Category: Ladybusiness

Come Ye Blessed

Grace Rutherford
Died Mar. 19, 1901
Aged 24Y 11M 4D

Elmo Son of
J. R. & G. Rutherford
Died Jul. 26, 1901
Aged 4M 13D

I wend back to the Mount Gilead cemetery earlier this week, intending to take another look at what appeared to be a veteran’s headstone. I got sidetracked looking at infants’ and women’s graves, though. This one caught my eye. It wasn’t until I got home and did the math that I realized that Grace died not in childbirth, as I’d assumed, but six days afterward. Her son, Elmo, lived for four and a half months. I assume Grace’s death was related to giving birth. I wonder what killed her son? Disease or malnutrition?

Something else that caught my attention is the lay-out of the graves in the cemetery. Most of them are in orderly rows, but in the older section, there are doubled rows, where the headstones are either stacked one in front of the other, or staggered slightly. There are also half rows of children’s and infants’ graves, which I thought was clever. The first row of graves is right up against the dry stone wall, with at least one headstone facing the wall. I have no idea whose grave it is, because there isn’t enough space between the stone and the wall to see the inscription.

Thompson
Silas E.
1866-1949
Mary A.
1871-

Where the heck is Mary?!

The rest of my Mount Gilead photos are here. I did a little Googling, and it appears that the church was founded by a member of the Skirvin family, which would explain the plethora of Skirvins buried there. Supposedly they are linked in some way to Hoagy Carmichael.

One corner of the cemetery was scattered with flowers that had blown away from the graves. This bright blue silk carnation was nestled among some fallen leaves, along the dry stone wall.

Something I noticed when I started doing genealogy research was that too, too many women’s maiden names were lost. In terms of history, they cease to exist as anything but extensions of their husbands.

Skirvin
Tilford L.
Sept. 22, 1850
June. 24, 1913
Mary M.
Oct. 14, 185
Dec. 23, 1929

Nancy Jo
Dau. of D. & L. Rogers
Died Nov. 3, 1862
13 Yrs. 21 Dys.
Beneath this willow weep
a child, a lovely sister sleeps
We know that she is happy
With her angel plumage on
But our hearts are very desolate
When we think that she is gone

Elizabeth
Wife of J. W. Polley
Born Mar. 21, 1977
Died May 20, 1888

Margaret
Wife of Lo. B. Rader
Died Apr. 4, 1883
51 ys. 8 ms. 3 ds.

Lichen and Moss on Grave Marker

Dry Stone Wall

Dry Stone Wall

There are about a million limestone quarries in the area, so dry stone walls are common, especially around cemeteries. I was amused to see that this section of wall contained a piece of stone that had been tooled for some purpose. It looks like a drawer front from a bedside table.