Baldwin Wordless Wednesday

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Be ye also ready

Dr. Gideon Case died May 15th, 1822 in the 44th year of his age.
Be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

It’s hard to provide an exact citation for Dr. Case’s epitaph. Versions of the phrase appear in translations of the Biblical Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and those words then spun off into hymns, sermons, and religious tracts. Whatever the route by which epitaph came to Dr. Case’s tombstone, it is a reminder to the passerby that it is important to attend to the care of his soul today, since there may not be a later time to do so.

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Drummer boy

When I see a tombstone like this, it really highlights how different the culture I live in is from that of people who lived in the same place just one or two hundred years ago. When I was 14, I was finishing middle school and going into high school, going to dances, playing soccer, singing in the choir and playing violin. My brother had different hobbies, but his fourteenth year followed the same basic pattern. There was a war going on then, thousands of miles away in a place called Kuwait that I don’t think I’d heard of before, but there was no one I had ever met fighting in it and no real concern that my brother or I would be affected by that war, and we definitely had no chance of fighting in it until we were at least 18. But when Stephen Thompson Jr. was fourteen, he was a drummer boy in a war that was happening around him. Even if he hadn’t chosen to join the army, his life would have been altered by the hostilities.

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An unusual double stone

Susan, Daughter of A. & S. Thompson died Sept 12, 1814. Aged 5 years.
an infant son died Oct. ?

I’ve written about double stones before, where the stone looks like two tombstones with the same outline are mashed together to form one that is symmetrical. Usually, the writing on the stone is also done in this symmetrical pattern: if we could somehow magically slice the tombstones apart, each side would look like a perfectly normal single stone. This one is different, with the inscriptions for both Susan and her unnamed brother carved across the entire width of the stone.

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The 7th son

Beneath this stone lie buried the mortal remains of Watson, 7th son of Owen Brown & 1st son of Owen & Sally Brown, who was born at Hudson on the 22nd day of July 1813, and died on the 29th day of J? 1833 AE 18 years.

He was a kind-hearted, generous, and manly youth who, by his mild and amiable character was endeared to his numerous friends. Cut off in the spring time of life.

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AE

You can pretty easily derive the meaning of AE when it appears like this on a tombstone: clearly, it signifies “aged,” as in aged a certain number of years at death. In Latin, “anno aetatis suae” means “in the specified year of a person’s age.” AE, which should actually be squished together so that the rightward most stroke of the A is also the vertical line of the E, is an abbreviation for that.

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When you behold this speaking stone

When you behold this speaking ston
Remember what it says
Im[illegible] momets as they run
And walk in wisdom ways.

I love the beginning of this epitaph – the phrase “speaking stones” perfectly conveys what I see when I walk around a cemetery. Tombstones may seem silent and cold, but they are in fact full of stories if you know how to read them. I always thought I wanted to be a teacher (later specifically a history teacher), and some part of that is still in my heart. Were someone ever to give me the opportunity to teach a group of students about United States history for a few weeks or months, I would definitely take all those kids off to a cemetery to explore. (Of course, that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, so I’m resigned to dragging along unsuspecting friends.) My only regret is that the wear on the tombstone obscures the third line.

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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.

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A Grave Concern: The weeping willow tree

The weeping willow seems an obvious funerary symbol because its name bespeaks an easy connection to grief and sorrow. However, according to Stories in Stone, the willow is also a symbol of immortality in a number of cultures. Weeping willows engravings are incredibly common on early 19th century headstones.

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Grief tripled

My heart stopped when I saw this monument in the Old Hudson Township Burying Ground. The three willow trees told me immediately that it was probably a monument for three children.

The monument doesn’t say much, but it paints a sad picture. During August of 1825 over less than two weeks, John and Anna Lanterman lost six year old Henry, then toddler Lafayette, and finally eight year old Alanson. I am guessing it was likely disease that took the three brothers so close together. The stone doesn’t tell us if the Lantermans had any other children, but even if they did, it must have been devastating to watch so many hopes and dreams evaporate.

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