gravestones

[lizziebelle]

winged head, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

Before we took pictures of the terriers yesterday, Rusty & I explored Park Street Cemetery, an 18th century burial ground across from the square. Rusty is very knowledgeable about it, and she showed me several interesting stones.


This girl "expired in horrible agonies" from the bite of a mad dog:



This fella, and most of his family, died of consumption:



This one was instantly killed "by the overturning of a load of wood":



This one was killed on the Mohawk River "in the service of his country":



There were some interesting carvings on some of the stones:







The fella who carved a lot of these stones (and several of the ones in that old cemetery in Westfield) is buried here, too. A lot of history in a small plot of land.

Comments

[stinabat.livejournal.com]

love all of them. you've got the best cemetaries up that way. [sigh]

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

We really do. People have lived here for 400 years, give or take a decade.

You must come visit! I will take you to the best ones. :)

[sandwell.livejournal.com]

oo that's unusual i think - apart from servicemen (mainly WW1), I don't recall old gravestones over here recanting cause of death. quite interesting though :)

consumption was very common in the 1800s :(

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I've been to a lot of old cemeteries in this area, and you don't really see that much here, either. Very unusual! Especially as they usually paid by the letter.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Those are intense all right.

One of my childhood terrors was being bitten by an animal and dying in intense agony from rabies. (I saw too many westerns or something.)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was "Old Yeller." Geez that movie made me cry.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

These are breathtaking.

You know I'm going to be begging you to let me post some of these when October comes. :)

There's something very moving about the epitaphs, as pitiful as they are. How very sad to be remembered by the freak accident that took your life!

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Feel free to post any of my cemetery pix! I love your Halloween posts. :)

It's very sad. I would love to know more about their lives.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

You're the best! *hugs* Thank you. I'll credit you, of course. You take the most beautiful pictures.

I would love to know more about their lives.

Me, too!

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks! :)

[writerjenn.livejournal.com]

Wow, they don't carve 'em like that anymore.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

They sure don't!

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

I love cemeteries. There are zillions in northern VA, MD, and DC.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I know! I see the pix my bro & his wife take when they visit them. :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Those are really nice gravestones! And so well-preserved!!!

They certainly rival any late 18th century gravestones I've seen around here, and we've got some good 'uns.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I love the local red stone they use in a lot of them. The marble ones are mostly unreadable now.

[sea-dark-wine.livejournal.com]

Wow -- those epitaphs are more gruesome than any I've seen out here. The carvings are beautiful.

I've become interested in death's-heads lately, as I've been trying to get around to see more older cemeteries. There are so many ways of drawing them. I saw one that looked like the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Little Compton, RI a few weeks ago -- it was something about the way the teeth were drawn coming down from the skull and there was no lower jaw shown.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Some of them are pretty bizarre-looking!