Headstones Hate Teenage City Employees

While taking photos of tombstones to post on Find-a-grave, I'm finding a LOT of old tombstones that have been damaged or broken off by teenagers driving city-owned lawnmowers. The damage is appalling.

The stone I’d seen in the fall now looked like this:

 

By mid-December the surviving top half of the 120-old-stone  had been “replanted” by city employees.

 

Quickly scanning my photos, I found many more examples of wanton destruction by the “summer teens” that had been hired to mow the lawns in the city cemetery.

 

Shaved edges

 

Not just shaved but gouged

 

Even the top corner was broken

 

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Buried By The Bay

Sailors, wives and children of costal communities usually enjoy a view of the sea throughout the eternities.

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Always and Forever

The death of a baby invokes extreme stress and loss in the lives of parents and family members.  The belief that families can be together forever helps assuage the pain.

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Burial at a Rural Church

With competing churches side by side, travel to graveyards was simplified.  Hopefully, the tombstones will survive the decline of old wooden buildings and subsequent reconstruction or moves to new locations.

 

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Buried by the Church

A typical setting in days gone by in the East.  A life lived in the town where you grew up.  The church attended throughout your life and then your death.  The church was never far from your daily pattern and in death you are buried in its yard.  The pattern Is repeated throughout the generations.  Life, church, death – intertwined.

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Lost and Stranded Cemeteries

There are thousands of lost and stranded cemeteries in the world.  Many are hidden in the woods, others are being slowly eaten by construction and particularly by shopping center parking lots.

When you see them, stop and take photos of all of the markers and of the site.  Transcribe the inscriptions and put the photos and text on Find-a-grave so at least the images of the stones and cemeteries  have a chance to survive modern man.

Old family cemeteries are particularly hard hit by developers in modern society, as witnessed in most of the satellite photos associated with the locations below.

If you know of other locations, add the map link to them in a comment to this post and they will be added to the list.

 

Alabama

Exploring Alabama’s Lost Cemeteries

 

California

Merchant Seaman’s – Presidio – San Francisco

 

Colorado

Parker Road, Aurora, CO

 

Georgia

Cleveland Ave – I-75 – Atlanta, GA

Avondale Mall – Decatur, GA

Walton St / Hwy 78– Loganville, GA

South Davis Dr, Warner Robins, GA

Hunter Army Airfield – Savannah GA

4135 Lavista Road, Tucker, GA

 

Kentucky

Dutchmans Lane, Louisville, KY

Kentucky’s Lost Cemeteries

 

Illinois

Yorktown Shopping Center, Lombard, IL

 

Indiana

Mechanicsburg Cemetery – Boone Co, IN

Blackiston Mill Rd – Clarksville, IN

Lost Cemeteries of Henry Co, IN

5875 N Keystone Ave, Indianapolis, IN

 

Massachusetts

Riverside Ave and Highway 6, Swansea, MA

 

Michigan

Betholem Cemetery – GM Plant, Hamtramck, MI

 

Missouri

Metro North Mall, Kansas City, MO

 

New Jersey

AMC Entertainment, Highland Park, NJ

Little Road – Dist 6 Firehouse, Parsippany, NJ

 

New York

498 Red Apple CT, Central Valley, NY

5025 Jericho Turnpike, Commack NY

Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, NY

Palisades Mall, West Nyack, NY

 

North Carolina

Orange Water Sewer Authority – Carrboro, NC

Carolina Mall, Concord, NC

Chapel Hill Rd – Durham, NC

708 Greenville Blvd – Greenville, NC

Carter Finley Stadium – Raleigh, NC

Duke University – West Campus

 

Oklahoma

700 Charles Page Blvd, Sand Springs, OK

 

Ohio

Tony Nose Cemetery, Lima OH

Hepburn Rd, Middleburg Heights, OH

18348 Bagley Rd, Middleburg Heights, OH

 

Pennsylvania

Greenwood – Ramona Ave, Philadelphia, PA

 

Rhode Island

Connecticut Ave and High St, Middletown, RI

Michaels Crafts, Smithfield, RI

 

South Carolina

North Main, Summerville SC

 

Tennessee

Buffalo Valley Rd – Cookeville, TN

Angelus St, Memphis, TN

1-179 Angelus St, Memphis, TN

 

Texas

183 Highway, Austin, TX

Wise Lane, Garland, TX

Long Point and Pech Rd, Houston, TX

Callendar Hill Rd, Mansfield, TX

Headache Springs – Tyler TX

Utah

Bennett Family – Alpine, UT

 

Virginia

Nutley St – Lee Hwy, Fairfax, VA

7531 Linton Hall Rd – Gainesville, VA

7756 Quioccasin Rd, Henrico, VA

14332 Potomac Mills Cir, Woodbridge, VA

 

Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s Lost Cemeteries

 

Canada

Bridlewood Mall, Toronto, Canada

 

Spain

Calle Paredes, Oviedo, Spain

 

Technorati Tags: Cemetery,Tombstone,Lost Cemetery,Stranded Cemetery

Emma Louisa Burger Drew Mead Tombstone

Emma Louisa Berger Drew Mead was born in Iowa in 1852.  She moved to the gold country of California with her family at age six.  After marrying Charles Drew of Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1867 at 14, the young mother knew heartache in her life with the loss of two of her two children to illness while they were still infants. 

Charles died of pneumonia when she was 38.  She later married Willard Clinton Mead and was well known for her love of and assistance to children without parents.  Numerous foster children were welcomed in to her home throughout her lifetime.

Emma is buried in the Copperopolis Cemetery, Calaveras County, California.

 

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Juliana Mulford 1781 - 1793

Tombstone of Juliana Mulford, daughter of Matthew and Mary Hutchinson Mulford.  East Hampton Cemetery. 1781 – 24 Jan 1793

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USS Arizona – Memorial and Tombstone

The USS Arizona (BB-39) was launched on 19 Jun 1915, the last of the Pennsylvania-class battleships.

She served the Navy well until she was sunk at Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941 in a surprise Japanese attack which took the life of 1177 her sailors.

They died in the fire, explosions and water of that attack.

The Arizona became their tomb.

It is marked with a large memorial structure – tombstone if you will – for the generations who have since enjoyed freedom - to visit and honor these fallen hero’s.

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Tombstone Photos in the Fall

Living in a mountain climate limits the season available to take tombstone photos.  There is something special about walking through the fall leaves, smelling their smells, enjoying the last warmth of the sun amid the quiet of the tombstones.

The memories made are unique: the angle of the sun, shortness of the day, scents, the solitude of created by the rapid approach of winter snow.

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East Hampton Cemetery Trek

Strolling through the cemeteries of East Hampton.

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Drill, Glue and Strap that Tombstone

Old soft stone tombstones suffer greatly from freeze / thaw cycles over the decades.  Add brain dead teenage boys to the mix and the markers are doomed.

The only hope to salvage the stones is through glue and in cases like the one below, metal straps to hold the pieces together. 

A week in jail resolves the teenage boy affliction in most towns.

 

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Tombstone - Urn Carving Detail

A close photo of the urn carving detail on the top of the tombstone of my great granduncle Atwood Drew  in the Burial Hill Cemetery, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

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Drew Tombstone – Oak Grove Cemetery

David and Anna Burgess Drew family tombstone in the Oak Grove Cemetery, Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Six of their eight children, a son-in-law and David’s 2nd wife, Caroline Tribble are buried in the family burial plot.

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Sarah Durrant – Lamb of Christ Tombstone

The design of Sarah Durrant’s tombstone is frequently seen in cemeteries in Utah.  The design was popular for the markers children who died early in life.

The soft stone that was used because of the ease of carving the Lamb on top.  Unfortunately, the markers deteriorate due to weathering as evidenced in this marker.

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Sanborn Cemetery – Bristol, New Hampshire

Beautiful photos by Sue Armstrong of the Sanborn Cemetery north east of Bristol, New Hampshire – final resting place of several ancestors and their families.

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Hockstadt Tombstone - Singapore

Tombstone of John and Rose Hockstadt in the Garden of Remembrance Cemetery, Singapore.

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Tombstones – It’s The Symbol Not The Stone

Not all families have the resources to buy tombstones for their beloved family members who pass away.  They show their love by memorializing them using the resources available to them.

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Nathaniel Grigsby – Lincoln’s Friend

Nathaniel Grigsby was a dear friend of Abraham Lincoln. 

In 1860, he was living in Norborne. He wrote to Lincoln and received an appointment as Republican Precinct Committee Man. He placed Lincoln's name on the 1860 ballot.

Read the rest of the story by Trish on Nathaniel’s Find-a-Grave memorial.

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Alma and Annie Hale Tombstone

Alma and Annie Hale Tombstone – Smithfield, Utah

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