Wildwood Cemetery is large, encompassing 258 acres and has about 20 miles of roadways. The Mount Carmel section offers an impressive view overlooking the city.

In this cemetery are buried and resting in peace the bodies of many captains of Williamsport industrial past.

Some of them were lumber barons, who prospered during the Susquehanna Boom days, as the city became the “lumber capital of the world” and had more millionaires for a city of its size than anywhere as they made fortunes in timber and timber-related businesses.

The gravesites include those with families who, to this day, retain their namesake on structures and streets, such as Lamade and Maynard.

Caleb Hipple, assistant general manager, leads the tour of Wildwood Cemetary on a brisk fall evening. About 100 people took the hour-long tour recently at the cemetery that gave visitors the chance to see graves and mausoleums of notable local businessmen. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

“I like to go around the cemetery and figure out different places that are visually interesting, that are historically interesting, that have something that really engages the community,” said Wildwood Cemetery tour guide Caleb Hipple, assistant general manager of Wildwood Cemetery Co.

The cemetery was founded on Aug. 18, 1863, he said.

Wildwood Cemetery is considered to be a Victorian garden cemetery, he said. Most cemeteries either meet aspects related to their beauty or efficiency, and Wildwood Cemetery was designed with both in mind, he said.

The cemetery is nestled amidst rolling hills on either side of the road bisecting the sections.

Not only are there mausoleums to be seen, but there are unique displays of Mother Nature such as the Jack O’Lantern mushroom.

Caleb Hipple, assistant general manager, leads the tour of Wildwood Cemetary on a brisk fall evening. About 100 people took the hour-long tour recently at the cemetery that gave visitors the chance to see graves and mausoleums of notable local businessmen. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

This bright orange, and toxic mushroom glows in the dark. For anyone with a black light, it’s a neat trick, Hipple noted on a recent tour.

On the tour, Hipple stopped at various burial sites, including the mausoleum of James VanDuzee Brown, which is meticulously maintained.

The granite edifice towering up on the sloped hill, befitting a man of vision and philanthropy, best known for the establishment of the city library.

Brown was born in Hartford, New York, on March 2, 1826, and he made his way to Williamsport.

In the late 1800s, as the famous Andrew Carnegie became the steel emperor of Pittsburgh, Carnegie also was involved in a philanthropic task of providing libraries for communities all across Pennsylvania.

According to the library history page and what Hipple touched on, the library was suggested by his late wife, Carile Brown. In his will Brown bequeathed $400,000 to the city of Williamsport, and stipulated that $150,000 be used to erect and endow a public library at the corner of Fourth and State streets for the use of the people of Williamsport.

The James V. Brown Library opened in June 1907. The lumber baron and philanthropist died on Dec. 8, 1904, at age 78.

Besides the library, Brown also was instrumental in founding the First National Bank of Williamsport, which provided the capital to expand much of the city’s Victorian charm during this period.

“It’s one of my favorite places to stop here in the cemetery,” Hipple said. “It is one of the more well-maintained mausoleums here and it really gives you a nice look into the Mount Carmel section of the cemetery,” he said.

Hipple also went over some of the histories of other prominent individuals, such as Elias Deemer and Guy Maynard and Peter Herdic.

Deemer’s grave is at the original part of the cemetery within yards of the cemetery office and chapel.

Many of the markers on the west side of Wildwood Cemetery are more detailed and have different characteristics, such as the obelisks, which are spiral Egyptian- style markers that resemble the Washington Monument. There also are upright sarcophagus monuments.

The large rectangular Deemer monument is not hard to miss. He was born in 1838 in Durham, Bucks County. His ancestors immigrated here in 1707 as farmers and iron workers, gaining a lot of notoriety in Bucks County because of their ability to work iron. The process of making iron in Colonial times was explained by Hipple, as the process involved charcoal ovens getting materials hot enough to render it down to pig iron to be forged.

Deemer began working at a grocery store and was able to become manager by age 20. At age 21, in 1859, Deemer worked as a bookkeeper at a lumber business. Eventually, he was a collector of bills and receipts and later became a salesman for a local manufacturer.

He moved to Philadelphia in 1860 to work in wholesale trade and around this time is when he decided to join the Union Army in 1861, enlisting in the 104th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

Several people not only were businessmen in the city which prospered from the abundance of timber heading down the river, but they also served in the Civil War, and there is a circle in the cemetery devoted to those who served. After the war, Deemer created one of the largest shingle mills operating. Ingenuity of those at the time led to making useful timber-related products, such as shingles, furniture and companies that were not sawmills added to a burgeoning economy on the move as the city population increased.

“They needed houses and those houses needed furniture and the people buried here – they supplied it,” Hipple said.

In fact, Deemer’s mill employed over 1,000 workers at its height of occupancy. While doing this, he was president of several businesses including president of the city common council (1888 to 1890), and in 1893 was elected president of the Williamsport National Bank, Hipple noted.

Deemer also represented Pennsylvania in the 57th, 58th and 59th Congresses from 1901 to 1907.

The lumber expansion in the various counties could be harvested but the entire eastern seaboard was considered untapped and he expanded into Mississippi and founded an unincorporated community named Deemer. Its neighboring community is called Philadelphia.

Deemer’s family lineage was also described on the tour by Hipple.

Their 17 room Queen Anne-style home was designed by architect Eber Culver in 1887.

Most of the houses, if not all houses on Millionaire’s Row, Culver was involved with their design and construction, including Wildwood’s chapel. He and the original manager John M. McMinn designed the chapel and many houses in the city. Deemer died on March 19, 1918.

In a very unassuming location is the headstone for Peter Herdic.

“They say if Eber Culver built Williamsport, Peter Herdic was the one who had the land,” Hipple said.

Herdic’s many landownings were on the city and South Williamsport sides of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

He owned some of the bridges and would charge tolls.

He is resting in an area reserved for his father-in-law. When Herdic passed away, he was destitute, having lost a lot of his money due to unfortunate business transactions.

Next to Herdic is the rest of the Maynard family, including Guy Washington Maynard who was born on Nov. 28, 1828, in Hamilton, New York. Maynard attended Dickinson Seminary, the precursor of Lycoming College, and was eventually recruited by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Many of the immigrants in the cemetery were part of the railroad construction. Maynard used his skills in surveying and left the railroad and continued to work in machinery business. He was a family man and by 1860, Maynard worked at a lumber company and later formed a partnership with Herdic. The partnership allowed for expansion in Maynard’s business. His career spans some of the most influential times of the city. His namesake is not that of the bridge per say, but the whole Maynard family.

The tour looked at the gravesite of John Hazelet, who was credited with creating a revolutionary roof sealer, and integral in the faith-based community who donated to flood relief. Born in Chambersburg, Franklin County. He was educated in the public schools and attended the Chambersburg Academy. There he learned the trade of painter and decorator. He came to Williamsport in April 1868, and opened an art store.

Across the expanse of Wildwood Cemetery, the maintenance team has begun a process of cleaning headstones, and while not all can be spruced up of the lichen that forms, there are attempts to make the cemetery stones as presentable as possible.

There are technically a couple of different cemeteries here, including Mount Carmel, the Mound Cemetery, and former Grandview, on the east side.

The hour-long tour included a reception with hot apple cider and ginger snaps and a glimpse at the historic chapel that was constructed in 1896 and finished in 1897. Hipple had dozens of other factual tidbits and answered questions from the tourists.

He also gave a later tour that evening as darkness fell, with lanterns and flashlights to illuminate the way.

The tour is the best way to not only see the cemetery up close, but to also gain insight into some of the city’s history and information about what sets the cemetery apart from others, he says.