Most tombstones just list dates or years of birth and death, and the simple dash is the indication of what they are. Those that do use words usually preface the death date with the straightforward word “died,” with “departed this life” a distant second for 19th and early 20th century tombstones. But the ones I find more intriguing and never fail to photograph are the ones who use some more obscure, usually poetic phrasing. These frequently reveal something about the beliefs of the person who commissioned the headstone. In the case of James Eddy, his death in 1887 was described by his remaining family as “passed to spirit life.”
