Grave of Titanic Passenger
Amenia, North Dakota
Herbert Fuller Chaffee was a millionaire farmer who unwisely boarded the maiden (and only) voyage of the Titanic. He and his wife, Carrie, were traveling in Europe and, according to local lore, booked the fastest ship back to the States to see their new grandchild. Carrie survived. Herbert, who pushed her into a lifeboat, was never seen again.
The Chaffee tombstone is by far the biggest in tiny Amenia Cemetery, out on flat farmland that's far from icebergs and the North Atlantic. The sinking of the Titanic killed roughly 1,500 people, and a number of them have tombstones (although few have bodies), but perhaps none are as lonely as this one. "Herbert Fuller Chaffee," reads its inscription. "Lost at sea with S.S. Titanic Apr. 15, 1912."
Herbert was one of the wealthiest people to die on the Titanic, and perhaps the only one from North Dakota.