Photography by Lori M. Nichols

Tucked away in a 2-acre plot of land, surrounded by houses just off a well-traveled Jersey Shore road, are thousands of names inscribed in granite, marble, concrete.

Bumsie Giberson. Velvet Bonow. Zero Bankhead. Toodles Majane. Pretzel Berges. Picolo Venuti. Stinker Casey. Pooh Cat Cuneo.

Not the type of names you typically see on headstones and grave markers. But all these pets were beloved to their humans, so much so that their owners wanted their names — and spirits — to be remembered forever.

Many of the dogs and cats interred at Clara Glen Pet Cemetery in Linwood were pets of everyday, common people. A few served with the military overseas or as K-9s with the Atlantic City Police Department. Some were show dogs, in one sense or another — pedigreed and possibly champions of their breed, or as performing artists for the crowds along the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Some are pets connected to fame by their celebrity humans.

And not just cats and dogs are buried here — there’s at least one bird, a monkey (yes, you read that correctly, a monkey), numerous rabbits, and supposedly even guinea pigs, goats and a lamb — among the 3,800 pets memorialized. Rumor has it that one of the diving horses from Atlantic City’s Steel Pier is buried here, but no documentation exists to prove it.

Clara Glen Pet Cemetery was established in 1918 by Clara and Glen White. After the Whites began to bury their own animals — which included approximately 45 dogs, dozens of cats and more than 300 rabbits — in the backyard of their farmhouse, some of their friends and neighbors asked them to provide a proper burial for their pets as well.

Glen used his skills as a cabinet maker to make caskets of mahogany and pine for the animals, and Clara lined them with silk and satin and hand-decorated pillows, according to a 2021 article by Shore Local News.

When Glen White died, Clara sold it to Alexander and Agnes Miller in 1943. The Millers continued interring pets, measuring each animal for a custom-made casket and providing a ceremony upon request by pet owners. Agnes kept records on index cards with each pet interred, including a photo, and when pet owners couldn’t afford the expensive marble or granite headstones, she made small, flat cement markers for free in the basement, according to a 2017 article on vice.com.

Agnes continued to run the business on her own after her husband died in 1975. Twelve years later, due to her age and health, she could no longer operate the business and deeded Clara Glen Pet Cemetery to the Linwood Historical Society for $1, specifying that the property must remain a pet cemetery in perpetuity. Due to time and costs associated with its upkeep, as well as property taxes on the property, the volunteers of the historical society turned the Clara Glen Pet Cemetery over to the city of Linwood in the mid-1990s.

Burials ceased in the cemetery in the 1990s. The only burials still allowed are those of K-9 police dogs from Atlantic City — a large memorial dedicated to the working dogs is located in the back of the cemetery, and currently includes the names of 18 dogs.

Other service dogs buried here include Cootie, a mascot of the 314th American Expeditionary Force during World War I and Baron Atkinson, who appears to have served in the U.S. Army in Germany and Korea.

One of the most noticeable markers in the cemetery is that in memoriam of the animals owned by Glara and Glen White. The three-piece monument, while not grandiose, has a statue of a dog lying down, appearing to look up at his master. The inscription on the front reads “The loyalty of a dog may well put most men to shame, for few are as loyal to their heavenly master as is the humble dog to his earthly one.”

One famous showbiz dog that is confirmed to be buried here is Rex the Wonder Dog, who was famous for his water skiing act at Atlantic City’s Steel Pier in the 1940s. He and a human performer rode a boogie board towed by a power boat. Rex the Wonder Dog’s headstone is small and simple, with just his name, and a place where it’s assumed once was a photo of him.

Perhaps once one of the grandest monuments is that of Paradiddle Ben, or “Parry” as he was called, the dog of Ben Cotey, who once performed along the Atlantic City Boardwalk. The five-piece monument, depicting a scene from a theatre, is currently in disrepair, toppled over onto the ground with only the bottom stone’s inscription visible — “Show-biz was his life and love. Thus he lives still.” Parry, who lived from 1951 to 1963, was clearly important to his owner.

Actress Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch of the North in “The Wizard of Oz,” reportedly has at least two dogs buried here, Mr. Bum and Pat. While there are headstones matching those names, confirmation that these were her dogs was not able to be obtained. It’s also said the composer Irving Berlin and financier J.P. Morgan both have dogs buried here.

While there are pets of the rich and famous buried at Clara Glen, the pets of the less rich and “ordinary” humans here were certainly just as loved.

The inscription of Cookie, who died at only a year old, reads “A darling chocolate cocker, my precious baby. My heart is buried with you.”

Tom Puddy’s inscription reads “From heaven you came 19 years ago. Rest forever in peace. Love you my son.”

Bozo, who died in 1939, was described as “A swell dog.” Guppy Ross was “a good boy.” Mia, who lived from 1982 to 1983, was “too good to last.” And 10-year-old Dumas was “that once in a lifetime love.”

Nightlife, “a little brown mongrel dog,” quite possibly has the most interesting story of all. Nightlife was the dog of Atlantic City bartender William “Spanky” Davis.

Nightlife was well known throughout the area in the 1940s and ‘50s — he loved everybody and everybody loved him. He was named so “because he loved to visit the bright spots and taverns that dot the Northside,” according to an article from the Courier-Post.

He would apparently escort tipsy patrons of the bar where his owner worked back to their homes, and often hitch a ride back to the bar with cabdrivers who saw him waiting on a street corner.

However, in 1952 the 8-year-old dog was struck by a vehicle as he was trying to cross Arctic Avenue. Friends of Davis, who was out of town at the time, took Nightlife to a nearby funeral home, which donated a coffin lined in white satin.

“On Thanksgiving Day more than 2,000 people filed past a little white casket in a funeral parlor, where Nightlife’s body lay with his head resting between his paws,” according to an article written by the Associated Press. Cars double-parked outside the funeral home, and traffic was jammed for blocks.

Nightlife’s body was taken to Clara Glen Pet Cemetery in a funeral procession of approximately 20 Cadillacs led by two policemen on motorcycles, where approximately 400 mourners “stood bareheaded in the sunlight” for the service.

A two-page eulogy was read by journalist Clay Claiborne, a friend of Davis, including a paraphrase of the famous “Defense of the Dog” speech.

The story of Nightlife was published in newspapers from Maine to Florida to California, and even across Canada. While his grave marker can no longer be found, he was reportedly buried in the “old section,” near Hillelson’s Great Dane Arno.

Today, many of the flat concrete markers have seemingly been swallowed by the ground, grass and weeds covering the names of pets once so important to their humans. Many of the cat statues appear as if they are playfully hiding in the grass, and several of the dog statues are cracked or broken. While the cemetery does appear somewhat maintained, some of the headstones seem to have been vandalized in recent years, with a few of the memorials laying on the ground and others with empty spots where photos once were.

The cemetery is open to the public. The entrance is located on Heather Court off Shore Road in Linwood.

View more photos from the Clara Glen Pet Cemetery below.