. “If you look at pictures, they look exactly like the Davises.”
An orphan, Kentucky-born John Davis settled in Brown County in 1887 as a young man and found a job working for a local farmer.
“He fell in love with the farmer’s daughter,” Miller says. “They didn’t really want her marrying him.”
The couple married anyway, bought a farm, and then used any profit to buy more farmland, including some of the best in the county.
When Davis began building the memorial after Sarah’s death, local citizens suggested he instead channel his wealth to charities or build a hospital, park or swimming pool to benefit the community during the Great Depression. As Davis rejected those ideas and continued spending his wealth on Sarah’s memorial, criticism spread and resentment grew.
“People were hounding him all the time, asking, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And he was standoffish,” says Miller.
However, later stories revealed that Davis secretly helped needy families. “He gave thousands of dollars away,” Miller explains. “But his stipulation was you didn’t say it was from him.”
Without knowing about Davis’ charity, the community spread rumors that he was spiteful, that he never forgave Sarah’s family for not supporting his marriage, and that he didn’t treat his wife well when she was alive, only to extravagantly memorialize her after her death, according to Miller. “That’s not true; Sarah had rheumatoid arthritis, it was juvenile, so John took care of her physically quite a bit,” Miller says, adding research has revealed that John struggled with social interaction and had relied on Sarah to navigate such situations throughout their life together.
“When you put that in perspective,” Miller notes, “the love story shows up.”
Miller believes that Davis had been affected by his childhood as an orphan, and that the memorial was his way to show “he was loved, had a love, and a life together.”
For Miller, there is little question whether the memorial was built from spite or love. “Love had to be more of the motivator,” she says. “It’s beautiful; it’s their courtship, it’s their marriage, their anniversary—it’s their life. If it was truly just spite, there’s so much that he could have done, even spending on a memorial, but he chose to focus on their life together, and to me, that speaks volumes.”
Ironically, the personal memorial might also have been John’s greatest gift to the community. Miller says the Davis memorial draws up to 30,000 people to Hiawatha each year. Unfortunately, sections were vandalized decades ago, and although the broken statues were repaired, one still is missing John’s sculpted head.
“It was the most heartbreaking statue; it was John kneeling over his wife’s grave, and it screamed sorrow. It was gut-wrenching, and it was beautiful,” Miller says, adding she still hopes the sculpted head will be recovered someday.
IRON CROSSES
St. Fidelis Cemetery, Victoria
Iron crosses mark the graves of Volga German pioneers buried in several Catholic cemeteries in Ellis County and elsewhere in Kansas. After nature’s elements ruined the wooden crosses first marking the burial sites, blacksmiths and others began creating the much more durable wrought-iron crosses for the graves. Often made of scrap metal, the crosses included latticework, coiled patterns, rayed circles, sunbursts, halos with a ray-burst design, and hearts cut from tin added to the pipes forming the main cross structure, according to getruralkansas.com. Over 100 iron crosses mark graves in St. Fidelis Cemetery north of Victoria. Many iron crosses also may be found in cemeteries near Munjor, Walker, Catherine, Pfeifer, Schoenchen, Ellis, Hays and Antonino, all in Ellis County.
STONE OBELISK
Fort Wallace Cemetery, Wallace
In 1867, members of the 7th Cavalry and the 3rd Infantry erected a limestone obelisk at Fort Wallace Cemetery to honor their comrades who died in battle that year. Established in 1865, the fort served as headquarters for troops protecting travelers headed west to Denver along the Smoky Hill Trail. Striving to defend their lands, Indigenous forces attacked the outpost in June 1867 and killed 10 of the 20 people who died at the fort that year, according to the post surgeon’s records. Although most of the soldiers’ remains later were moved to Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, the monument still stands in their honor. Stone walls enclose the Fort Wallace Cemetery within the Wallace Township Cemetery.
VIVIAN BUTEL STATUE
Overbrook Cemetery
The family of Vivian Butel, who died at the age of four in 1918, memorialized the child with a custom statue. Located in the Overbrook Cemetery, the headstone depicts her standing with one hand on a tree stump and the other on a gate made of tree branches; there’s a rosebud on the ground by her feet. At that time, the tree stump symbolized life interrupted or the individual being separated from the family. The gate represented the gateway to Heaven, and the broken rose bud represented a premature death. The November 7, 1918, issue of the Overbrook Citizen newspaper reported that her father, a dentist, was away in Colorado when the young girl found a small, unopened box of medicine tablets. Thinking it was candy, she opened the box and swallowed several pills that contained a small amount of strychnine, at the time prescribed in low doses for various ailments. She died within four hours.
T.J. LOSEY MEMORIAL
City Cemetery, Columbus
A larger-than-life statue of Thomas J. Losey (1846–1936) marks his grave on his family plot in City Cemetery, Columbus. According to Cherokee County Kansas Genealogical-Historical Library records, Losey traveled to Kentucky twice in the early 1920s to model for the monument and stayed several months. The carved limestone and concrete sculpture features the 14th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry colonel dressed in his Civil War uniform, a sword hanging from his belt. He stands at parade rest and, with both hands, holds the barrel of a rifle with its butt on the ground. The sculpture is atop an inscribed pedestal with a flowering vine motif and a relief of crossed swords on one side. To his right, a sculpted tree memorializes his wife, Flora, who died in 1901, according to the library’s records. Behind the sculpture are gravestones, shaped like logs, for two daughters who died young and a son. The tree theme extends to a bench and chairs supported by tree stumps.
