Today's Epitaph: Lizzie Brown was Too Good

Lizzie B.
Wife of
A. J. Brown
Sept 14, 1878
Jan 23, 1914
She was too good,
and too gentle to
dwell in this cold
world.

Family Cemetery; Meriwether County, Georgia
Photo © 2009 S. Lincecum

Flickr Friday #2

Recent uploads include photos from Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia; photos from our trip to Tennessee in 2006; and photos from the Cove Baptist Church Cemetery in Meriwether County, Georgia. I also added some photos from my personal family history. View photostream.

Cove Baptist Church Cemetery Online

A portion of the Cove Baptist Church Cemetery is now online at the Southern Graves site. Transcriptions and photos can be found concerning individuals with the BROWN surname. I've also uploaded this information to FindAGrave and Flickr.

How Soon Fades the Tender Flower (Wordless Wednesday)

H T W S S T K S -- Huh? (Tombstone Tuesday)

The above photo is from the gravestone of Frank Augustus Coburn (1861-1908) and can be found in Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon, Georgia. It is of an open book with a cross through a crown inside a circle. Below the circle is ECCLES. XII 1-7. If you look closely, you might be able to make out a series of letters going around the circle. Starting at the top, they are H T W S S T K S.

Quite a lot of symbolism going on here. For that, I always turn to the works of Douglas Keister. Using two of his books, Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography and Forever Dixie: A Field Guide to Southern Cemeteries & Their Residents, we can decipher what some of it might mean. I use the word might because we can rarely be sure of what was going on in the mind of the individual who made the decisions as to what was to be put on any particular stone. We must always remember that.

The open book, says Keister: "In its purest form an open book can be compared to the human heart, its thoughts and feelings open to the world and to God." In this instance, the open book may more literally represent the Bible, since the scripture chapter and verses are engraved within.

In respect to the cross with a crown, it "is a Christian symbol of the sovereignty of the Lord. When the crown is combined with a cross, the crown means victory and the cross means Christianity. The cross with a crown also denotes a member of the York Rite Masons. As with all types of crowns used by the Masons, it symbolizes the power and authority to lead or command."

Next are the letters. According to Keister, they stand for "Hiram The Widow's Son Sent To King Solomon," and it is associated with the Masonic fraternity.

I tried to do a little reading to really understand what that line means, but I must admit I am not really any better off than I was before. The best I can do right now is point you to an "Old South Burial" mailing list entry by Mr. Tom Kunesh. He explains and links to further reading here --> HTWSSTKS.

Now for the scripture: Ecclesiastes 12, verses 1-7 (from a King James Version Bible)
¹Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them:
²While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
³In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
⁴And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
⁵Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go above the streets:
⁶Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
⁷Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Shocked, Sad, Dumbfounded, & Don't Know What to Say

Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County Mississippi alerted many of us to this story. I'm passing it along with very few words to add. I simply cannot believe how greedy, disrespectful, and callous all persons involved in the decision-making process for this destruction of local, state, regional and cultural history can be. As Terry said, "Read it and weep."

Oxford, Alabama Destroying A 1500-Year-Old Indian Mound To Build A Sam's Club

My Very Own Follow Friday

If you are in any way familiar with Twitter, you are probably aware of "Follow Friday." In case you don't know, that's the day of the week that everyone posts names of people they follow. It is a way of bringing attention to the people that the people you follow, follow. Get it? Think of it as a chance to meet some people you might not have otherwise met.

I have decided that, on occasion, I might just very well have my own "Follow Friday." I will share with you some people and blogs I follow. They might be on Twitter, they might not. You might have already heard of them and know how great they are, or you might not.

In this inaugural edition, I would like to introduce you to The Daily Undertaker. This blog is described as "a funeral and memorial service journal." The author is Mr. Patrick McNally. In his profile, he states: "Funeral service is an opportunity to serve families and help them through a very difficult time. We need to listen carefully and ask the right questions in order to meet the different needs of different families. Families place their trust in us to care for them and for their loved ones. We must provide families with compassion and the best possible service."

His blog is a fascinating look into funerals and memorials. I first visited because I was intrigued by the name. The first post I read was Clown Funeral. It is not a joke, nor is it some lighthearted look at funerals. It is all about how the tradition and rituals of funerals are fine and somewhat expected, but the personalization of the funeral is what makes it a true memorial to the deceased. At the bottom of that post are links to other examples of this. I visited every entry, and I encourage you to do the same.

This blog has a lot to offer if you are interested in the topic. He has articles on embalming, "ask the undertaker," mourning attire of the past and present, what to say to the grieving, roadside memorials, and more. Some other interesting topics include Victorian mourning jewelry, memorial tattoos, "ghost bikes," promession, and much more.

Visit The Daily Undertaker.