Gravely Speaking

Fair View Cemetery, Red Bank, New Jersey

The biggest cemetery in Red Bank, New Jersey, is named Fair View which strikes me as funny. The name chosen is damning by faint praise—the view isn’t bad, it isn’t great, it is just “fair”. But what’s in a name? The cemetery is beautiful, set in a neighborhood on gently rolling hills and landscaped in the tradition of some of the first rural cemeteries.

At any rate, Fair View Cemetery has several mausoleums within its gates, including the the Proal Family Mausoleum. The mausoleum is fairly modest, built in a rustic rough-hewn style. The exceptional feature of the crypt is the stained glass window on the back wall.   Adorning the window in shimmering blues, purples, greens, and cocoa is a glass angel depicted holding a crown, as if it is going to be offered to a recently arrived soul to Heaven.

The crown is a symbol of glory and reward and victory over death.  The reward comes after life and the hard-fought battle on Earth against the wages of sin and the temptations of the flesh.  The reward awaits in Heaven where the victor will receive a crown of victory. The crown also represents the sovereign authority of the Lord.

In the angels other hand, the angel holds a palm leaf. This symbol is most closely associated with Easter, and Jesus’ spiritual victory over death. The palm frond is also a symbol of eternal peace.

Glendale Cemetery, Akron, Ohio

On the massive bronze doors of the Bertram Work Neo-Classical Mausoleum in the Glendale Cemetery, at Akron, Ohio, are several repeating images, one of which is the Ouroboros. The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a snake eating its tail. The word, Ouroboros, is Greek—oura meaning tail; vora meaning eating, and ophis meaning serpent or snake. In ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros represented the daily passage of the sun.  The snake eating its tail in cemetery symbolism represents the cycle of life—birth and death—and eternity.

Corneliea Dau

Of John & Mary

Dixon died April

Ye 10 1788 aged

2 Year 6 Months

& 23 Days

Tulips have long been a symbol found in the graveyard, including on the gravestone of two and a half year old, Corneleia Dixon, found in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery at Trenton, New Jersey. The tulips on this gravestone are highly stylized, yet still recognizable.  Tulips are a symbol of love and passion but since this symbol is on a child’s gravestone it most likely represents eternal life.

The Old Hill Burying Ground, Concord, Massachusetts

HERE lies the Body of

Deacon Simon Hunt

who died Decr ye 13^th 1790; Aged 87

In private & public, he fought ye honour of God,

The interest of ye Chh. And ye good of his country.

As a Deacon, he conducted with honour & usefulness.

By his knowledge in ye Scriptures, constant devotion,

love for ye Chh. Charity to ye poor, joy in believing & faithful

endeavours to promote ye reformation & salvation of men,

he evinced great progress in religion,

and that he was “steadfast, unmoveable,

abounding in the work of the Lord.”

He met death with entire composure;

and to his last moments, recommended religion,

and encouraged Christians by ye word & promises of God,

He calmly fell asleep in lively hope of future glory,

Mark ye perfect, behold ye upright, his end is peace!

                                                                                                    Psalmist

A winged soul effigy is carved into the top of the Deacon Simon Hunt slate grave marker. The gravestone displays the image of a winged head, which is referred to as a “soul effigy.” The soul effigy represents the flight of the soul from one realm to the other—from Earth to Heaven and symbolizes the transition the soul makes on that journey. This iconography represents a change from the harsh Puritan imagery of skulls, crossed bones, winged death’s heads, and the accoutrements of the grave, such as the casket, or coffin, and burial instruments, such as, the pick and axe.

In this particular case the effigy was probably designed to represent the deceased Deacon—note the collar on the effigy. However, in many cases, the image carved into the stone—sometimes a cherub—was not at all designed to look like the deceased but merely to be a representation of the human soul.

In this particular case, the winged soul effigy is carrying an hour glass tipped on its side, with the words, “My glass is run.” The Deacon’s time has run out, his life is over. This iconography is to remind all who pass by that life is brief.

Concord, Massachusetts

In Memory of

Mrs. Rebeckah Fletcher

Wife of Mr. Samuel

Fletcher She departed

This life Febr ye 2d 1785

In the 77^th year of

her age.

The hourglass, a symbol that speaks to the brevity of life, is often shown with wings to turn the metaphor into a striking visual representation. In this case, the hourglass is shown on the head of a winged cherub.

The winged cherub was a symbol that became popular in the 18^th Century.  Winged cherubs replaced the stark and morbid flying death’s heads from our Puritan forefathers.  The cherubs often have a childlike countenance of innocence.  The “cherub” on Mrs. Fletcher’s gravestone looks stern and a bit foreboding.  The iconography represents the flight of the soul from the body upward to Heaven and the hope of the resurrection. In this motif the wings give flight not only to the soul but to time.

Concord, Massachusetts

In memory of

MRS. MARTHA PORTER

the wife of

MR. ISRAEL PORTER

Who died 26 June 1795

Aged 49 years.

“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives,” is the catchphrase for the long-running soap opera, Days of Our Lives.  The meaning of that catchphrase is clear–life passes by very quickly.

The likeness on the gravestone (pictured above) in the Old Town Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, sits atop the hourglass.  Here the life is being measured by the grains of sand slipping through one side to the other.

UNITED ABOVE

OUR FATHER

DANIEL HALLETT

DIED

April 3, 1856

AE. 61 Y’s. 2 M’s.

Two gravestones from the same cemetery in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, display a chain in a circle. This symbolism is the combining of two symbols—the circle and the chain. Traditionally the “circle” is a metaphor for life.  The circle represents eternity. The chain as a Christian symbol 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.

The square-top white marble tablet of Daniel Hallettt above displays a circle of links but shows the chain broken or missing a link. The epitaph on the gravestone is “UNITED ABOVE.” Like much of the funerary art, the broken link of a chain represents the life that was ended. The message being conveyed is that death separates us, the circle of life is broken here on Earth, but we will be re-united in Heaven.

UNITED ABOVE

BETSEY H. CROWELL

Widow of

Eugene Crowell.

Born Aug. 24, 1823,

Died Dec. 25, 1902.

In the case of the tombstone for Mrs. Betsey Crowell, who died on Christmas day, the circle of chain links is also the symbol displayed on the gravestone, but the circle is unbroken. The epitaph is exactly the same, “UNITED ABOVE.”. In this example, the message is not focused on what happened on Earth, that is the breaking of the chain—death, but instead what happens in Heaven, the uniting of the chain.

These two gravestones use the same symbolism and the same epitaph but the message of one focuses on death and one focuses on resurrection. The message of the complete circle is one of hope and inspiration while the broken chain emphasizes the death on Earth.