A Grave Concern: How many weeping willows?

Not all cemetery symbols correspond numerically to the number interred under the monument, but weeping willows sometimes do. Even when the names and details are nearly obscured, you can sometimes count the weeping willows carved into the top of the tombstone and make a guess at how many names once appeared on the surface below.

In Chester Township Cemetery, Austin and Beecher Turner share a stone with two willow trees on it.

Three willow trees adorn the tombstone for three sons of the Lauterman family in the Olde Hudson Burying Ground.

Lambs sometimes have this same ratio of lambs aboveground to coffins below, but I can’t think of many other cemetery symbols that do.