Gravely Speaking

The Hag, by Robert Herrick, 1648

The Hag is astride,

This night for to ride;

The Devill and shee together:

Through thick, and through thin,

Now out, and then in,

Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

…
The storme will arise,

And trouble the skies;

This night, and more for the wonder,

The ghost from the Tomb

Affrighted shall come,

Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

Goodwill Cemetery, Loogootee, Indiana

In the Goodwill Cemetery at Loogootee, Indiana, a red granite block marker displays an incised carving of an open gate, a common symbol found in American cemeteries.  The open gates, which are central to the Last Judgment, are opened to a banner above that reads “AT REST”.  The gates here represent a passageway from one realm to the next.  The gates are the portal for saved souls to make their passage from the Earthly realm to the Heavenly realm upon Christ’s return.

Goodwill Cemetery, Loogootee, Indiana

Coopers are those artisans who made barrels, wine casks, buckets, and firkins out of wooden staves that are held together with hoops.  The containers they made were of four distinct types:

• “Dry” or “slack” containers which were made to hold and ship dry goods such as nails or tobacco.
• “Dry-tight” containers which were made to keep the materials inside the container dry and keep the moisture out.  This was important with flour and especially important with gunpowder!
• “White cooper” containers which were made to hold butter or liquids like milk or water for carrying but not for shipping.  These containers were usually tubs, bucket, or churns.  The staves in these containers were almost never curved.
• “Wet” or “tight” containers which were made to hold and transport liquids often for long periods of time like beer or wine.

Today, coopers, like wainwrights, have mostly become obsolete with the exception of barrels and casks made for the wine industry.

Over a hundred years ago, however, being a cooper was a trade at which a man could make a living.  The gravestone in the Goodwill Cemetery at Loogootee, Indiana, bears witness.  The limestone monument is carved to resemble two barrels stacked on one another with a cooper hand adze still resting on the top barrel almost as if Mr. Hyman left it there himself.

A cooper by trade

HENRY J. HYMAN

BORN

Dec. 3, 1819

DIED

July 1, 1898

The sun is the Source of all

animal and vegetable life.

Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio

The Victorian Era lasted from about 1832 until Queen Victoria’s death in 1903.  The era was an eclectic period in the decorative arts with several styles—Gothic, Tudor, Neoclassical—vying for dominance.  The period was marked by ornamentation.  This was true in architecture, furniture, and funerary arts.  In cemeteries gravestones became taller, ornamented, and sentimental.

In Victorian times, flowers took on significance as a way to send coded messages; this was known as floriography from the Latin combining flora—“goddess of flowers” and graphein—“writing”.  Each flower had a meaning that was conveyed to the viewer or receiver of the flower or bouquet of flowers—the lily of the valley represented humility, the coral rose represented desire and passion, the white lily represented purity, and so on.

To the Victorians the morning glory, twining around fence rows and trellises, their delicate tendrils gently clinging, holding up their fragile flowers to open up to the summer sun, represented love in vain.

But to the Christians, there was a different meaning.  Because of the morning glories ephemeral blooming during the early morning, unraveling its bloom directly to the sun and its blossom withering shut each night, the flower came to symbolize mortality and the brevity of life—a poet’s metaphor in the form of a flower. Also because of its attention to the sun, the morning glory represents the Resurrection.

Maria Anna Jaeger’s gravestone in the Mt. Calvary Cemetery, at Columbus, Ohio, was erected at nearly the height of the Victorian Era and displays the high ornamentation that characterized that time period.  Her gravestone is festooned with flowers, though, the white marble rounded-top tablet has eroded and much of the detail has been lost.  The circle inset, however, clearly displays a woman’s delicate hand holding a sprig of morning glories.

MARIA ANNA

JAEGER

BORN MAY 15,

1809

DIED APRIL 18,

1889