CHARLES N. SHEPARD
DIED
Nov. 19. 1874.
AE. 55 yrs. 11 mos.
Passing strangers —- —– not
A place of fear and gloom
We love to linger round this spot
It is our father’s tomb.
The Charles Shepard’s epitaph on his rounded-top white marble tablet of in the Tomb Cemetery in Holden, Penobscot County, Maine, has eroded. The epitaph is difficult to make out—in fact, I can’t decipher two of the words in the first line.
One of the frsutrations of those who study gravestones is that the soft marble gravestones erode the images and blur the epitpahs.
If anyone can read that first line, let me know.
Gravely Speaking 
Douglas, is rubbing crayon or chalk over paper against the epitaph considered “poor form”? Would it be helpful in a case like this?
Most cemeteries discourage grave rubbings which can damage the top layer of the stone.
I found a similar epitaph online: Passing strangers call this not / A place of fear and gloom…