Some pics from my visit with Suzanne in Massachusetts:
Before driving through the cemetery, I was able to visit the Story Chapel at Mount Auburn in Cambridge. From Mount Auburn’s site:
A non-denominational chapel, Story follows the English Perpendicular style and features carved wooden beams, brickwork embellished with sandstone and carved limestone tracery, and carved wooden pulpits and pews, referencing the late 19th-century affinity for the Arts and Crafts aesthetic. It was built of Potsdam sandstone, chosen for its richness and variegation of color, with yellow bricks used in the interior.
Some really nice, interesting monuments at Darian Primitive Baptist Church in Tallapoosa County, Alabama:
Hodnett Family genealogy
Bishop Family genealogy from late 1700s, with monument erected by descendants in 2009
“In memory of Abner L Stanfield, was born March the 7, 1826, died January the 9, 1893: “I hope to meet my dear one in that bright world a bove and dwell with him in that sweet home where parting is no more”
This week, Anne and I decided to go back to Florence, Alabama — our first stop was the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Cemetery, where Key buried his dog in 1937. Since that time, other hunters wanted to bury their dogs there, and a rule was put in place to limit the place to only true coondogs. From the cemetery site:
“When I buried Troop, I had no intention of establishing a coon dog cemetery,” says Underwood. “I merely wanted to do something special for a special coon dog.”
When columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson interviewed Underwood in 1985, he told her that a woman from California wrote him wanting to know why he didn’t allow other kinds of dogs to be buried at the coon dog cemetery.
“You must not know much about coon hunters and their dogs, if you think we would contaminate this burial place with poodles and lap dogs,” he responded.
In the Monroe, Louisiana Old City Cemetery, the most prominent monument is that of Sidney Saunders, whose likeness stands holding — of all things — his marriage license
After being born in 1846 in Mississippi, he grew up in Morehouse Parish when very young, and was orphaned as a teenager. He joined the CSA, and after being wounded during the siege of Vickburg, became a prisoner and was paroled home.
Later, he became a grocery and saloon keeper and in 1875, brought his wife and son Willie to Monroe, which apparently was a big surprise. There were rumors that Sidney’s business practices were suspect and that the circumstances around his marriage weren’t on the up-and-up. Bad things were said about his wife, Annie, and the nature of how she and Sidney actually became a couple.
Their son Willie died in 1886 at age 12.
In the span of about 20 years, three of Sidney Saunders’ properties caught fire, and the last one in the late 1890s cast him, at least in his own mind, as a suspect of the latest arson. Sidney bought a lot in the Monroe City Cemetery in January 1889 and less than two weeks later, he was found dead, believed to have been the fault of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
After his death, his wife Annie found herself in a situation to make full claim on his $83k estate. Relatives remembering the odd circumstances in which he found himself married could not find a legal marriage license and thus took the inheritance.
Annie fought back and the register (not license, but officiant statement) of their marriage had been found in St. Louis, dated back to 1875. Annie had this cemetery monument made, based on the likeness of someone who worked at the monument factory, holding a marriage license — which is what’s in the statue’s hand, below.
..hung curtains, moved in her husband’s desk and kept a sewing machine and her son’s velocipede (or tricycle).
Local history enthusiast Ron Downing said his grandfather talked about visiting with Annie Saunders on Sundays while she sat in the subterranean room in a rocking chair.
People said she went there daily to pray and sew, according to Peppers.
The historic marker at the turn for what was the Doro Plantation at Beulah says:
Doro Plantation
On land received as payment of legal fees in the 1840s. Doro Plantation was established in the early 1850s by Charles Clark, Confederate General and wartime Governor of Mississippi (1863-1865). Doro continued to thrive in the post-Civil War years. Gov. Clark and members of the Clark and Jacobs families are buried here.
Doro Plantation was in what’s now called Old Prentiss. It was the county seat of Bolivar County from 1852 to 1863, when it was burned by Federals. It fell into the river in 1865 and was uncovered in the drought of 1954 (the Clark’s house had to be moved before the war because the site was falling into the river. The house doesn’t exist today.).
The cemetery where General Clark is buried with his family is on top of an Indian mound.
Av and I had supper before services in Selma at the Tally-Ho restaurant (507 Mangum Ave, 334.872.1390), which has been in business since the ’40s.
It has this really interesting English foxhunt-style theme running throughout, which is really very charming; what made it particularly lovable was that it looks as if it hasn’t been reinvented over the years….that the restaurant was decorated ages ago and it’s been carefully kept intact, without need for further embellishment.
Our waitress was a lovely lady, and it was all ‘thank yous’ and ‘yes pleases’ and pleasantries back and forth. Av had the New York strip and I had the prime rib, which was just delicious. They don’t serve horseradish sauce automatically with my dish, but when I asked if they had any prepared, our waitress offered to make some up – and it was just perfect. I didn’t order any dessert, but Av had a slice of peanut butter and chocolate pie, which was very nice.
Downtown Selma is just great – old drugstores, signs painted on brick (I really like this ‘Sweet Alabama’ faded sign above). I wish I’d taken more pics – I should be back really soon, so I’ll take and post more later.
Whenever we go to Selma, which is a few times every year, we always visit Live Oak cemetery. I know it sounds weird to visit a cemetery, but Live Oak is truly special. It is just *so* beautiful. Spanish moss hangs over everything – the oaks, of course, and magnolias too.
Above is William Rufus de Vane King’s tomb. This is what the marker beside it reads:
William Rufus de Vane King 1786-1853 Native Sampson County, North Carolina. Admitted to the 1806. North Carolina House of Commons 1807-1809. U.S. Congressman 1811-1816. Secretary U.S. Legation Naples and St. Petersburg 1816-1818. Moved to Dallas County, Alabama, 1818. A founder of Selma, named city. Delegate Alabama Constitutional Convention 1819. U.S. Senator 1819-1844, 1848-1853. U.S. Minister to France 1844-1846. President pro tempore U.S. Senate 1836-1840, 1850-1852. Vice President of United States, 1853.
William Rufus King ran with Franklin Pierce on the Democrat ticket in 1852, and when he was to take the oath of office in 1853, he was actually in Cuba to recover from tuberculosis. It was by a special order of Congress that the oath was taken by someone in a different country. His health in Cuba did not improve, so he decided to return home to Alabama. He died the next day.
All the pics below are of beautiful Live Oak cemetery:
We’ve been to the Natchez city cemetery several, several times – but I noticed when I went to their website that the site has a section for particularly interesting monuments. I couldn’t right-off find the book that we’d bought earlier about the cemetery, but I made some quick notes about some of the monuments I wanted to take pics of. Here are just a few:
This monument above is for Louise. The Unfortunate.
How sad!
Apparently she came to Natchez to meet and marry her fiance. He either died or just didn’t show up, and she didn’t want to return home. She supposedly went from respectable career choices like seamstress and housekeeper to – over the years – careers that were, ahem, less respectable in society. There are three ideas as to how she came to be buried in this plot, with a headstone (even though no dates are on it), and this is from the cemetery’s website:
…some say Louise became friends with a doctor who treated her during her hard life Under-the-Hill, and upon her death he paid for her funeral. Some say a wealthy plantation owner who frequented her room on lonely nights paid her funeral expenses. Others say a preacher paid for her funeral from his pauper funds, but she wasn’t buried in a pauper’s grave.
This pic above is of a monument that was erected by the owner of the Natchez Drug Company. There was an explosion at the building that leveled the five-story structure and among others killed five of his employees, the youngest being twelve years old.
The monument reads:
Erected by the Natchez Drug Company to the memory of the unfortunate employees who lost their lives in the great disaster that destroyed its building on March 14, 1908.
Carrie O. Murray
Inez Netterville
Luella D. Booth
Mary E. Worthy
Ada White
In front of this angel monument are headstones for each of the employees. The angel on the monument is referred to as the ‘turning angel’ because it appears to turn at night as cars’ headlights shine on it from the main road.
Schwartz monument – Christian Schwartz had ‘White House’, the home now known as ‘Glen Auburn’ built.
—
….so we left the cemetery and went to some little just-for-tourists shop right downtown to ask them if they knew where we could find Miss Sophronia that day. Miss Sophronia sells pralines outside Rosalie and also where the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen steamboats dock, some other places too. When we walked in to this little touristy shop (which I could not believe we were going to, but okay, we wanted to find her), we were asked by this man who didn’t sound at all like he was from anywhere south of Pittsburgh if we wanted to try *their* PRAY-LEENS. (no.)
She touched the lives of a number of people with her quick style and jovial nature. She enjoyed making praline candy and delighted in meeting people from all over the United States and other countries while selling her pralines during the fall and spring tourist seasons and throughout the year at the various antebellum homes in Natchez and under-the-hill. Nobody was a stranger to her.
Av and I visited the Coon Dog Cemetery while we were in the Florence area a few days ago.
The cemetery began in 1937 when Key Underwood buried his dog Troop there. Some other men asked if they, too, could bury their coon dogs on the land, and this started the ‘Coon Dog Cemetery’. The cemetery website states that there are more than 185 coon dogs buried there now.
This is from their website:
When columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson interviewed Underwood in 1985, he told her that a woman from California wrote him wanting to know why he didn’t allow other kinds of dogs to be buried at the coon dog cemetery.
“You must not know much about coon hunters and their dogs, if you think we would contaminate this burial place with poodles and lap dogs,” he responded.
