Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Settler finally gets his tombstone back

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Settler finally gets his tombstone back

Written by DeadGirl
Thursday, 11 November 2004
BY TOM JOHNSTON Cuba Township officials hope the return of a 140-year-old tombstone to White Cemetery will inspire more respect for the dead. Found recently in a closet in Prospect High School, some 15 miles away from its resting place in Cuba Township's White Cemetery, the gravestone of Barrington settler Caleb Davison has launched a somewhat playful historical investigation but a more serious overall message. "Hopefully people can see the other side of the coin here as far as respect and why to do good things for the cemetery," Cuba Township Supervisor David Nelson said. Prospect teachers say the tombstone had been at the school since the early 1980s. In all likelihood, students stole it. After all, White Cemetery has become a haven for spirit seekers attracted by urban legends about Cuba Road hauntings. More recently, the graveyard suffered a round of tombstone thefts and vandalism. The advent of the Internet and a new documentary film about White Cemetery has helped increase the problems, forcing Cuba Township to spend more money for security. This year's Halloween was a particular nuisance, Nelson said. "We have some people who are just curious, and some who go a step further," he said. Nelson picked up the suburb-trotting grave marker at Prospect High School on Friday and returned it to Cuba Township headquarters for cleaning. It had been found by a school employee, who did some research on the Internet and discovered Davison's home turf. Caleb Davison died Sept. 22, 1864, just before what would have been his 67th birthday. Husband of Elizabeth Walrath and father to seven children, he is credited with helping to build Ela Township's first school house in 1838, among other things. Davison was born Oct. 6, 1797 in Albany, New York, at the end of George Washington's second presidential term. And after moving to the area in April 1836, he would become an elections judge. Other interesting notes about Davison include his jury service at the first trial in of Lake County's seventh Circuit Court in 1840 Cuba Township Highway Commissioner Tom Gooch, who calls the cemetery his "pet project," said reclaiming Davison's headstone is particularly important because it means preserving an integral part of the area's history. He and other officials are hoping this will lead to more tombstone returns. "No one should lay in an unmarked grave for eternity," Gooch said. "Once you take someone's tombstone, their identity is gone forever." Elizabeth preceded Caleb in death by more than three years, when she was 61. Daughter Mary, son Peter and grandson Eugene Davison, son of Peter and his wife, Martha Whedon, are also buried with Caleb at White Cemetery. T.W. White and Innis Hollister charted the White Cemetery Association in 1855, although burials likely began long before then. In fact, area historians say the cemetery dates back to 1776 and is home to the area's very first settlers, including Francis Kelsey, a War of 1812 veteran who died in 1865. Cuba Township officials, who are charged with maintaining White Cemetery, estimate that up to 21 grave markers have been stolen from White Cemetery. They said anyone who has a tombstone can return it to the township at 28000 W. Cuba Road. "We are not interested in how they came into possession," Gooch said. "We're just interested in getting them back." http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/ba/11-11-04-429221.html

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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

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?

	earthen burial
	entombment
	cremation
	donation to science
	cyrogenically frozen
	you mean I'm still alive?

Quote Repository

“The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity - designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man.”

Ernest Becker