Among the thousands: Here’s who you should know is buried at the Lexington Cemetery

Located just off of Main Street, the Lexington Cemetery is rich in Kentucky history.

This year, the private cemetery celebrates 175 years of operation. With 170 acres of land, the cemetery currently has about 77,000 interments, and space for 100 more years of growth, cemetery President Miles Penn said.

Surprisingly, the COVID pandemic helped open up the cemetery to a new slew of visitors.

“Since COVID, we’ve really had an influx. I mean there’s a lot of people that come visit the cemetery to walk, to eat lunch,” Penn said. “We were one of the few places that was not shut down during COVID. A lot of the people got to experience the cemetery firsthand that wouldn’t have thought to come here.”

It’s easy to get lost.

Even Penn, who has worked at the cemetery for 26 years, still has to call the office for directions sometimes. If you find yourself walking through the vast garden cemetery, keep your eyes open for these notable people with ties to Kentucky.

Kentucky veterans

Within the Lexington Cemetery, you will find the Lexington National Cemetery, home to 1,700 United States veterans.

“It dates back to the Civil War. When the war ended (in 1865), the cemetery donated the lot where the Union dead were buried to the US government, which then purchased an additional 16,000 square feet,” Walter said.

Unlike the rest of the Lexington Cemetery, the national cemetery doesn’t have space for more burials.

“It’s been full since World War II. The closest now is Camp Nelson (Jessamine County), where if you’re former service you can be buried,” Penn said.

About 600 people commemorate Veterans Day each year at the annual ceremony hosted in the cemetery, Penn said. Retired Major Dwayne Edwards, chief of staff for the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, will lead this year’s ceremony.

William “King” Solomon

With a bottle of whiskey in hand, William “King” Solomon walked around Lexington in 1833 picking up the dead claimed by a sweeping cholera epidemic. Solomon, often inebriated, worked tirelessly for two months laying the dead to rest after the town’s gravediggers skipped town, afraid of catching the sickness themselves.

In his book “Offbeat Kentuckians”, Keven McQueen wrote that Solomon was heavily reliant on alcohol and performed odd jobs around town to feed his addiction. The most common job was freelance digging: Often cellars, graves or cisterns.

“Wandering the graveyard on Short Street, Solomon noticed that the coffins of the cholera dead lay unburied; the gravediggers had fled the scene for fear of contracting the contagious disease. At that moment, Solomon knew what he must do,” McQueen wrote. “Grabbing his shovel, the laborer began digging graves seemingly with no concern for his own safety.”

Writer James Lane Allen wrote that Solomon didn’t get sick because he never drank the town’s water, opting for whiskey instead. After Solomon died in 1854, the Rev. William M. Pratt of First Baptist Church wrote in his diary that Solomon “had drunk whiskey enough to float a man of war.”

“When Solomon dies, he dies without much fanfare. He doesn’t die a hero, he just dies a dude,” executive director of the Lexington History Museum Mandy Higgins said. “When James Lane Allen sort of resurrects the story of King Solomon, then townspeople come together to honor him with (a tombstone).”

Buried in the Lexington Cemetery, Solomon’s grave reads, “For had he not a royal heart?”

Jim Varney

“One of our most visited people is Jim Varney from the Ernest movies,” Penn said. “We have more people come for him than probably anybody.”

If the Ernest movies don’t ring a bell for you, perhaps you know Varney as the voice of Slinky Dog in Pixar’s first feature film, Toy Story.

Varney was born in Lexington on June 15, 1949. He moved to New York and started pursuing an acting career at just 18 years old, and got his start as a stand up comedian and acted in off-Broadway plays.

He is best known for his accident-prone, denim-clad character Ernest P. Worrell. He portrayed Ernest in five Disney movies and many commercials.

Fans leave coins on Varney’s grave, to show they have visited.

Sophonisba Breckinridge

One of the first women to pass the bar exam in Lexington, Sophonisba Breckinridge was an advocate for women’s rights. She moved out of Kentucky to study social work at the University of Chicago, where she later became dean of the School of Social Administration. She lived in the Midwest for the rest of her life.

Born to the prominent Breckinridge family, Sophonisba made a name for herself apart from her family.

Who were the Breckinridges? With deep ties in Kentucky, the family was one of the most historically notable in the fledgling colonies and then in the early days of the United States. Its members ratified the US Constitution, served in Congress, served as a vice-president and even had an unsuccessful run for president.

Breckinridges gained acclaim as soldiers, ministers, presidents and prominent members of the social and public service scenes.

Kentucky’s Breckinridge County is named after John Breckinridge who served as a US attorney general, senator and a member of the U.S. House. He also was a American Revolutionary War veteran. He died in 1806, shortly after his namesake county was formed.

“She could have stayed in Lexington and been a very prominent woman and lawyer … but she blazed her own path and that’s incredible,” Higgins said.

Sophonisba is buried on her family lot at the Lexington Cemetery, which Higgins found very Kentuckian.

“That pullback I think is a very Lexington story. To come home and to spend eternity at home, even if the rest of your life has been outside of it,” she said.

Gordon Granger

On June 19, 1865, Union Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops rode to Galveston, Texas, and announced General Order No. 3.

Texas slaves were free.

Even though then President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1853, many slaves in Texas didn’t know they were free, so Granger made sure to tell them.

In recognition of that day’s news, President Joe Biden made “Juneteenth” a federal holiday in 2021.

Granger was born in New York and died in New Mexico. How’d he end up buried in Lexington?

During his time in the Union Army, he worked as a commander in Kentucky, where he met and later married Maria Letcher, a Lexingtonian.

“It’s another moment where Lexington is a part of a national conversation, but with a very local story,” Higgins said.

Henry Clay

The tallest monument in the Lexington Cemetery belongs to Henry Clay, the US congressman best known as the Great Compromiser. The vault where Clay lies also houses his wife, Lucretia Hart Clay.

On top of the vault is a 120-foot column topped with a statue of Clay. Commissioned by Clay’s friends right after his death in 1852, the monument cost $43,000. That’s an estimated $1.8 million in today’s money.

The monument was finished in 1861, but Clay wouldn’t be buried there until 1864, due to the onset of the Civil War.

Perhaps one of Kentucky’s most famous historical figures, Penn said Clay is one of the three most-visited people at the cemetery, along with Jim Varney and legendary former University of Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp.