Interesting stories from Mt. Calvary Cemetery

Because most of the people we historians deal with are dead, it is not perhaps surprising that many of us enjoy wandering through cemeteries. Some of the grave markers are beautiful works of art, some contain historical information otherwise missing from the record, and for us Catholics, all of them remind us of our mutual membership in the great community of faith from the beginning of time. A visit to Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City can be particularly rewarding.

The grave of Nora Gleason, the Cathedral of the Madeleine’s first organist and choir director, and Bishop Lawrence Scanlan’s secretary, offers both useful information and some mystery.

The Gleason plot contains three graves: Nora, her mother Honora, and a younger sister, Elizabeth. The stone is so weathered the inscription is all but illegible, but it says, "Elizabeth A., daughter of P. L. and Hanora [sic] Gleason. Born at Silver City, Nev. Aug. 5, 1877. Died Jan. 9, 1884." On the other side it reads, "Honora, wife of P. L. Gleason. Died March 12, 1910."

This gravestone contains the only real information we have about the vital statistics and name of Nora’s little sister, who died at age 6, for she is listed in the 1880 census only as "E. Gleason."

It is a mystery why Patrick L. Gleason, Nora’s father, is not buried here. He remained in the southern Nevada mining camps when the rest of his family came to Salt Lake City in about 1880, and presumably is buried there.

Another mystery is why Nora, who died in 1918 and presumably oversaw the preparation of the family grave, failed to notice that the stonecutter misspelled her mother’s name!

One of the most visible monuments at Mount Calvary stands at the southern edge of the circle where the clergy and religious are buried. The tall angel marks the grave of Patrick Phelan, an Irish boy who came to the United States in 1849 and followed the Gold Rushers to California in 1850. In 1866 he migrated to the Montana mines, where he met his lifelong business associate, Stephen Hays. In 1872 he moved to Salt Lake City and mined part time at Alta.

It is not known how well he did in mining, but he must have made at least some money, because in June 1873 he opened a store for the miners in Bingham Canyon.

Hays sold a business in Salt Lake City and joined Phelan in the partnership Phelan & Hays.

Phelan never married, and when he died in 1901 he left a considerable fortune to the Diocese of Salt Lake City, with the stipulation that most of it be used for support of St. Ann Orphanage.

When the orphanage closed in the 1950s, the remainder of the endowment went to Catholic Charities, which has since become Catholic Community Services. One can see a commemoration of his generosity in one of the windows in the Cathedral, which is dedicated to "P Phelan Orphans."

Another site of interest at Mt. Calvary is the grave of John and Mabel Dwyer, which rests under a tree near the far eastern border of the cemetery. They were the parents of Robert J. Dwyer, the first native Utahn ordained to the priesthood. He later became Bishop of Reno and Archbishop of Portland, Oregon. In addition to being an accomplished historian, Bishop Dwyer was an architectural expert. The grave marker, which he designed himself, is a beautifully proportioned Gothic arch upon which are inscribed his parents’ names and the simple epitaph "Requiescant" (They Are Resting).