{"id":5391,"date":"2011-11-17T05:19:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T10:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5391"},"modified":"2011-11-17T05:19:13","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T10:19:13","slug":"epitaph-collection-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=5391","title":{"rendered":"Epitaph Collection – part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first discussed my interest in epitaphs<\/a> in October, a month I thought appropriate for such things, not only because of Halloween, but also because October 14 is the anniversary of the Female Stranger<\/a>‘s death.\u00a0 I will be sharing other epitaphs over the coming months.\u00a0 I find them fascinating because they show a snippet of a person’s life.\u00a0 In theory, you’d think the epitaph writer would have chosen the most important parts.\u00a0 I find myself wanting to fill in the blanks and write a story about the deceased based on the tombstone’s words.\u00a0 Sometimes when I am in a cemetery collecting epitaphs, I just write them down in a notebook.\u00a0 Other times, like with these, I make notes.\u00a0 I try to copy the epitaph with the same word spacing and order as it appears on the stone.<\/p>\n

The first two are from the large old cemetery in Alexandria.\u00a0 CSA, by the way, stands for Confederate States of America.<\/p>\n

Captain Austin D. H, C.S.A.<\/em>
\n 63rd Regiment<\/em>
\n Died October 6, 1890<\/em>
\n Aged 46 years<\/em>
\nA true soldier of the Cross and the <\/em>(hard to read).<\/em><\/p>\n

Notes:\u00a0 He was in his late teens during the Civil War, a young man and an officer.\u00a0 I wonder if he was enlisted or volunteered later in the war as fighting men of age were harder to come by?<\/p>\n

In Memory of Julia S.<\/em>
\n Beloved Wife of Harry <\/em>(hard to read)
\n Born December 10, 1872<\/em>
\n Died February 6, 1920<\/em>
\n Farewell Dear Wife<\/em>
\n Thou art at rest<\/em>
\n And shall forever be,<\/em>
\n You could not stay on<\/em>
\n earth with me<\/em>
\n But I can come to thee.<\/em><\/p>\n

Notes: She died at 48.\u00a0 What an almost suicidal note at the end of the epitaph.\u00a0 Interestingly, I couldn’t find his grave in the near vicinity of this one.\u00a0 I found his brothers and sisters and some children, but not Harry.\u00a0 Did he re-marry and then, when he died, get buried elsewhere?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

From Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

David W<\/em>
\n Son of<\/em>
\n Rev. John W. and Eliza Davis<\/em>
\n Born November 7, 1876<\/em>
\n at Southport, NC<\/em>
\n Died Oct 21, 1908<\/em>
\n at Wash D.C.<\/em>
\n Aged 31 yrs. 11 mos.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sleep on peaceful sleep<\/em>
\n In the Kingdom of Our God<\/em>
\n Still watching and waiting for Mother<\/em>
\n In the Kingdom of Our God<\/em>
\n By his Mother and Brother<\/em>
\n Eliza H. Wicks and J.W. Davis<\/em><\/p>\n

And also this one:<\/p>\n

Jean Lynch<\/em>
\n Born Feb 14, 1897<\/em>
\n Died Jan 31, 1920<\/em>
\n Angels get my mansions<\/em>
\n ready for we are crossing the misty river one by one<\/em><\/p>\n

And finally, on the rather large tomb of a great man who is just as dead now as all other men, great or not:<\/p>\n

Sacred to the memory of<\/em>
\n The right Reverend<\/em>
\n William Pinkney<\/em>
\n D.D. LL.D.<\/em>
\n Born April 17, 1810<\/em>
\n Died July 4, 1883<\/em>
\n A guileless and fearless man of God,<\/em>
\n brilliant in intellect, steadfast in trial,<\/em>
\n tender and true in friendship,<\/em>
\n he so adorned his life<\/em>
\n with manly virtues and<\/em>
\n Christian graces, that his<\/em>
\n earthly career remains<\/em>
\n an imperishable memento<\/em>
\n of that apostolic spirit of<\/em>
\n which he was both the<\/em>
\n eloquent advocate and<\/em>
\n beautiful example<\/em><\/p>\n

Placuit deo, et translatus in paradisum<\/em><\/p>\n

This last part is a verse in Latin from Ecclesiasticus 44:16 that refers to the Biblical character Enoch.\u00a0 In English it means: “He pleased God and was translated into paradise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first discussed my interest in epitaphs in October, a month I thought appropriate for such things, not only because of Halloween, but also because October 14 is the anniversary of the Female Stranger‘s death.\u00a0 I will be sharing other … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[864,11],"tags":[866,865,867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5391"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5818,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391\/revisions\/5818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}