John S. Hatfield, Jr., better known during his life to as plain Jack Hatfield, was the sexton at Oakwood Cemetery. At the age of one, he came with his parents from Derbyshire, England to Cuyahoga Falls where his father, John Hatfield, Sr., began manufacturing glass near Kent.
Later his father was one of the contractors that built the canal locks between here and Akron. One of his first memories of the Falls was that it had only eight log dwellings. As a kid Jack was attracted by the wonders of the Dan Rice circus, the largest show at that time. It wasn’t long before he joined and traveled with them all over the country. In those days there were no railroads, the circus having to carry its equipment over the countryside with horse and wagon.
When he reached 18 years old he returned to the Falls to settle down and get married. He began working on a now defunct job called transfer teaming. He soon abandoned that to run a machine in the Cuyahoga Falls distillery, which crushed 500 bushels of grain into alcohol in 24 hours. This was considered quite a record at that time. Some time after the closing of the distillery he was appointed the very first sexton of the village cemetery.
When Jack’s wife died, he was 81 years old. They had lived at the corner of School and Stone streets for their entire married life. He had decided it was time to retire and spend the rest of his life working in his late wife’s garden and caring for his poultry. Jack had spent 32 years as sexton of Oakwood Cemetery. He boasted that it was the best kept and prettiest burial grounds in the state. At the time of Jack’s run, the cemetery contained 25 acres of land, a lot of shrubbery, flowers and scenic drives.
The Akron Evening Times was able to interview Jack in 1910.
“See those three plats of ground?” asked the old man one as he pointed out one part of the cemetery containing three sections of about an acre apiece. “Each of those sections contains about 200 graves and I buried every occupant myself. I bury about 60 people each year. Let’s see ….. That makes over a thousand I’ve buried since I’ve been here.”
“Quincy granite makes the best tombstones, and cedar can make the best burial material. The best steel casket will last over eight or ten years.”
“I come from a family noted for its long life, and I’m going to live a long time yet myself,” Jack declared.
At the time of this interview he was 77 and his wife 73. Together they had three grown children and eight grandchildren.
“I work 10 hours every day. I’ve never been sick in my life. I’ve never tasted alcohol in any form. That may be one of the causes for my good health.”
John “Jack” Hatfield lived out his life on Stone Street finally succumbing to terminal pneumonia at the age of 86 and 6 months on July 9, 1920.
There have been many amazing Fallsites over the past 200+ years. I find “Jack” Hatfield one of them. He sounds like such a character! To leave home as a young kid to travel around with a circus? Then finish up his life beautifying a cemetery and digging graves—even as an old man. To top it off, he enjoyed it! I’m exhausted thinking about it!
Good story my G Grandfather Harvey White was the Sexton after him . I don’t think he took over till the late 1920’s but was in the early 30’s Mom and her sisters had stories about the cemetery .They lived on 6th st. By the back entrance