JOHN EMMERT

FEBRUARY 8, 1831

NOVEMBER 22, 1882

CATHERINE S. WIFE

APRIL 18, 1835

OCTOBER 20, 1903

LEONARD J. EMMERT

MAY 11, 1871

OCTOBER 22, 1938

GEORGE EMMERT

APRIL 4, 1858

APRIL 25, 1859

CHRISTOPHER EMMERT

DECEMBER 25, 1863

SEPTEMBER 26, 1864

JOHN H. EMMERT

DECEMBER 11, 1865

SEPTEMBER 22, 1927

In the cemetery, much of the iconography represents a life ended—the winged death’s head, the hanging bud, the broken wheel. This gravestone in South Park Cemetery at Greensburg, Franklin County, Indiana, combines two such symbols—the broken column and the broken chain. The white marble monument has a broken chain that twines around the broken column.

The broken column symbolizes a life cut short. Some sites say that it represents the loss of the head of the family—others that it represents the life cut down in its prime.

This broken chain symbolism dates back to Medieval times when people believed that the soul could be held to the body by a golden chain. Once the chain was broken, the soul took flight and rose from the body leaving Earth and ascended to Heaven.