Embree Hoss Blackard, United Methodist Clergy (Tombstone Tuesday)

Embree Hoss Blackard Sr., D.D.
1900 - 1995

Riverside Cemetery
Asheville, North Carolina

When visiting Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina, I came across an emblem I had not seen before. It represented the United Methodist Clergy and was attached to the BLACKARD family stone. A bit of research revealed Mr. Embree Hoss Blackard had been a member of the clergy for 70 years, longer than anyone in the Western North Carolina Conference (at the time of his death in 1995).

According to his obituary in the 6 August 1995 Charlotte Observer (North Carolina), Dr. Blackard was a native of Trenton, Tennessee, and a son of the late Reverend Doctor James W. Blackard and Louisa White Blackard. Information obtained from the Riverside Cemetery website states he was married to Margaret Griffith who died in 1975 and Frances Blair Blackard who died in June 1995.

Also buried in the Blackard family lot is Margaret Griffith Blackard (1897-1975) and Embree Hoss Blackard, Jr., M.D. (1929-1991).

Sam Reed, Mortician & Caretaker of Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery on StoryCorps

Ms. Amber Leigh left a comment yesterday on the most recent In Case You Missed It post, and I'm highlighting it here so hopefully more readers will see it.

"...I'm writing from StoryCorps, America's largest nonprofit national oral history project. I thought you and your readers would be interested in listening to StoryCorps' latest story to broadcast on NPR this morning. Sam Reed, a mortician and the caretaker of Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery talks about how his interest in the funeral business started at a young age. You can take a listen here: http://www.storycorps.org/listen/stories/sam-reed.

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening. Since 2003, tens of thousands of people from across the country have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share and is also archived for generations to come at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to the award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. Select stories have also been published in the New York Times bestselling book, Listening Is an Act of Love.

I hope you take the time to listen and share.

Thanks,
Amber Leigh"

My thanks to Amber for bringing this wonderful story to our attention. I enjoyed it very much!

"I just know this is what I was destined to do." ~ Sam Reed

In Case You Missed It - October 2009

Here are the most viewed posts over the last 30 days:

- Southern Cross of Honor

- Here Lies All the Family (Tombstone Tuesday)

- Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen

- William Walker's Wordless Wednesday

- Interesting & Lovely Little Girl (Tombstone Tuesday)

- Memento Mori

- He Sits & Waits (Wordless Wednesday)

- Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks

- Beech Springs Methodist Church Cemetery

- Louis Behrens, Famous Fireman

- White Oak Flats Cemetery; Gatlinburg, Tennessee

A Few Days Left for Free Access to Ancestry's Cemetery & Gravestone Collections

I'm a little behind in posting this, but there's still time! Ancestry is providing free access to their "creepiest collections" of cemetery and gravestone data through November 5th. You may search them directly from this Halloween landing page.

One of the featured collections is Selected U.S. Headstone Photos, containing "more than 74,000 headstones (some with multiple names) for individuals who died in the early 19th century through the present day."

Other collections of southern graves included:

· Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots;
· Aiken County, South Carolina Cemetery Inscriptions;
· Aiken County, South Carolina Cemetery Inscriptions: Graniteville;
· Aiken County, South Carolina: Cemetery Records;
· Alabama Cemetery Records;
· Barbour County, Alabama Tombstone Inscriptions;
· Bullock Co., AL, Old Confederate Cemetery;
· Cemetery Records of Choctaw County, Alabama;
· Cemetery Records of Dale County, Alabama;
· Cemetery Records of DeKalb County, Alabama;
· Cemetery Records of Jefferson County, Alabama;
· Cemetery Records, Barbour County, Alabama;
· Cemetery Records, Blount County, Alabama;
· Cemetery Records, Fayette County, Alabama and Neighboring Counties;
· Cemetery Survey, Etowah County, Alabama;
· Covington Co., AL, Bushfield Cemetery;
· Etowah County, Alabama Cemetery Records;
· Graveyard Register of Friedland Moravian Church, Forsyth County, N.C.;
· Inscriptions from the Cemeteries of Dale County, Alabama;
· Loudon County, Tennessee Cemetery Inscriptions;
· Mason County, Kentucky, Cemetery Records, Volume I;
· North-Central Georgia Cemeteries;
· Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia;
· Page County, Virginia, Cemetery Records, Vol. I (Luray Cemetery);
· Pleasant Hill Cemetery Inscriptions, Pritchett, Texas;
· Prospect Hill Cemetery Inscriptions, Front Royal, Virginia;
· Register of the Confederate Dead Interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.;
· Shenandoah County, Virginia, Cemetery Records, Vol. 1 (Woodstock);
· Tennessee Records: Tombstone Inscriptions and Manuscripts;
· The Evergreen Old Historical Cemetery in Evergreen, Alabama, Conecuh County;
· The Old Jewish Cemeteries at Charleston, S.C.: a Transcript of the Inscriptions on Their Tombstones, 1762-1903;
· Tombstone Inscriptions of King George County, Virginia;
· Tombstone Inscriptions of Orange County, Virginia;
· Tombstone Records of St. John's Lutheran Graveyard, Cabarrus County, North Carolina from the 18th Century to June 1936;
· Tombstone Records Stanly County, North Carolina, Albemarle, N.C.;
· Tombstone Records, Stanley County, N.C., Albemarle, County Seat;
· U.S. Military Burial Registers, 1768-1921

Back Issues of Markers & the Bussey Family Cemetery

I just received my Association for Gravestone Studies newsletter and am delighted to find out that all back issues of the Markers journal have been digitized and put online. Here's the blurb from the newsletter:

"Back issues of Markers available online
As part of AGS's partnership with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to house the AGS Archives, the University has digitized all back issues of Markers and made them available online. Here is the link:

http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=991"

Also wanted to let you know I am working on getting the Bussey Family Cemetery online. This cemetery is located in Talbot County, Georgia. Here's a direct link to the work in progress -- Bussey Family Cemetery. A transcription is also available in the USGenWeb Archives. It was recorded in 1972. My transcriptions were completed last year, so some new burials are included.

He Sits & Waits (Wordless Wednesday)

Memento Mori

Last week, I went on a trip with my Mom and Aunt to Asheville, North Carolina. While there, we took a short drive to Black Mountain to visit the Swannanoa Valley Museum. This museum is located in the old Black Mountain Fire House. According to the museum website, the fire house was designed and built in 1921 by Richard Sharp Smith, supervising architect at the Biltmore Estate. There is no charge to go through the museum, and donations are gladly accepted. There are a lot of neat things to see, and there is a wealth of information about local families and their histories in the area. I enjoyed it very much and highly recommend it.

This mourning brooch was one item on display. Here is the information that went with it:

Memento Mori
"Memento Mori" is a Latin phrase that may be freely translated as "remember that you are mortal," and is a theme that threads throughout history and art, literature, and funeral customs.

Mourning jewelry became popular after the death of Queen Victoria's beloved Prince Albert, and elaborate mourning rings, brooches, and other personal items were embellished with hair from the deceased loved one. Many were made of jet or onyx stones.

This jewelry mirrored the lives and times of the people who wore it, a souvenir to remember a loved one, and a reminder to the living of the inevitability of death.

The mourning brooch displayed here was donated to the Swannanoa Valley Museum by Elizabeth Lynn."

The collecting of mourning jewelry goes on today. A Google search will result in lots of links to visit and images to view, if you are interested in learning more.