Gravely Speaking

There are people who achieve notoriety, sometimes for the good they do, sometimes for the opposite.  Whether good or bad, fame, or infamy as the case may be, has a price to be paid—even after death.

John Wilkes Booth, the brother of Edwin Booth, the most famous Shakespearean actor of his day, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, shooting him in the back of the head at the Ford Theater on April 14, 1865.  Lincoln’s body was taken to a house across the street where he died from the gunshot wound early the next morning.  Booth was captured less than two weeks later and was shot in the neck while in being pursued.  Booth was buried at the Old Penitentiary in Washington, D.C.  His body was moved, this time to a Washington Arsenal warehouse.  Later, in 1869, his body was released to the Booth family where it was finally laid to rest in an unmarked grave in the Booth Family plot in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 26, 1869, four years later. Passersby now leave Lincoln-head pennies on what they believe to be his gravestone. Is it a tribute to Lincoln’s ongoing fame as a beloved fallen president or are the pennies a reminder of what Booth wrought?

Wyatt Earp, had many occupations during his lifetime—buffalo hunter, lawman, brothel and saloon keeper, and miner—but he cemented his fame at the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Earp died in 1929 at the ripe old age of 80, and was secretly buried at the Jewish Hills of Eternity Cemetery in Colma, California.  His cremains were placed there by Josephine, his fourth wife.  An attempt was made in the late 50s to dig up Earp’s cremains.  Fortunately, the grave robbers were unable to find them, so they stole the 500-pound gravestone instead.  This was the second or third time his gravestone was stolen.  One of his wayward gravestones was later found in a backyard in Fresno, California.  The current gravestone was placed on his grave in 1998 by Josephine’s descendants.

John Dillinger, arguably the most “famous” bank robber of the Depression Era, led a gang that went on a successful spree of bank robberies throughout the Mid-west—Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin—in 1933 and 1934.  Dillinger was famously caught coming out of a Chicago theater with the lady in red.  After law officials released his body to his family, he was buried in the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.  His casket was entombed in two and half tons of concrete and scrap iron to prevent grave robbers from disturbing his grave.  Even still, vandals have chipped off bits of his gravestone for keepsakes, and his gravestone has had to be replaced at least four times. The current gravestone has been marred by souvenir hunters as well.

The elaborate stained-glass window in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California, depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe, also referred to as Mother of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Guadalupe The figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe is framed by an ornate Gothic arch with pinnacles topped with crockets.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is the Patron Saint to of Mexico.

According to the Catholic Church, the Virgin of Guadalupe was first seen as an apparition the first of four times by Juan Diego on December 9, 1531.  Juan Diego described the woman in the vision as the Virgin Mary dressed in a cloak the color of the clear blue sky.  The cerulean cape was emblazoned with eight-point stars, and She was standing on top of a crescent moon being carried by a cherubic angel.

The Virgin Mary called out to Juan Diego and introduced herself as “the Mother of a very true deity.”  She asked that a church be built in her honor on that spot on Tepeyac Hill (now a suburb of Mexico City).  The humbled Juan Diego excitedly approached the Archbishop Juan de Zumarraga to tell him of the apparition and of the Virgin Mary’s request.

Unfortunately, the Archbishop did not believe Juan Diego.  A second time the Virgin Mary appeared before him.  Again, she made her request.  Juan Diego returned to the Archbishop and pleaded his case and insisted that the vision he had witnessed was real.  The disbelieving Fray Zumarraga instructed Juan Diego to ask this apparition for a sign to prove that She was real.  During his third visit of the Virgin, she agreed to supply the proof the very next day.

Leaving his uncle’s sick bed, Juan Diego hurried to meet with the apparition.  Upon seeing her for the fourth time, Diego apologized for being late and explained that his uncle was on his death bed and he had attended to him.  She assured him that his uncle had been healed.  The Virgin instructed Diego to go to the spot where he had first seen her to gather flowers.  Impossible, he thought, it was the dead of winter, but he followed her instructions and went to the top of Tepeyac Hill where he discovered blooming Castilian roses which he gathered into his winter cloak to show the Archbishop.  When he arrived to show the Archbishop the proof he opened his cloak and the roses fell to the floor and the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe was emblazoned on the fabric of his coat.

Depictions of the Virgin of Guadalupe are varied, sometimes the Virgin is standing on the half-moon carried by a cherub, sometimes shown as carrying the baby Jesus, but usually with the cerulean cloak and eight-pointed stars with rays of light behind Her—sometimes as an incised carving on a gravestone, sometimes as a free-standing sculpture.

The white marble tablet of Charles Samuel Morris in the Home of Peace Cemetery and Emanu-El Mausoleum in Colma, California depicts a winged Father Time as an old man, with a long beard and a large pair of wings. Father Time is standing with one of the tools of his trade that makes him instantly recognizable–a scythe. The scythe, a tool that was once used in the harvest, symbolizes the Divine harvest.  Just as wheat is cut down by the scythe during the harvest, so are souls by Father Time.  Also at Father Time’s feet is an hourglass.  The hourglass is a memento mori symbol—to remind all who pass by that life is ephemeral.   The soap opera, Days of Our Lives, has as their catchphrase,  “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”  The meaning of that catchphrase is clear; life passes by very quickly.  Life measured by the grains of sand slip through one side of the hourglass to the other in a flash. 

Father Time is standing behind a “weeping virgin”. Father Time is delicately untangling the Virgin’s hair. The act of untangling represents that with perseverance all things can be accomplished. She is pointing to an open book, which most likely represents the Book of Life.  In Judaism and Christianity, the names of the righteous were recorded in the Book of Life; they were assured entry into Heaven.  The Book is referenced many times in the Bible (King James Version), including Revelations, Chapter 20,  Verse 12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead…Verse 15: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

They both stand before a broken column, the symbol of a life cut short.

Levi Strauss

February 26, 1829, Buttenheim, Landkreis Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany

September 26, 1902, San Francisco, San Francisco County, California

Levi Strauss, made famous and wealthy from innovative blue denim trousers strengthened with a rivet, built a massive family mausoleum in the Home of Peace Cemetery and Emanu-El Mausoleum in Colma, California.

Strauss, his mother and two sisters immigrated to the United States, first working in a family dry goods business in New York.  In 1853, however, he struck out on his own to San Francisco where he built a business serving the hordes of Forty-Niners rushing to California to pan for gold.  He partnered with Jacob Davis to create a tougher pair of work pants using metal fasteners.  They shared the patent, which Strauss agreed to pay for in exchange for the right to manufacture the trousers.  At first the pants were made of canvas but he switched to blue denim which was more effective at hiding dirt and stains.  Strauss found his gold in clothing which made him a millionaire.

Strauss built a mausoleum made of a light Salisbury pink granite at the staggering cost of $48,000.  The domed tomb has fluted Doric columns supporting a portico and flanking decorated bronze doors.  Levi Strauss, who never married, left a fortune of nearly 900 million in 2025 dollars. He shares his tomb with his mother and other relatives.

G. B. DRAGO

NATO Dec. 3—1850

MORTO Maggio 29 1905

CATERINA DRAGO

1871 – 1965

DRAGO

LOUIS J. DRAGO

1901 – 1982

The Drago Family monument, imbued with a multitude of symbolism, features a Latin Cross and an angle on top of a base in front of a grave ledger which can be found in the Holly Cross Cemetery, at Colma, California.

The centerpiece of the gravestone depicts an angel in a Greek neoclassical sculptural scheme referred to as contrapposto, which is an Italian word meaning counterpoise.  The figure is poised “such that the weight rests on one leg, freeing the other leg, which is bent at the knee.  With the weight shift, the hips, shoulders, and head tilt, suggesting relaxation.”  In early classical sculptures the statues were often nude figures but also draped as in this example. 

The angel is holding a palm frond, an ancient symbol of victory, dating back to Roman times when victors were presented with palm fronds. The palm fronds were also laid in the path of Jesus as He entered Jerusalem. So, for many Christians, the palm represents righteousness, resurrection, and martyrdom, symbolizing the spiritual victory over death associated with the Easter story.

Behind the angel figure is the Latin cross which is universally recognized as the symbol of Christianity. Though it may look simple to the eye, the symbol is imbued with deep meaning to all Christians. Carved in the center of the cross are the initials “IHS” which have been used for centuries by Christians as a monogram, often referred to as a Christogram, for Jesus. The three letters are a Latinized version of the Greek letters ΙΗΣ (iota-eta-sigma), the first three letters of the name “Jesus” in Greek.

Last, the rough-cut gray-granite base features ivy leaves which are a common motif in American cemeteries and Victorian art. Because of ivy’s ability to survive in harsh weather and dry conditions, it has become associated with immortality and rebirth. Ivy leaves can also represent friendship. Because of its ability to “hang on” the symbol has come to represent undying attachment.

SARAH E. WARD

WIFE OF

J. S. NEAL

DIED

MAY 1, 1877

AGED

22 Ys. 6 Mos. 1 d.

Gone from this land, Father, Mother,

Brothers and Sisters, too.

And now my friends, I bid adieu

Palmer’s Prairie Church of Christ in rural Sullivan County, Indiana, is no longer, but the church graveyard is, and is a testament to the congregation that once worshipped there.  Several hundred tombstones mark the graves of former congregants, including the stained and weathered white marble tablet of Sarah Ward Neal.

Though the stone shows weathering and erosion, the bas-relief in the rounded top of the gravestone is clear enough to make out.  The scene depicts an angel, with swirling clouds over head, kneeling beside a box tomb as she places flowers on top of it.

The angel carrying flowers to decorate and watch over a grave is a common “angel type” found in American cemeteries.  In the 2007 edition of Markers, XXIV, published by the Association for Gravestone Studies, Greenfield, Massachusetts, Elisabeth L. Roark wrote an article about angels titled, “Embodying Immortality: Angels in America’s Rural Garden Cemeteries, 1850—1900”, pages 56 – 111.  Roark argues that angels were not “Romantic attempts to beautify death.” She writes, “while this was part of their appeal, angel monuments are far more complex in meaning and can act to reveal manifestations of popular Christian beliefs.”

According to the article, angels come onto the scene in rural garden cemeteries in a big way starting circa 1850 and then throughout the rest of the century. Though angels come in many variations and forms, in her study of 14 rural cemeteries from each region of America, Roark found that most angels fall into the following eight categories:

Angels are mentioned over 270 times in the Bible but of the eight categories of angels that Roark describes in her article, Angels who decorate and watch over the grave are the only type not specifically defined in the Bible. Roark notes that decorating graves with flowers originates with the ancient Greeks, this type of symbolism, however, is something newly found in graveyards of the 19^th Century.

After the Civil War, it became popular to decorate graves lavishly with flowers. Roark writes, “Like their live counterparts, the angels’ sculpted flowers suggest the parallels drawn at this time between the cyclical nature of plant life and human birth, death, and resurrection.”

HENRY

Died, Aug. 10, 1864, Aged 19 Days.

EDWIN,

Died Oct. 17, 1865, Aged 1 Mo. 19 Days

May their souls rest in peace

Children of NATHAN & PAULINE BACHMAN.

The double rounded top white marble tablet in the Home of Peace Cemetery and Emanu-El Mausoleum in Colma, California, depicts the two infant boys, Henry and Edwin, of Nathan and Pauline Bachman.  The bas-relief carving on the left depicts the infant on a cloud as his soul ascends to Heaven.

The scene on the right shows a lifted curtain revealing a “sleeping” baby. This motif is two-fold. It depicts the passage of the soul from the Earthly realm to the Heavenly realm but also the Victorian custom of draping black cloth to express the family’s mourning.  The draperies would have been kept in place for quite some time even after the body was removed to the grave.  This would allow the family to continue to mourn and to express their sorrow.

Charles C. Keene

Born 1832, Hessen Cassel, Germany

Died May 7, 1894, San Franciso, California

Susan Keene

Born April 1852, New York, New York

Died August 22, 1915, San Francisco, California

Keene was born in Germany and migrated to the United States becoming a naturalized citizen on October 5, 1868.  According to the San Francisco Federal Census of 1880, Charles and Susan Keene were living at 1515 Tyler Street in San Francisco with their children, Meriam, William, Rose, and Jeanette and sister-in-law, Sarah Snow and her daughter Rose.  According to accounts, Charles built and sold the first accordions in the San Francisco area. 

The white marble monument in the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California, depicts a Union Civil War soldier astride a horse.  In the lower left-hand corner of the scene is a broken wheel.  Like many symbols—the hanging and broken bud, the broken column, the empty chair—the broken wheel represents the end of life’s journey. The wheel is a metaphor for the circle of life which is broken by death.

Keene was a captain associated with California military units and clearly very proud of his service.  He was a member of Company H. Second Regimental Infantry, part of the San Francisco Hussars and was very active in the national guard.

According to newspaper accounts at the time of his death Keene was known to be eccentric, well known for riding his old white horse around the city. 

The white marble tombstone in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California, is topped with a botonee or budded cross—that is, each arm terminates in three knobs or lobes often associated with the Holy Trinity.  The gravestone also features a mourning figure in the round inset at the top of the marker.  These images were common on many late-nineteenth century gravestones. The mourning figures are nearly always beautiful, young women overcome by grief, limp from sorrow. Here the kneeling mourning figure, her head lowered and resigned with loss, accepts the reality of death as she leans against a cross-topped marker. 

ERECTED BY MICHAEL IN
MEMORY OF HIS BELOVED WIFE
HONORA ANNA GABRIELLE McCLURE
BORN IN VIRGINIA CITY, NEV.
MAY 30, 1877.
DIED AUG. 12, 1904.
MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON HER SOUL.

The white marble monument for Honora McClure in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California, is replete with symbolism.  The column is topped with a billowing flame which is a funerary symbol of the eternal soul and the divine light guiding the departed to its next life.

At the base of the column is a winged orb often portrayed as an Egyptian motif representing the sun god Ra.  It was usually placed over the entrance to a temple to ward off evil spirits as seen in the Whittell Mausoleum in the Cypress Lawn Cemetery also in Colma. 

However, this winged orb is at the base of the monument, not over an entrance and does not resemble the Egyptian motif.  Here the symbolism likely represents the soul’s flight from its mortal coil.