Category: cemetery

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Folk Gravestones at Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL

I have family buried at Black Oak Cemetery in Dekalb County, and I was there last week to take pictures and get good dates for my genealogy projects.

Besides the usual markers….marble, granite…were these wonderful hand-made markers. This first one below is for John L.A. Brown – he was born September 19, 1800 and died October 19, 1818 (Alabama wasn’t even a state until 1819). His marker as well as some of the others feature this tree motif. What else this particular one includes is heart shapes, and a hand pointing up.

I have a friend whose relative passed away (just a couple of years ago), and their family members dug the grave themselves, with shovels, not machinery – not because they couldn’t afford to hire someone else to do it, but because they wanted to – as a kind of service in itself. I’m pretty sure you couldn’t do that at a big city cemetery, but this was beside a small country church.

The family members who made these monuments below decorated the gravestones by hand either because they couldn’t afford a professional stone, there was noone nearby to do the job, or because they felt it was their duty. In whatever case, these stones in particular seem so much more *real*.

John L.A. Brown 9.12.1800 - 10.19.1818, Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
John L.A. Brown

To the Memory Of... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
To the Memory of…

Monument, Margaret ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Margaret

Joel T. Thacker Monument ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Joel T. Thacker

Son of Thacker ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Son of Thacker
Monument with Tree Design ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Tree design

Tree Motif ... Black Oak Cemetery, Dekalb County AL
Another…tree motif

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Laura Kelly Monument, Kosciusko MS

This pic of the Laura Kelly monument is from the Kosciusko City Cemetery in Kosciusko, MS.

Laura Kelly died in 1890, and her husband ordered a statue to be made in her likeness (incl. dressed in her wedding gown) from a sculptor in Italy. The Kelly’s home was under construction when she died, so Mr. Kelly instructed the builder to add a third story to the home so that he would be able to look out the window and see his wife’s monument.

Laura Kelly Monument, Kosciusko MS

Laura Kelly Monument

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Art in Quiet Places #4

From Tuscaloosa’s Greenwood cemetery, across the street from Bryant-Denny Stadium (earliest grave here is marked 1821):

Monument, Greenwood Cemetery, Tuscaloosa AL

In the Shadows of Bryant-Denny, Greenwood Cemetery, Tuscaloosa AL
in the shadows of Bryant-Denny Stadium at Bama

Monument, Greenwood Cemetery, Tuscaloosa AL

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Art in Quiet Places

Cemetery statue, Jasper, AL

 

Cemetery statue, Jasper, AL

This monument is in Jasper.

Cemetery Monument, Jasper AL

This monument is also in Jasper, in the Bankhead family section.

We were in Jasper on Sunday on business and part of our trip involved visiting the cemetery there. I know people that never go to cemeteries – ever – but I have always felt very comfortable around them, in fact we go to cemeteries in cities where we hardly know anyone just to see the monuments (I mean, some of them are just incredible).

My Nanny z”l took me with her to cemeteries very often since I was very, very small. We would go several times a week to check on flowers, do a little walking, and do lots of talking – and I would hear the best stories. Nanny grew up in a small town where everybody knew everybody, so when we would go through, I got to hear all sorts of happy and sad, weird and wonderful family stories and history about all sorts of people. In the cemetery where my PawPaw z”l and MawMaw z”l Fossett are buried, the Fossett stone is one of the first ones you see among all the others because it is tall and a really pretty mauve-ish granite. I’m sure Nanny had a lot to do with picking it out.

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