Category: Cemeteries

I went to Owen County, to take photos in River Hill Cemetery. I’ve driven by it thousands of times, but never stopped. It looks pretty small from the road, so my plan was to take a few photos there, then go on to the larger cemetery in town, but when I actually got there, I realized it’s bigger than I thought. It’s also in pretty sad condition. Like Methodist Cemetery in Ellettsville, there are broken headstones that no one has bothered to upright. They’ve been left to sink into the ground.

There were also a few headstones that looked like they were made from concrete. They’re crumbling now, and I wondered if that was a “poor folks” option. Better than a temporary metal marker from the funeral home, but not by much.

What a difference a couple of years makes.

September 18, 2007

March 15, 2010

Even accounting for the fact that the bright, unidirectional sunlight in the first photo increased legibility, it’s still pretty amazing just how much further damage has been done to this stone in the two years since I first photographed it. It’s going to be completely obscured by lichen before long.

Methodist Cemetery, Ellettsville, Monroe County, Indiana

This is not a pretty cemetery. It sits at the intersection of two roads, with no wall to set it apart from the traffic, so some of the graves are just a few feet away from passing cars. Not a very nice way to spend eternity.

Margaret M. Wife of Wm. M. A. Kirby Died April 2, 1856 Aged 29 Yrs.

Polly Daut. of Wm. & E. Smart Died

Methodist Cemetery, Ellettsville, Monroe County, Indiana

Orange E.

Ethel O.

Lillie L.

Ralph R.

Nellie

I went to Methodist Cemetery this afternoon. It’s small and kind of sad, because sits right on the road, with no wall to separate it from the traffic. There are some old graves there, though, so it was worth visiting.

The section closest to the road had these five children’s graves, with no indication of which family they belonged to. I assume they go together, even though there’s a 20 year span between them, based on their proximity and the similarity of the headstones.

The weather was just about perfect today, so I decided to go over to Rose Hill Cemetery to take some photos. I didn’t get many, because after 15-20 minutes a funeral procession showed up. And, of course, my car was parked right in their way. I felt horrible about that, even though there was no way for me to have known, so I left as soon as I could.

One thing I noticed, as I was wandering around, is that a lot of the older headstones have been replaced with new and therefore uninteresting (to me) granite markers. The older ones were often made of limestone, which is porous and soft. Inscriptions on those stones are sometimes worn completely away, and other times they’ve been re-incised.

Grave Marker with Dove Decoration

Nora E. Murray 8_28_1887 3_22_1958 Devoted Mother

Mildred Pedro Dec 21, 1923 Jan 10, 1927 From mother’s arms to the arms of Jesus

Infant

Before I go take a nap, I thought I’d post a few more of my favorite shots from yesterday’s cemetery trip.

Poplar Tree

Gate

Margaret E. Dau. of B.F. & S. Rogers Died Mar. 18, 1864 Aged 5 ys. 6ms. 12 ds.

This child’s headstone was broken away from its base and lying flat on the ground.

Blank Headstones

The inscriptions on these headstones have worn away over time. There are many like that in this cemetery. A few have been crudely re-inscribed, but for the rest, I wonder if anyone still knows who is buried under them? One grave is marked only by a small pile of broken stone fragments.

I noticed on this trip out to Mount Gilead that there are is a new, lone grave off by itself, along the back tree line. It’s a good 30 yards from the nearest grave. It looks sad and desolate and out of place, on its own.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this cemetery. The church affiliated with it closed recently. I assume that there are provisions for cemetery upkeep, even after the congregation dissolves, but I wonder if there will be many more burials there. Surely, many of the empty plots have been pre-sold? I just wonder what happens to small, active cemeteries after their churches disappear.

I went back out to Mt. Gilead Cemetery this evening. I hadn’t taken any Lensbaby shots there before, so that’s mostly what I used. These are a few of my favorites.