Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Cemetery Tour #5, Epitaphs #5
We toured two different cemeteries last night and our assignment was to compare and contrast them, an easy task as you will see.
The first cemetery we visited was hidden in the woods. In fact we were on a hill on "Cemetery Outlook" and could see no cemetery. We had to hike through the woods to get to it. I had gone home after work to cool off the poor animals and had changed into shorts, sandals and stripped down as much as possible, the temps were 95 F with a nice hot sun on top of that. After going down a hill, through the woods, we came to a field with waist-high grass. I was glad I'd carried my water bottle by that time, it was really hot in the woods! My feet and legs were burning. I think it was a combination of insect repellant, scratchy brush and grass and sweat. I am NOT an outdoors person at those temperatures and conditions! But Greenwood Cemetery was worth seeing, I just would have picked a more temperate day for it.
This cemetery was the Potter's Field for the Poor Farm, a TB Sanitarium and the county hospital from 1891 to 1947. In approximately the same acreage as Scania, which had 1,400 graves, Greenwood had 4,705 people buried there with tiny little flat cement markers about the size of a person's fist. They were difficult to find in that field with such tall grass but we found some of the rows, which made it easier. There weren't any names on most of them, just numbers. There was a monument overgrown in the middle of the field. When we had scouted around a bit, we had to walk uphill through the woods to get to the parking lot again.
It was great to catch a breeze while driving to The College of St. Scholastica, we weren't going to the college but to the monastery's cemetery, Gethsemane Cemetery. We went past the beautiful rock-built Tower Hall to the winding road up the back. This cemetery was in the woods too, but very different. You could drive or walk to it and it was very well kept, the best we've seen so far, although it's probably unfair to compare it to some of the huge cemeteries we'd seen. The markers were small, neat and except for the names and dates, all exactly the same. The cemetery had almost a military look to it because of the uniformity. But it had a feeling of serenity like none of the other cemeteries. Here is an article that two nuns wrote about it:
Another World
By Sister Linda Wiggins and Sister Margaret James Laughlin
"Located west of the Monastery, at the top of the hill, Gethsemane Cemetery reigns on high, providing a splendid view of Lake Superior. More than just a "place," Gethsemane is a world in itself. Slightly tilted on its axis, the "Sisters' cemetery" is circled by a roadway, marked at intervals with large wooden crosses representing the Stations of the Cross.
Rows of pristine gray stone markers identify the deceased Sisters. No extensive adornment will be found here—one lovely statue of the Pieta; an occasional modest bouquet will signify a friend or family member recently visited. Yet rarely will anyone come upon a more beautiful world than this one. Rows of fir trees whisper messages while wild flowers bask in pied sunlight along the road. Deer amble across the green in the early morning and evening. A mother fox might bring her young ones for a romp on a warm summer evening. In the fall the pungent scent of apples delights walkers, while the crackle of snow and tiny footprints indicate frequent visitors in winter.
Gethsemane is a world of paradox: perpetual activity amid quiet rest—the abundance of life blooming amid this simple pastoral setting. Nothing illustrates more the Benedictine ideal than this world where the assurances of Christ radiate in natural wonder: a crossroad of heaven and earth."
Guess I really can't add anything to that, about the cemetery anyway! After that we went to the Monastery. It was wonderfully cool and quiet and the place was subtly beautiful. A friendly, but crisp and correct nun gave us a little tour and told us about the history and answered our questions, like how she got her name (Mother Superior gave it to her) and if she really had to give up all her worldly possessions to be a nun (yes). I can't help but wonder what she thought of us, dirty, sweaty, ragtag people!
Then I came home, took care of the animals, took a shower to wash off whatever was stinging my feet and legs. Then I sat down to a dinner of a cold can of Coke and some ice-cold cherries. They helped cool me off but I ended up with a stomachache after that, guess all that cold stuff wasn't a good idea. I'm feeling OK now and really looking forward to going into work for that air conditioning!
More Epitaphs!
Some epitaphs were meant to warn the living from committing the same mistake as the deceased.
Beneath this stone a lump of clay
Lies Uncle Peter Dan'els
Who early in the month of May
Took off his winter flannels.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Here lies the body
of Jonathan Blake.
Stepped on the gas
Instead of the brake.
Uniontown, PA.
Reader, I've left this world, in which
I had a world to do;
Sweating and fretting to get rich:
Just such a fool as you.
Charleston, South Carolina
Ellen Shannon
age 26 years
Who was fatally burned
March 21, 1870
by the explosion of a lamp
filled with "R. E. Danforth's
Non-Explosive
Burning Fluid."
Girard, Pennsylvania
Harry Edsel Smith
Born 1903 - Died 1942
Looked up the elevator shaft
to see if the car
was on the way down.
It was.
near Albany, New York
Julia Newton
Died of thin shoes,
April 17th, 1839,
age 19 years.
In a New Jersey cemetery.
Here lies the body of Mary Ann Lowder
She burst while drinking a Seidlitz powder.
Called from this world to her heavenly rest,
She should have waited till it effervesced.
Burlington, Vermont
First a Cough
Carried Me Off
Then a Coffin
They Carried Me Off In
Boston, Massachusetts
Blown upward
out of sight:
He sought the leak
by candlelight
Wiltshire, England
(Spelling is exactly as written on the tombstone)
In memory of
Richard Fothergill
Who met vierlent death near this spot
18 hundred and 40 too.
He was shot by
his own pistill.
It was not one of the
new kind;
But an old fashioned brass barrell
Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Near Sparta Diggings, California
On Joseph Crapp:
His foot is slipt
and he did fall.
"Help; Help" he cried
and that was all.
Mylor Churchyard, Cornwall, England
Dinah had a little can
'Twas filled with kerosine
And soon among the twinkling stars
Dynamite Benzine. *
(* Dinah might been seen)
Here lies old Aunt Hannah Proctor
Who purged but didn't call the Doctor:
She couldn't stay, She had to go
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Medway
Just one more cemetery tour left, and one more batch of epitaphs (I sort of divided them to stretch the six weeks!)
The first cemetery we visited was hidden in the woods. In fact we were on a hill on "Cemetery Outlook" and could see no cemetery. We had to hike through the woods to get to it. I had gone home after work to cool off the poor animals and had changed into shorts, sandals and stripped down as much as possible, the temps were 95 F with a nice hot sun on top of that. After going down a hill, through the woods, we came to a field with waist-high grass. I was glad I'd carried my water bottle by that time, it was really hot in the woods! My feet and legs were burning. I think it was a combination of insect repellant, scratchy brush and grass and sweat. I am NOT an outdoors person at those temperatures and conditions! But Greenwood Cemetery was worth seeing, I just would have picked a more temperate day for it.
This cemetery was the Potter's Field for the Poor Farm, a TB Sanitarium and the county hospital from 1891 to 1947. In approximately the same acreage as Scania, which had 1,400 graves, Greenwood had 4,705 people buried there with tiny little flat cement markers about the size of a person's fist. They were difficult to find in that field with such tall grass but we found some of the rows, which made it easier. There weren't any names on most of them, just numbers. There was a monument overgrown in the middle of the field. When we had scouted around a bit, we had to walk uphill through the woods to get to the parking lot again.
It was great to catch a breeze while driving to The College of St. Scholastica, we weren't going to the college but to the monastery's cemetery, Gethsemane Cemetery. We went past the beautiful rock-built Tower Hall to the winding road up the back. This cemetery was in the woods too, but very different. You could drive or walk to it and it was very well kept, the best we've seen so far, although it's probably unfair to compare it to some of the huge cemeteries we'd seen. The markers were small, neat and except for the names and dates, all exactly the same. The cemetery had almost a military look to it because of the uniformity. But it had a feeling of serenity like none of the other cemeteries. Here is an article that two nuns wrote about it:
Another World
By Sister Linda Wiggins and Sister Margaret James Laughlin
"Located west of the Monastery, at the top of the hill, Gethsemane Cemetery reigns on high, providing a splendid view of Lake Superior. More than just a "place," Gethsemane is a world in itself. Slightly tilted on its axis, the "Sisters' cemetery" is circled by a roadway, marked at intervals with large wooden crosses representing the Stations of the Cross.
Rows of pristine gray stone markers identify the deceased Sisters. No extensive adornment will be found here—one lovely statue of the Pieta; an occasional modest bouquet will signify a friend or family member recently visited. Yet rarely will anyone come upon a more beautiful world than this one. Rows of fir trees whisper messages while wild flowers bask in pied sunlight along the road. Deer amble across the green in the early morning and evening. A mother fox might bring her young ones for a romp on a warm summer evening. In the fall the pungent scent of apples delights walkers, while the crackle of snow and tiny footprints indicate frequent visitors in winter.
Gethsemane is a world of paradox: perpetual activity amid quiet rest—the abundance of life blooming amid this simple pastoral setting. Nothing illustrates more the Benedictine ideal than this world where the assurances of Christ radiate in natural wonder: a crossroad of heaven and earth."
Guess I really can't add anything to that, about the cemetery anyway! After that we went to the Monastery. It was wonderfully cool and quiet and the place was subtly beautiful. A friendly, but crisp and correct nun gave us a little tour and told us about the history and answered our questions, like how she got her name (Mother Superior gave it to her) and if she really had to give up all her worldly possessions to be a nun (yes). I can't help but wonder what she thought of us, dirty, sweaty, ragtag people!
Then I came home, took care of the animals, took a shower to wash off whatever was stinging my feet and legs. Then I sat down to a dinner of a cold can of Coke and some ice-cold cherries. They helped cool me off but I ended up with a stomachache after that, guess all that cold stuff wasn't a good idea. I'm feeling OK now and really looking forward to going into work for that air conditioning!
More Epitaphs!
Some epitaphs were meant to warn the living from committing the same mistake as the deceased.
Beneath this stone a lump of clay
Lies Uncle Peter Dan'els
Who early in the month of May
Took off his winter flannels.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Here lies the body
of Jonathan Blake.
Stepped on the gas
Instead of the brake.
Uniontown, PA.
Reader, I've left this world, in which
I had a world to do;
Sweating and fretting to get rich:
Just such a fool as you.
Charleston, South Carolina
Ellen Shannon
age 26 years
Who was fatally burned
March 21, 1870
by the explosion of a lamp
filled with "R. E. Danforth's
Non-Explosive
Burning Fluid."
Girard, Pennsylvania
Harry Edsel Smith
Born 1903 - Died 1942
Looked up the elevator shaft
to see if the car
was on the way down.
It was.
near Albany, New York
Julia Newton
Died of thin shoes,
April 17th, 1839,
age 19 years.
In a New Jersey cemetery.
Here lies the body of Mary Ann Lowder
She burst while drinking a Seidlitz powder.
Called from this world to her heavenly rest,
She should have waited till it effervesced.
Burlington, Vermont
First a Cough
Carried Me Off
Then a Coffin
They Carried Me Off In
Boston, Massachusetts
Blown upward
out of sight:
He sought the leak
by candlelight
Wiltshire, England
(Spelling is exactly as written on the tombstone)
In memory of
Richard Fothergill
Who met vierlent death near this spot
18 hundred and 40 too.
He was shot by
his own pistill.
It was not one of the
new kind;
But an old fashioned brass barrell
Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Near Sparta Diggings, California
On Joseph Crapp:
His foot is slipt
and he did fall.
"Help; Help" he cried
and that was all.
Mylor Churchyard, Cornwall, England
Dinah had a little can
'Twas filled with kerosine
And soon among the twinkling stars
Dynamite Benzine. *
(* Dinah might been seen)
Here lies old Aunt Hannah Proctor
Who purged but didn't call the Doctor:
She couldn't stay, She had to go
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Medway
Just one more cemetery tour left, and one more batch of epitaphs (I sort of divided them to stretch the six weeks!)
