No Respect

The nation's third largest nongovernmental cemetery is the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over 185,000 people have been interred there. On the front page of their website, they say "Crown Hill is the burial site of such famous people as: President Benjamin Harrison, Colonel Eli Lilly, 11 Indiana Governors, 1 Kentucky Governor, 14 Indiana Mayors, 13 Civil War Generals, poet James Whitcomb Riley, author Booth Tarkington, automobile manufacturer Frederick Duesenberg, and the infamous bank robber John Dillinger." However, one must dig deeper to find out that it also has the remains of 3 Vice Presidents, more than any other cemetery. They boast of being "the only Indiana cemetery with a U.S. President, 3 Vice Presidents, and 4 unsuccessful VP candidates." Only one state (New York with ten) has more vice-presidential gravesites. On a day when the role of vice president is in the news, I see it fitting to singing the praises of these three Veeps.

• Thomas A. Hendricks (1819-1885),
  U.S. Senator, 1863-1869; Governor, 1873-1877, U.S. Vice Presidential Candidate, 1876, U.S. Vice President, 1885
  
• Charles Fairbanks (1852-1918),
  U.S. Senator, 1897-1904, U.S. Vice President, 1905-1909. Fairbanks, Alaska is named after him.
  
• Thomas Marshall (1854-1925),
  Governor 1909-1913; U.S. Vice President, 1913-1921.