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Memorable epitaphs abound in Minneapolis cemetery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 31 May 2004 |
May 31, 2004
MINNEAPOLIS - The dead speak out with pride, regret, grief and even humor in the stone and metal monuments at Lakewood Cemetery overlooking Lake Calhoun, home of more than 170,000 graves and memorials.
They include the monument to Joseph Francis, who died more than a century ago and hoped the world would remember him as the "Inventor of the Corrugated Metallic Lifecar Lifeboat."
But just to make sure, that fact was inscribed on his monument overlooking the lake. Other accomplishments inscribed on the stone include honors from President Benjamin Harrison in 1890 and a knighthood by the Czar of Russia in 1860.
The long list of inscribed achievements for Joseph Francis fulfills one purpose of epitaphs, said Gregg Felsen, a local writer and photographer who has produced two glossy books on famous graves from around the world.
Other purposes include testimonials to patriotism or personality and expressions of the loss that must be endured by survivors, along with words of comfort. "Memorial monuments are erected for the living," Felsen said. "Sometimes we forget that."
For instance, there's a tall obelisk that honors 18 millworkers who died on May 2, 1878, when the Washburn "A" Mill in downtown Minneapolis exploded with such force that debris landed in St. Paul. "Labor as wide as the earth hath its summit in heaven," the memorial said.
And there's the bronze plaque designed by wildlife artist Les Kouba that was placed over his grave in 1998. It calls his work a "lasting gift to mankind, portraying in brush and pen the beauty and majesty of woods, fields and wildlife." The plaque also includes a child's single-word farewell salutation to "Bapa."
And there's also a rare example of a "cenotaph," a memorial raised to honor someone who is buried elsewhere. It was erected in memory of Joseph Kerr (1760-1843), who is honored for his service in the American Revolution, when he was 17, and the War of 1812, when he was 52. Kerr was buried in Virginia 39 years before Lakewood was established in 1872.
In general, cemeteries in the Midwest are not treasure troves for epitaphs - at least, not yet, said Lakewood president Ronald Gjerde Jr.
"Epitaphs were quite common in the 17th and 18th centuries, but not so much by the mid-1800s when they seemed to go out of style," Gjerde said. "But since the 1970s, we're starting to see them come back.
"A lot of it has to do with new technologies in engraving that makes it possible to put a lot on smaller stones," he said. "And now you see more people wanting to personalize things with a phrase, a sentence or a verse."
The epitaphs are also a way to look back into history. For example, an epitaph for an early veteran, Edwin Stone, testifies to a violent death. "Killed in battle in Acton, Minn., by the Sioux Indians, Sept. 3, 1862, aged 38 years."
The circumstances of Stone's death during the Dakota War are all Felsen said he could find, yet that fact is preserved in stone.
The most heartbreaking epitaphs are reserved for the young.
"Take thee, oh Earth, in thine arms and may they henceforth be a messenger of love between our human hearts and thee," said a metal marker made of zinc that was erected for Sarah Laurie, just 10 when she died in 1879.
The monument for Eva MacKenzie tells the tragic tale of a fire that occurred in Toledo, Ohio, in 1890. "She gave her life trying to rescue her two only children," the marker said on one side.
Her efforts were in vain, for on another side of the same monument is a farewell to the two daughters who died at the ages of 5 and 11: "Beautiful, affectionate, talented, taken in the bloom of life. Good night, Papa."
But perhaps the most famous epitaph at Lakewood is one that has been printed on some souvenir coffee mugs. Save for his epitaph on a small, flat marker, little is known about Clyde Earl Hagen of Maple Plain, who was born in 1901 and died in 1974.
But the epitaph is memorable: "My only regrets are the temptations I have successfully resisted."
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/8804793.htm
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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
“He who doesn't fear death dies only once.” Giovanni Falcone
Shirtless and Sculpted
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