Posted in Dead Men Do Tell Tales, tagged allen, buckeyes, football, grave art, navy, occupation, ohio, ohio state university, osu, sculpture, symbolism, veteran, vietnam, williston cemetery on December 31, 2012| 1 Comment »
There’s so much to learn about Dale Nelson’s life from his tombstone: his parents’ names, that his and his 3 siblings’ names all started with D, and that he served in Vietnam as a Navy operations specialist. He was also an Ohio State University fan, if not an alumnus. I can’t tell from my photos if that football helmet is supposed to be colored to represent a particular team or just a general enjoyment of football.
Posted in State of the Blog, tagged State of the Blog, stats on December 30, 2012| 2 Comments »
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 20,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals
Posted in Uncategorized on December 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I had originally photographed the Hamilton stone for a post on symbolic overload. Then I saw the grave offering left for John E. Hamilton, Sr. How can your heart not melt?
Posted in Dead Men Do Tell Tales, tagged allen, firefighter, occupation, ohio, williston cemetery on December 29, 2012| 1 Comment »
Williston Cemetery isn’t very big, but I found 2 firefighters buried fairly close to one another there. I can clearly make out that the second one was a volunteer, but I didn’t get a detailed enough photo of the first headstone to tell whether Mr. Apthorpe also was.
Posted in Dead Men Do Tell Tales, tagged artificer, cleveland, occupation, ohio, soldier, spanish american war, veteran, woodland cemetery on December 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Melvin Larimer’s stone identifies him as having been an artificer in the Spanish-American War. I might have seen other stones with the designation before, but I hadn’t noticed. On Fort Sumter’s website, I found “artificer” in their FAQ section. Paraphrasing, an artificer would have been an enlisted artillery man with a specialized skill that allowed him to supervise or organize that kind of work.
Posted in Cemetery Sculpture, tagged bow tie, cleveland, grave art, ohio, sculpture, symbolism, unsolved, woodland cemetery on December 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Angels, Cemetery Sculpture, tagged allen, angel, Angels, calvary cemetery, chicago, dayton, grave art, illinois, lacarpe cemetery, ohio, sculpture, williston cemetery, woodland cemetery on December 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born
Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Posted in Dead Men Do Tell Tales, tagged civil war, cleveland, cross, Crosses, history, immigrant, immigrants, occupation, ohio, soldier, star, stars, symbolism, veteran, woodland cemetery on December 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Sacred to the memory of Alexander Doull, Colonel of Artillery in the Army of the Potomac, previously lieutenant in the Royal British Artillery
The inscription on Colonel Doull’s tombstone reminds us of a fact about the United States Civil War that be forgotten – the important role that immigrants played in the armies. About 25% of the Union army was estimated to be foreign-born immigrants. With the rate of immigration in the 19th century, we also have to assume that there was a significant slice of the United States-born soldiers who had parents or grandparents who were immigrants.
Posted in Cemetery Sculpture, Symbolism, tagged cincinnati, epitaphs, grave art, kirtland, kirtland historic north cemetery, ohio, sculpture, spring grove cemetery, star on December 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I find a lot of little five-pointed stars on cemetery monuments. Based on a little bit of research, five-pointed stars often are supposed to symbolize Christ, specifically the five wounds of Christ from the crucifixion.
Posted in Dead Men Do Tell Tales, tagged cause of death, civil war, cleveland, history, ohio, place of death, soldier, veteran, woodland cemetery on December 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Samuel Pickands joined the 1st Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Artillery, on February 1, 1862. By the end of March, he was dead, most likely of disease. According to the Ohio Roster Commission’s Offical Roster of soldiers, Pickands died on March 25 in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The tombstone identifies his place of death as Virginia rather than West Virginia. As West Virginia did not enter the Union until June 20, 1863, Pickand and his family would have known the state where he died as Virginia. Even if they were aware of the movement for West Virginia to become its own state, the convention to create a state constitution did not present a document for ratification until mid-February, and the ratification occurred at least a month after Pickands’ death.
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A Grave Concern 