Mexican War Hero Buried Here
New York, New York
William Jenkins Worth, born in upstate New York, was a store clerk who joined the military in 1812 and rose to the rank of Major General. He reputedly was the first American to make an amphibious military landing, and was judged to be the handsomest man in the army of his time. He is credited with ending the Seminole Indian War in Florida through the expedient measure of massacring most of the Seminoles. After that, he went to Mexico and killed a lot of Mexicans. The city of Fort Worth, Texas, is named in his honor.
Worth contracted cholera and died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1849. Eight years later the city of New York dug up his body and reburied it here, under a 51-foot-tall monument that lists the Mexican cities that he conquered. Why New York City did this is a mystery. His is one of only three private graves on the entire island of Manhattan.