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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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Cemetery enlivens Civil War studies |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Friday, 17 June 2005 |
Sometimes a graveyard can help history come alive.
On Friday morning, fifth-grade students from Madison Elementary School crossed the street to Mount Vernon Cemetery, where Civil War veterans are buried.
Their teacher, Gayle Metcalf, has been taking her class to the graveyard for 10 years.
"They've never thought of a cemetery in terms of history or interest," Metcalf said. "To them, it's always been spooky or about visiting someone they know."
The students worked alone or in small groups, crouching down and squinting at the gravestones to determine the man buried there was a Civil War veteran. They carefully recorded the veterans' names and where their regiments were based.
They figured out the clues to determine whether a gravestone marks a veteran's burial site. A sheriff's badge, for example, often indicates Union membership.
The state of birth also indicated allegiance. The students had a map of the United States with the Union states colored blue and Confederate states colored gray.
Still, Ryan McGrath cautioned that, "There's no way we can tell. Just because they were from that state doesn't mean they had to be from either the Union or the Confederates."
Veronica Yell, 11, said she liked seeing Union and Confederate gravestones near each other. She also was keeping an eye out for World War II veterans. Her grandfather fought in that war.
And Lizbeth Jimenez, 11, thought she might stumble upon her great-grandmother's burial site.
"I think my great-grandma is buried here — I think she had something to do with the Navy — but I don't know where," Lizbeth said.
The students ran from one mossy gravestone to the next to find veterans, but they also were looking for a member of the Iron Brigade. The Iron Brigade was made up of men in black cowboy hats who supported the Yankees during the Civil War.
An 11-year-old named Irina Feskova found the Iron Brigade as her group scoured a row of gravestones in the northwest corner of the cemetery. Erika Hernandez Lopez, a member of Irina's small group, let out a loud whoop and the class came running.
"Irina found it, Irina found it," Erika said to be sure Irina would get credit. "Let's all clap for Irina."
As the excitement of finding the Iron Brigade site waned, a small cluster of students stuck around and chatted about why they liked scurrying about the cemetery.
Eleven-year-old Patrick Verschoor said, "It teaches us about our history," and those around him nodded in agreement.
The term "our history" seemed ironic. Though most of the students consider themselves American to the bone, many are immigrants. Of the eight people standing around the Iron Brigade grave, six, including the Skagit Valley Herald reporter, were immigrants.
Patrick was born in Holland. Irina arrived from the Ukraine about four years ago. And Erika Hernandez Lopez was born in Mexico. Not that it seemed to make a difference.
"We're all from Mount Vernon," Erika said.
Isolde Raftery can be reached at 360-416-2148 or by e-mail at
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http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2005/06/11/news/news02.txt |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“'And here, among the English tombs,
In Tuscan ground we lay her,
While the blue Tuscan sky endomes
Our English words of prayer'” Epitaph for Lily Cottrell by E
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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