Gravely Speaking

The Benevolent Protective Order of Elks (B. P. O. E.), one of the many fraternal organizations in the United States, was originally a drinking club called the Jolly Corks founded in 1866 by a group of actors, who evidently liked to drink.  The club members made the fateful decision to change their organization’s name and increase their mission from frolic to public service. 

Like many fraternal orders have sections of cemeteries set aside for their members, while some even have separate cemeteries.  The Valhalla Memorial Gardens in Bloomington, Indiana, has a special section dedicated to the members of The Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 

The section in the Valhalla Memorial Garden is designated by a large limestone block that includes the two most significant symbols for the Elks Club members.  The Elk, of course, is carved on one side of the block.  On the other side is the clock with the hands frozen at the 11:00 o’clock hour when the Elks traditionally remember their members who have passed away with a solemn toast. 

ORSON PHELPS

BORN

DEC. 17, 1805,

DIED

MARCH 15, 1870

—

CALISTA MARIA

TALBOT,

DIED

JANUARY 21, 1898

—

ORSON J.

BORN

JULY 13, 1847,

DIED MAR. 20, 1852

—

MARIA LOUISE

BORN

JAN. 15, 1849,

DIED JUNE 10, 1871.

—

CALVIN FISK

BORN

JUNE 15, 1851

DIED SEPT. 18, 1891.

The elaborately decorated white marble Phelps Family Monument in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York, is a Victorian confection of design and funerary symbols, sculpted by Nicola Cantalamessa-Papotti (1831?-1910) in Rome in 1876.  The monument is topped with the angel Gabriel with pelicans at his feet festooned with garlands of flowers.  Above the inscription on the face of the monument is the winged hourglass symbolizing the ephemeral nature of life on Earth and time itself.  The memorial features four allegorical figures representing four virtues—Hope, Faith, Charity, and Fortitude. Hope, Faith, and Charity are considered as the theological virtues which have been identified by Christians seeking to live a good and moral life.  Fortitude was considered a cardinal virtue by ancient Greek philosophers.

Hope

The representation of Hope can be easily found in American cemeteries.  Hope is most often portrayed as a woman standing and leaning against an anchor.  The anchor is an ancient Christian symbol that has been found in early catacomb burials.  The anchor was used by early Christians as a disguised cross.  The anchor also served as a symbol of Christ and his anchoring influence in the lives of Christians.  Just as an anchor does not let a moored boat drift, the anchoring influence of Christ does not allow the Christian life to drift.

Faith

The figure holds a cross in her hand as she looks upwards to the Heavens. The Cross symbolizes her Christian faith. Often, Faith is also depicted carrying a palm which represents victory over death.  Another symbol often seen in conjunction with the cross is the laurel wreath, which dates to Roman times when soldiers wore them as triumphal signs of glory.

Charity

Quite often in Renaissance paintings, the figure of Charity is depicted as a woman breast-feeding an infant.  However, in the more staid and modest Victorian era, Charity is shown in the process of pulling her garment to one side to reveal her breast.  The allegorical figure can also be found holding food for the hungry or clothes for the unclothed.  The great theologian, Thomas Aquinas, reckoned that charity was the most excellent of the virtues because it united man to God and that the habit of charity extended to love for one’s neighbor, as well as to God.

Fortitude

Fortitude is one of the cardinal virtues from classical philosophy. Plato wrote about the four cardinal virtues in The Republic which he identified as Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude.  Only Fortitude was assigned to the warrior class, hence the allegorical figure is often depicted wearing armor and carrying a shield and sometimes standing on a vanquished animal such as a lion.  However, in this example, she is depicted as a woman wearing classical robes with a club in one hand and what looks like a sheepskin in the other.  The theologian Saint Augustine wrote about Fortitude as being “love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object.”

Isaiah Sellers

1802 – 1864

It seems that in many social gatherings, one of the first questions people ask one another is, “What do you do?”  It is as if a person’s occupation is who they are.  And, in fact, some occupations carry with them a title that becomes part of their name—a doctor, for instance, Dr. Fauci—I don’t even know his first name; or someone in the military, such as, General Pershing.  Or even an honorary title that they carry with them throughout their lives, such as, the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, Colonel Sanders. 

Another example of this is a ship’s captain, always referred to by the title, Captain, followed by their surname.  Isaiah Sellers is one such person—Captain Sellers took it one step further, with his occupation on full display on his monument in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.  Sellers is credited with hundreds of accident-free trips between St. Louis and New Orleans.  That was during a time when the Mississippi River was rife with snags and sandbars that sank or damaged many a steamboat paddling up and down the river carrying goods.

According to various accounts, Sellers himself commissioned the white marble sculpture that now serves as his gravestone; clearly indicating that his occupation was central to who he was.  The monument shows the commanding river boat pilot at the helm.

Mystery solved thanks to three readers who have great detective skills.  Chris, Mary, and a reader only known by the alpha—letter combination “gsbo3632” jumped in and found pins on eBay for sale that gave the clue to the society known as the Modern Brotherhood of America (the MBA on the metal grave marker).  Turns out the Modern Brotherhood of America was a membership organization founded in Tipton, Iowa, in 1897, whose main purpose was to provide insurance to its members.

Readers coming to the rescue could be called crowdsourcing, which the dictionary defines as, “obtaining (information or input into a particular task or project) by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the internet.”  But I call it friends helping friends!

GEO. F.

VAN DEUSEN

1887 – 1910

The metal marker next to the George Van Deusen gravestone in the Woodland Cemetery in Jackson, Michigan, is no longer a mystery. 

GEO. F.

VAN DEUSEN

1887 – 1910

The metal marker next to the George Van Deusen gravestone in the Woodland Cemetery in Jackson, Michigan, is a mystery.  The handshake appears to signify membership in a brotherhood, but I can’t unravel what the meaning behind “MBA 841.”  It seems to be a lodge number—perhaps.  I also can’t find a reference for the letters “FLP.”  Any ideas?

IDA L.

BROWN

WIFE OF

J. D. BROWN

BORN DEC. 10, 1858

DIED APR. 11, 1888

BLEST WITH A TEMPER

WHOSE UNCLODED RAY,

MADE TOMORROW AS

PLEASANT AS TODAY

The Riverside Cemetery, on a hillside just outside the city of Mahomet, Illinois, has several zinc markers produced by the White Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut.  The company produced catalogs that salespeople could carry with them to show prospective buyers the many marker design options and large array of symbols were available.  The various symbols could be bolted in place on many grave marker styles by special order much the same way that an erector set is bolted together.

In this example, the marker is in the shape of an open book.  The open book is a fairly common symbol found on gravestones. The motif can represent the Book of Life with the names of the just registered on its pages.  This book, like any book in a cemetery, can also symbolize the Word of God in the form of the Bible.

For me, the most poignant and tender gravestones are those for children.  The loss of a child is devastating, a loss that even time cannot heal.  And, many cemeteries have special sections specifically for child or infant burials—sometimes labeled “Babyland” or something similar.  Often these sections are centered around a sculpture of Jesus surrounded by children—or sometimes a lamb.

In the Resurrection Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin, a sculpture atop a columbarium features a mother and father who have lost a child to death.  The mother is doubled over with grief, her head in her hand, while the father longingly reaches for his child—a child who appears in the sculpture as glass.  The light clay-colored sculptures of the parents contrasted against the clear sculpture of the child is haunting—as if she is disappearing before our very eyes—a ghost figure.   

There has always been a debate between dog and cat lovers about which furry little friend makes the best companion. I have many friends who have cats galore and swear by them, while others like myself, have dogs and always have. We see dogs as the old bromide tells us, “as man’s best friend”.  And, dogs have long been considered man’s best friend!

In fact, way back in 1821, the New York Literary Journal, Volume 4 ran a poem by C. S. Winkle that extolled just that:

The faithful dog – why should I strive

To speak his merits, while they live

In every breast, and man’s best friend

Does often at his heels attend.

According to the latest pet ownership statistics from 2012, 36.5% of American households (43,346,000) own an average of 1.6 dogs. That adds up to a whopping 69,926,000 dogs living with families in the United States. (Incidentally, fewer households own cats, but each of those households own more—2.1 per household for a total of 74,059,000 cats.) 

Given that love for our dogs, it is no wonder that dog owners want to honor their love of dogs with carved tributes to them on their graves.  These three examples are from the Springdale Cemetery in Peoria, Illinois.

Oh, and one cat!

The zinc marker in the City Cemetery in Warsaw, Missouri, manufactured by the White Monument Company in the same city, has a trap door, unique to the design, that reveals an obituary for two—Martha Elmy Shrum and her daughter, Jennie Myrtle Shrum.  The obituary gives the life and death details for both—Martha was 33 years old, while her daughter was just shy of 4 years old.  While many epitaphs found on gravestones were chosen from a book and are fairly common, their epitaph is a combination of poems by two different poets—a mash up, if you will.

Martha Elmy Schrum

Daughter of Rev. W. K. and Mrs. Charlotte White.  She was born in New Market, Montgomery county, Indiana Aug. 13, 1865, and came with her parents to Benton county, Mo., in 1875.  In early life she joined the M. E. church, South.  She was married to Wm. J. Schrum, July 23, 1884.  She died at Warsaw, Mo., Sept. 5, 1898, after two years of suffering, which she endured with Christian resignation.  Her husband and two children—Ethel Maria and Frances J.—survive her.

Jennie Myrtle,

Daughter of Wm. J. Schrum and Martha Elmy Schrum was born July 2, 1885 and after nine weeks of suffering died May 16, 1889.

“There is a reaper whose name is Death,

And with his sickly keen

He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,

And the flowers that grow in between.”

  .           .         .        .         .

Death waits not for the lapse of time,

Nor spares the young in years:

He cometh in the glad spring time,

When hopes begin with fears;

‘Tis sad to lay so fair a thing,

Beneath the damp, cold, ground;

While all the fairest flowers of spring

Are blossoming all around.”

              Yes, it is sad, but we mourn not as those that have no hope, but look to the resurrection morn, when all the children and those that “die in the Lord” shall stand glorified with God.  Pray and trust on, loved ones, for “there remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God.”

              Hope may vanish away in this life; but there shineth a star that shall never grow dim; the one that stood in Bethlehem.

              Look up, ye saints, and ever wait, till God doth say, “it is enough.”

The first quatrain is from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poignant poem, “The Reaper and the Flowers” first published in 1839.  It is significant, in this case, because the poem was written after Longfellow’s wife died having had a miscarriage.  Here, as with Longfellow, William Shrum lost his wife, and his daughter, Jennie, as well.

The second next eight lines, are from a second poem, this one written by Rose Ringgold, which appeared on pages 261-262 of the Southern Lady’s Companion which was a monthly periodical devoted to literature and religion and published in the late 1840s.  The book was printed in Nashville for the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Martha Shrum, as the obituary states, was a member of the ME Church and her father was a minister in that church, as well.  It is likely that the book was part of their personal library and the poem “Addressed to Mrs. – of Vicksburg, Miss.” was most likely known to the family.

Lines from the poem are in those eight lines, with two lines changed:

Death waits not for the lapse of time,

Nor spares the young in years:

He cometh in the glad spring time,

When hopes begin with fears;

‘Tis sad to lay so fair a thing,

Beneath the damp, cold, ground;

While all the fairest flowers of spring

Are blossoming all around.”

In the original poem the second couplet reads:

He cometh in the glad spring mourn,

When hopes begin to bloom

And ends with:

And when the tufted moss has grown

Above each loved one’s tomb!

Perhaps that was just too grim and sad for them to quote the poem in its original verse.  Below is the poem in its entirety.

I KNOW thee not—may never hear

Thy sweet-toned voice of love;

May never clasp they gentle hand,

Till friend meets friend above,

And yet if in the world of ours

The spirit wanders free,

May I not seek thy home of flowers,

And sigh or weep with thee?

Thine is an early grief—too soon

Thine eyes are dimm’d with tears;

Ah! Death waits not the lapse of time,

Nor spares the young in years!

He cometh in the glad spring morn,

When hopes begin to bloom—

And when the tufted moss has grown

Above each loved one’s tomb!

I know not the delicious thrill

Of thy maternal breast,

When first to thy young, trusting heart

The infant boy was prest—

The delicate young blossom

Of thy warm and tender love—

With thy white arms folded o’er him,

Like the white wings of a dove!

Yet I have wept as thou dost weep—

Have sigh’d as thou dost sigh—

For a gentle one, that fell asleep,

To waken in the sky.

We could not call it death, so sweet

The lips unshadowed close!

She looked a sleeping cherub,

In her beautiful repose!

‘Twas sad to lay so fair a thing

Beneath the damp, cold ground,

While the fairest buds of early spring

Were blossoming around!

We raised no marble o’er her mould—

No sculptured columns rare—

But soon the simple violets told

How young she was and fair!

Three summers, and three autumns,

And three winters have passed by—

And three gay springs have blossomed

Since we saw this loved one die!

She lies in the lone church-yard,

Yet her grave is ever green,

And flowered by angel footprints,

Though the angels are unseen.

God stay thee, stricken mother,

In thy agony and tears—

And bend the bow of promise

Where the shadow now appears!

Oh! Turn thy gaze, mourner,

Where the stars are hung on high,

Thy cherub boy smiles on thee,

From the portals of the sky!

Many Victorian cemetery monuments are imbued with a multitude of symbolism.  In David Robinson’s book, Saving Graces, mourning figures from some of the most beautiful and famous cemeteries in Europe show sculpted beautiful, young, and voluptuous women often wearing revealing clothing mourning the dead.

Robinson identified four categories of “Saving Graces”–first, women completely overcome by grief, often portrayed as having collapsed and fallen limp on the grave. Second, are the women who are portrayed reaching up to Heaven as if to try to call their recently lost loved one back to Earth.  Third, are the women who are immobile, and grief stricken, often holding their head in their hands distraught with loss.  Lastly, he describes the last category of “Saving Graces” as the mourning figure who is “resigned with the loss and accepting of death.”

In this example from the Chippiannock Cemetery in Rock Island, Illinois, the monument of prominent railroad builder, Philander Cable (1817-1886), displays a young classically clad female figure leaning against the base of the sarcophagus. In her right hand she holds a long palm frond.  The palm frond is 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. In this example, the mourning figure seems to fall within the second and fourth category.  She is reaching upward placing the palm frond but is also forlorned and grieving.

The spectacular bronze monument was commissioned in 1891 by Philander Cable’s son in honor of his father and cast in Brussels. The monument was sculpted by the Belgian artist Paul DeVigne (1843-1901).  DeVigne was born in Ghent and trained by his father, who was also an artist.  DeVigne began exhibiting his work as early as 1868.  Most of his works were created for public monuments in Belgium and France.