War in 1838?

As I was perusing my cemetery photos, I came across a couple of a large, bench-oriented monument in Rome Cemetery, Rome, NY.

I took a closer shot of the epitaph for the husband of the pair, and a question came to me...

Our father, patriot War 1838, freedom

of slaves, philanthropist, inventor,

advocate of Maine Law Prohibition.

...what war in 1838? A basic Google search turned up various things, but the last descriptor suggests to me he was involved in the Aroostook War ("war," it was undeclared) between the U.S. and Britain over the Maine/Canada border. Who knew?

Decked

Happy holidays!

(From St. Joseph's Cemetery in Utica)

It's that time...

It's that time of the year/semester in which I am too busy to barely even remember I have a blog to maintain. On the upside, I've already been planning cemeteries to visit when I go back to Texas for Christmas. In the meantime, here's an oversized headstone from Cortland Gibson Chapel Rural Cemetery in NY:

For some perspective, the guy is a little over 6' (1.8m) tall.

Hardly the biggest or the best headstone around-- what I love is how typical it is in every other regard: normal color, uber-traditional shape...just very, very big.

Last Will & Testament

From South Onondaga Cemetery:

A headstone, otherwise ordinary, crammed chock-full of biographic detail on the front...

Born in Ashford, Conn.

A teacher of youth at the age of eighteen,

Inspector and Commissioner of schools,

Justice of the Peace for 30 years,

Supervisor, Associate Justice,

Member of the N.Y.S. Assembly,

and 40 (?) years a zealous(?)

[advoc?]ate of temperance

....conscientious, Christian life.

...and on the back, a passage that reads straight out of a will:

I give and bequeath to the Trustees of the M. E. Society of South Onondaga in Trust, Five Hundred dollars to be kept by them at interest secured by Bond and Mortgage, or in a Savings Bank -- the interest of the same to be appropriated [...] and improvement of the South Onondaga Cemetery [...]

Water, water

From Fairview Cemetery, city: uncertain. Possibly Ovid? I think I passed it on the way to Sheldrake Point Winery...Anyway:

 Waterman Thomas, quite the name.

Matched Set 3

From Myrtle Hill Cemetery, Syracuse:

Each member of the family buried here with his or her own sprig of plant-life.

Related posts:
Matched Set 1
Matched Set 2

Armistice

Since Veteran's Day has is its origins with the conclusion of World War 1, here are a few graves of men who died overseas for that war.


From Myrtle Hill Cemetery, Syracuse:

Wilfred Wickliffe Porter Jr

1st Lieut. Co B 305th MGB USA

Feb 23 1888 - Aug 20 1918

"In France"

Harold Greene Porter MD

Lieut (jg) Medical Corps USNRF

US Naval Hospital Chelsea Mass

Aug 20 1893 - Sept 10 1918

From Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse:

 Leonard A. Smith

1897 - 1918

1st. Class Private

Co. C. 106th N.Y. Inf. 27th Div.

Died in France

Edward M. Casey

Born March 21st 1894

Mechanic

Machine Gun Co. 30th Infantry

Killed in action October 19, 1918

Meuse-Argonne Offensive, France

Related post:

War & Veterans, part 2

Top 10 Unusual Cemeteries

From TopTenz.net, a list of 10 unusual cemeteries. (via Neatorama) My favorite is the underwater "cemetery" at #5:

The Neptune Memorial Reef (also known as the Atlantis Memorial Reef or the Atlantis Reef) is the world’s first underwater mausoleum for cremated remains and the world’s largest man-made reef. Opened in 2007, off the coast of Miami Beach, the Neptune Memorial Reef is the perfect final resting place for those who loved the sea.

Mine

From Woodlawn Cemetery, Syracuse:

My Woman and My Man, beloved wife/husband, mother/father, and grandmother/grandfather.

Oops, one more

I noticed after I posted yesterday that there was one more urn-centric monument from Oakland Cemetery that I could have posted, so here it is today.

Of note:

• Greek style of the urn
• Dr. James Reese McKeldin, Ph.D. (seems a little redundant to me to state both Dr. and Ph.D. titles-- I wonder in what? He was obviously proud of it.)
• Bessie McKeldin Clark somehow died in Mexico

Hard-Urned

So, my month of constant updates has concluded, more or less successfully (yay!). Back to your irregularly scheduled (but hopefully frequent) programming.

From Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta:

Three large metal-cast and green-patina'd urns. Piled with cloth:

A pair in front of a Gothic-styled mausoleum:

And sitting elegantly under a portico, bookended by benches.

Some scale for the last one:

Happy Halloween!

---

Or, if you'd rather a spooky gravesite decoration, check out this old post from Tomb Wrecks. I can only hope someday my descendants will put a "Zombie Xing" sign on my grave at Halloween.

A male statue

So, instead of a sad stone lady, here's an intellectual male statue, from Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica:

Part of a giant...structure:

A mysterious prop

From Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse:

A statue, high atop a tall obelisk, holding something neither a book nor an anchor (unique!), nor anything I can really readily identify (too unique!) It looks like a weighing scale, only...not.

Handsy

More hands on gravestones...

From Liverpool Cemetery, Liverpool, NY:

...holding flowers...

This one was also neat because the inscription is in German, as you can see more fully on that of two of Katharina Kissel's relations:

From Walnut Grove Cemetery, Syracuse:

...holding a book...

From Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta:

...grabbing the link of a chain and symbolically snuffing someone's life...

From Chappell Hill Masonic Cemetery, Chappell Hill:

...and clasping another well-sculpted hand.

Related post:
Hand of God

Symmetry

From Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester:

I wish I knew what inspired this unique layout...a background in math? puzzles? design? Compulsive pursuit of symmetry? 

1946
0710
2006
0704 

Charles

William

Fischer

Husband

Father

Brother 

Friend

Ichabod Crane

The lovely blog Scouting New York is, naturally, on a Halloween kick, including this post from a few days ago on the overgrown New Springfield Cemetery on Staten Island, final resting place of the real-life Ichabod Crane, namesake of the Sleepy Hollow character. Pictures abound!

Go see Halloween in NY: In Search of Ichabod Crane

Little children

From Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta:

A child's headstone, of a little child/cherub curled up in a seashell:

Epitaph: Fell asleep Aug't 10th 1869. Aged 9 mon's & 1 day.


From Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester:

A small obelisk structure for "Our Willie," who is "Over in the summer land." the epitaph notes. The top is a neat little statue/column affair, but to me the most noteworthy part of this headstone is that chubby, creepy little hand.

Related post:
Little shoes

Sadness

From Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta:

Another sad stone woman:

Related post:
Sad Stone Ladies

Cemetery critters

Stepping outside my normal purview a bit for some pictures of cute critters that held still long enough for me to get a picture.

From Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester:

Surprised the poor little thing and he wound up just freezing for several seconds.

From Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, another chipmunk, perched on a headstone:

 And one of the lovely black-furred squirrels that runs around up here:

From Walnut Grove Cemetery, Syracuse:

A non-living specimen-- a cement sculpture of what was apparently once a cardinal, perched alongside the stone urn atop an obelisk:

Rocky epitaph

From Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse:

A charming epitaph carved into a big chunk of rock left sort of out of the way of all the other headstones in that section.

I'd rather be a rather be

Than be a rather been,

Because you see a rather be

Is not a might have been.

                  ...F. H. Harms

Even more poignant as an epitaph, I think.

And a slightly different angle:

Dynamic text

Bold font stylings on headstones that put me in mind of flashy comic book-style text.

From Gibson Chapel Rural Cemetery, Cortland:

Flashy gold letters in a unique font, dramatically slanting across the headstone:

From South Onondaga Cemetery:

Really just the word "died" on this one, which so boldly different from the rest of the text and is really the most prominent word down there.

Intricacies

And finally, from Oakwood Cemetery, some lovely examples of attention to detail:

A Gothicy monument with very realistic flowers adorning its peak.

Nice detailing of...uh, some sort of plant (thistle?) along the arms of this bench.

A towering obelisk, which was the primary inspiration for this post:

A closer view:

And finally, the intricately-filled circle pattern on the end of an above-ground tomb:

Also of note! Today is the official one-year anniversary of my first post. Yay!

Family ties

Epitaphs that mention a family tie and fall outside the usual Wife/Son/Daughter identification. For instance...

From Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse:

One more uncommon "husband" identifier, complete with a possessive!


From Rome Cemetery, Rome, NY:

In memory of

Anna Elizabeth

Landon Adopted

daughter of Numa

& Betsy Leonard

who died Dec. 16,

1827, in the 6 year

of her age.

From Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester:

Amelia I.

Buchan

Second wife of

John Robb

Died

Jan. 9, 1883

Ae. 80 yrs.

Related posts:

Husband of...

Friends