The Boy and Dog (c. 1860)
by
Daniel La Dow
This marble monument stands in Woodlawn Cemetery, in Dayton, Ohio. It marks the grave of Johnny Woodhouse (1855 - 14 August 1860), a boy who lived, according to Woodlawn's brochure on this monument, "at the SW corner of East Third and June Streets" in Dayton. Johnny, the brochure continues, was the son of a local cobbler whose shop was located on the Dayton Canal (now Patterson St.) Playing near the canal one day, Johnny fell in. Though his dog jumped in and pulled Johnny to shore, the boy did not survive. The brochure continues: "Legend has it that, several days after the burial, the dog appeared next to the boy's grave staying by it morning, noon, and night." Such stories of dogs' loyalty to their dead masters are of course nothing new; see, for example, the story of Greyfriars Bobby or Charles Gough (whose story has a Sir Edwin Landseer connection), or even Merriwether Lewis and Seaman, according to one version, among many others.
The monument over Johnny's grave features not only the dog sitting protectively over the body but Johnny's cap, mouth harp, ball and a top. (It is not unusual for visitors to leave similar objects on the monument; some leave coins.) The monument was created by a local sculptor named Daniel La Dow, according to the cemetery's brochure.
While the dog ceartainly does not closely resemble modern-day Newfoundlands, it does bear, arguably, a distinct resemblance to many represenations of Newfoundlands in the early to middle 19th Century, as other entries here at The Cultured Newf make clear.
This monument — which bears no dates, only Johnny's name and the inscription "In Slumber Sleep" — is, not surprisingly, one of the most noted monuments at Woodlawn Cemetery, whose most famous "resident" is the American humorist Erma Bombeck.