Picture it. It’s a beautiful spring day. Blue skies overhead, lush green grass under your feet, and the scent of fresh flowers perfumes the air. You spread a quilt upon the ground and proceed to unpack all your overflowing picnic basket. You smile as you see your kids frolicking about with their relatives. Except your […]
Graveyard / Cemetery Picnics Read More »
While completing the Redbank Cemetery project for Billion Graves, I happened to be standing on the fence row over the edge of the cemetery and the little cliff (red line) overlooking the creek below (Mitchell Creek), when i noticed what appeared to be the bottom (base) of a headstone (yellow circle) laying by the cliff
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Bootleggers at the Cemetery Most gravestones in the late 1800s were stone but some were white bronze metal. In truth, the metal was not actually “white” or “bronze”. It was zinc alloy. (But “white bronze” sounded better, so they went with it!) White bronze grave markers were marketed in sales catalogs as a less expensive
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Joseph Abrams patented his cast iron grave cover in 1872 and 1873 as a decorative way to protect the graves of small children (who are buried underground, not under the dome). But several were used for adults. I’ve included an ad Abrams placed for his grave covers in the July 25, 1878 Moulton (Ala.) Advertiser.
The Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, CT produced sand cast zinc grave markers (sold as “White Bronze”) from 1874 to 1914. The company’s product is in cemeteries from coast to coast both in the United States and Canada. Zinc grave markers stand out in a field of stone markers because of their characteristic blue gray
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Since my last visit here, a sign has been placed on the fence saying “Frauke Yoder”. Frauke – “Little Lady” and Yoder – her last name. Over 100 years ago a 15 year old girl who challenged her Amish upbringing and questioned the treatment of women (something which was just NOT done back then) was
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Have you ever been in a cemetery and saw coins laying on a tombstone? A coin left on a headstone lets the deceased soldier’s family know that somebody stopped by to pay their respects. If you leave a penny, it means you visited. A nickel means that you and the deceased soldier trained at boot
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IN 1848, ALMOND FISK PATENTED a metal coffin he believed would revolutionize death. One problem: some people thought the burial case with its human contours was creepy as can be. The ”Fisk Airtight Coffin of Cast or Raised Metal” — also known as the “Fisk Mummy” — was designed to preserve the corpse in a