USA – Midwest

Mount Mora, St. Joseph, Missouri

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Mount Mora was full of poison ivy and great mausoleums.

Despite having to watch where I put my feet, I had a great time here. I’ve never seen so many mausoleums in one place at least not in the midwestern U.S.

I caught a couple of nice little orbs in this one. Spirits or sun spots, you make the call.

Beautiful patinas, lovely colors. Can you imagine what these monuments must have looked like brand new and gleaming?

I didn’t know the stories behind all the grand monuments, but I did get the scoop on this last one.

According to John Gary Brown in his great book, Soul in the Stone, in the 1880’s Mr. and Mrs Vanderlinde stopped in St. Joseph on their way west. Mrs. V. died in childbirth. Mr. V, without friends or family in the area, built this tomb for his wife. He moved on with their child shortly after completing it. Recently, groundskeepers noticed that the wooden door had deteriorated. After a quick look inside, they bricked over the entrance. What they saw in the tomb was Mrs. V’s preserved body lying on a plank held by two saw horses. She had on her wedding gown.

Sigh.

Atchison, Kansas

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Atchison, Kansas, hometown of Amelia Earhart, sits so close to the mighty Missouri river that you can walk down Main street and dip your toe in.

Floods have come close to wiping out the town several times, but Amelia’s house remains safe, high on the bluffs overlooking the river. 

I spent a long afternoon exploring Mount Vernon cemetery in Atchison a few weeks ago.

There are several gems like little Ned Rigg. I couldn’t make out what he’s writing. Hopefully, not homework for all eternity. 

The empty child-sized chair had cast off clothes and toys carved on the front, “Jimmie’s” things. 

There were several intriguing epitaphs, even a Shakespearean quote.

Have you ever seen stones autographed by the deceased? There were several in Mount Vernon.There were MANY more interesting graves I’m not posting. Mt. Vernon’s definitely worth a visit. It’s a few miles outside of town, near the Amelia Earhart Earthworks.

Graveyard Wildlife

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I love all the wildlife that thrives in cemeteries.

Bird songs, bees buzzing, small creatures scuttling among the stones  – life.

Nature going about its business helps set that peaceful mood most cemeteries have.

How could a place with so much wildlife be creepy?

Hiawatha, Kansas

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To say that the Davis memorial in Mount Hope Cemetery is off the beaten path doesn’t quite do its location justice.

Hiawatha, Kansas is in the heart of America’s farm country. Gorgeous, but remote.

John and Sarah Davis’s strange memorial was worth the drive. I’ve never seen anything like it. Thirteen marble statues plus urns, marble walls and roof depict every stage of the couple’s fifty year marriage.

John commissioned the work in 1930 when Sarah died. Sculptors in Carrara, Italy carved the stones until 1940.

According to legend, the townsfolk were pretty miffed that John would spend that kind of money, nearly all his family fortune, when times were so hard. 1930 was the middle of the Great Depression, but he had a point to make.

Sarah’s family hadn’t approved of their marriage. The couple was childless and John had no intention of his wife’s relatives getting a penny when he passed away.

The story makes sense. There’s waaaaay too much marble squashed onto one little burial plot. It looks like John kept trying to find more ways to spend away his money. That marble roof must weigh 50 tons! And it’s a b*#!@ to photograph!  Somebody with a better camera than mine needs to make the trek to Hiawatha and do this monument justice.

To me, the site ends up being not only a monument to a man who loved his wife, but to human foibles as well.

Faces on Tombstones

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You meet a lot of people in graveyards.  Every face tells a story.

Sometimes it’s just a story

 of time passed. 

Sometimes it’s a story of sorrow and loss.

 

Sometimes the sheer beauty of a face tells the sculptor’s story. I love those, don’t you?

Hey, thanks everybody who took my poll last week. Who knew there were so many of us taking our lunches to the grave?