Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum
The cemetery near the University of Dayton houses the final resting places of many famous people who lived in this area. They include Orville and Wilbur Wright, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles Kettering, John H. Patterson, C.J. McLin, James M. Cox, Col. Edward Deeds and Erma Bombeck, among many others.
A man wants the bodies of his stepmother and her husband dug up and removed from a family plot in Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery, according to a civil lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
John B. Harshman III of Sarasota, Fla., names three of his stepmother’s children and Woodland Cemetery as defendants. His attorney wrote that the case is “about the improper and negligent burial of two individuals in the Harshman family plot to which they had no rightful claim.”
Lewis Hampton, 79, and Jeannette Hampton, 73, are currently buried in unmarked graves next to the Harshman headstone, not far from the resting place of former Ohio Gov. James M. Cox and the Edward Deeds Mausoleum.
The Hamptons died Jan. 10, 2013, of smoke inhalation in a house fire in Novi, Mich. They were buried at Woodland Cemetery on Jan. 18, 2013, but Woodland placed no markers because of the pending litigation.
“From our perspective, this is an unfortunate family dispute involving two burials at Woodland,” said Woodland attorney Robert Berner, who was not aware of any other similar situation at the cemetery. “The bottom line from Woodland’s standpoint is we believe we acted correctly based upon the information that was provided to us by the family at the time of the burials.”
A November trial date has been scheduled by Judge Mary Katherine Huffman.
Jeannette Hampton’s children named in the suit are Cheryl Corry Price – her daughter from a marriage previous to that of her marriage to John B. Harshman Jr. – plus Jonathan Winters Harshman and Lorin Harshman, half-brothers of the plaintiff.
“The Hamptons do not belong in the Harshman family plot,” said Thomas Whelley, John B. Harshman’s attorney. “Our concern is that we are trying to unite, in death, the families as the grandfather desired it. What’s happened is that there are two people in this family plot that simply don’t belong there.”
Jonathan Winters Harshman and Price both signed agreements in January 2013 with Woodland Cemetery authorizing the Hamptons to be buried in the Harshman plots, according to an exhibit filed with the lawsuit. One form signed by Jonathan Winters Harshman was notarized stating he had “the right due to kinship.” The forms also were signed by a Woodland representative.
“My clients believed they had a right to the lots based upon what they had heard while growing up as children,” attorney Craig Matthews said. “After John Harshman Jr. died (in 1985), his wife of many years, Jeannette Harshman, eventually remarried (in 1988). It was Jeanette and her then-husband who were tragically killed in the fire. The family believed John Harshman Jr. would have wanted Jeannette to be buried next to him. “
The suit alleges none of Jeannette Hampton’s children sought permission or informed John B. Harshman III about the burial and that the Harshman family didn’t learn about it until summer 2013 when family members “noticed burial lots that appeared to be recently disturbed indicating an interment.”
John B. Harshman III, a commercial real estate broker, said his grandfather bought eight lots in 1953 and added a ninth in 1958, according to the lawsuit. The document said Hampton’s children didn’t have burial rights.
The lawsuit notes that the plaintiff’s attorney believes Woodland’s purchase records about the plots are either missing or have been destroyed. “I don’t think there were any records destroyed or lost that I’m aware of,” Berner said.
The counts in the civil lawsuit address breach of contract, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, trespassing of the deceased couple, the “ejectment” of the deceased couple, negligent emotional distress, the turning over the plots to the plaintiff and seeks a declaratory judgment.
“What we’re trying to do is move these two individuals to another family plot that’s already been purchased in another part of Dayton and that’s kind of what the lawsuit is all about,” Whelley said.
The attorneys involved wouldn’t address specifics, but court documents reveal e-mail exchanges between Whelley and Matthews that illustrate the disagreement.
Whelley wrote that “this whole process is difficult and painful for your clients and ours, too,” and that he’d like to see the “dis-internment and re-internment in a way that is respectful and without delay.”
Matthews wrote that his clients view dis-internment “as a desecration; reprehensible and traumatic. Jeannette and Lewis Hampton died in an horrific accident. And now this.”
Woodland is seemingly caught in the middle.
“Woodland notified both sides of the family that we can’t resolve this disagreement regarding the disputed burials without an agreement between you all as to the matter or an order from the court,” Berner said. “That’s the court’s decision on whether the bodies should be moved or not.”
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