By Joseph Back

Who was Cordenio Severance, owner of the Cedarhurst Mansion? A surface appraisal might say he was a lawyer, who owned a large house, which was surrounded by farmland, and who as buried with a polished red granite tombstone, something which not everyone had at the time, way back in the early twentieth century.

And that would be true. But that said, who was he? We offer Cordenio Severance as a case for study both because locally prominent and also because ancestry— though popular—is often indulged in only after much time is passed and records are sparse.

In which case a good place to start is the cemetery, if only because it gives starting and ending dates to go from.

Being prominent, Mr. Severance is not one who might have been easily forgotten, nor his gravestone— made as it was of red granite— one to easily lose the dates chiseled in it too last through time. Those dates, if only a start, are these: Cordenio A. Severance 1862 – 1925

See CEDARHURST Page 2

Looking out the front door at Cedarhurst, nondescript columns of the Roman Tuscan variety booth frame and beckon towards Old Cottage Grove Cemetery, off in the far distance on 70th Street South, to the east. Photo by Joseph Back. CEDARHURST

FROM PAGE 1

Next to them, at ground level, are another set: Mary F. Severance 1863 – 1925 Near to this, but with no dates, is a name: Alexandra Severance Nearby these ground level stones—all granite—is an obelisk (also granite), which repeats the names and dates of Cordenio (C. A.) and Mary F. Severance.

Cordenio, Mary, Alexandra: let us begin here. But as to the relation (if any) between them? That find, will have to wait for next week, or else hereafter.

Cordenio A. Severance looks out from the wall at Cedarhurst Mansion off Keats Avenue this past fall. Photo of photo by Joseph Back.

The gravestone of Cordenio A. Severance at the Old Cottage Grove cemetery. Nearby are ones inscribed “Mary F. Severance” and “Alexandra Severance,” made of the same material. Photo by Joseph Back.