graven_images | Recent Entries

They are memorials to those who pass before us - some breathtakingly ornate, carved by master stone masons. Some are heartbreakingly simple, carved by loving hands of a father who could not pay for his baby's gravestone.

Though the histories carved on their surfaces may be brief, with only a name and a date, others are much more elaborate, including room sized structures erected to honor the dead.

They are there because someone wanted to remember.

This blog features photography of and posts about cemeteries and the memorial art contained in them, including funerary symbolism as it has progressed throughout the years. Please feel free to add your own photos in your comments.

The majority of the photos were taken in cemeteries and family graveyards in Arkansas, where I can often be found wandering with camera in hand...

All content on this blog is copyrighted.

I call her the weeping angel.

She's a larger than life sized angel, kneeling prostrate on the Steen family monument.

The folds on the robe in the rear view of the monument, as well as the detail in the feathers, is just incredible.

It took some digging, but I believe this monument marks the graves of Jeremiah Palmer Steen (1840-1908), and his adopted son, William E Steen (1871-1909), both of whom have very simple markers behind the monument.

In the 1880 census, the family was living at 1122 Main Street in Little Rock. That location is now an interstate overpass. Jeremiah Steen's occupation was listed as "collects his rents."

I did not see a stone for Kate Steen, Jeremiah's Canadian born wife.

I'll have to go back and take a closer look...

Birdie Besancon
daughter of J & K Besancon
Born Apr 6 1918,
Died Dec 5, 1920

Mary Ann Gordon, daughter of Anderson and Lydia Ann Gordon
Was born 16th Dec 1849
Died the 21st Aug 1850
Aged 8 months and 5 days

Katharine Howell
and Babe
Loving Wife and Son of
Felix S Hereford
Born Russellville, Ark.
April 20, 1880
Died Dallas Texas
March 18, 1914
Ever loyal and faithful

Photo taken at Oakland Cemetery, Russellville, Pope Co., AR

Sometimes, as soon as I pull into the drive of a cemetery, I feel at peace.

Shady Grove was one of those.

I don't know who she was, but this stone for Linnie Norton just touched me.

Linnie E Cooley Norton
Daughter of George Cooley and Vera Pansie Osmon
She married Jay Dalton Norton.

Capt. Jimmy Cartwright
73rd AVN Co., Viet Nam
Born June 16, 1936
Died June 23, 1964

Little Rock National Cemetery

A flower left on his virtual memorial at Find a Grave says:
KIA when his fixed wing aircraft was shot down. He was serving with the 73RD AVN CO, US ARMY SPT CMD VIETNAM, MACV, Army of the United States from Mountainburg, Arkansas. JIMMY CARTWRIGHT is on the Wall at Panel 01E Line 055. May his sacrifice not be forgotten.

Sometimes when I'm out graving, I find a lone stone and wonder where the rest of the family was.

At Oakland Cemetery in Little Rock, I ran across this stone.
.
.
.

Walter L Terry
Born
Feb 14 1813
Died
Aug 14 1876

Doing a tiny bit of research, I found that Walter was born in North Carolina, as was his wife, Rebecca Meredith. I know from researching them that they lived in Richmond County, NC in 1850 with their daughter, Sarah, who was 2.

By 1860, they were living in Ashley township of Pulaski County, and there was no Sarah with them. They were in the same location in the 1870 census. Walter's occupation was physician.

In 1880, after Walter's death, Rebecca Terry lived with her daughter Sallie (noted in the census as Charlotte), and son-in-law, Robert Little. Still in Pulaski County, but living now in the city of Little Rock.

Another graver says Rebecca is also buried at Oakland, but apparently the earth has claimed her stone.

For death begins with life's first breath. And life begins at touch of death.
John Oxenham, aka William Arthur Dunkerley

One can tell the morals of a culture by the way they treat their dead.
Benjamin Franklin

Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby Co., TN

Ford Cemetery, Appleton, Pope Co., AR

Mount Holly Cemetery, Little Rock, Pulaski Co., AR

St. Joe Cemetery, Pope Co., AR

Crooked Bayou Cemetery, McGehee, Desha Co., AR

Pinecrest Cemetery, Bryant, Saline Co., AR

Rockport Cemetery, Malvern, Hot Spring Co., AR

Old Baptist Cemetery, Center Valley, Pope Co., AR

Collegeville Cemetery, Bryant, Saline Co., AR

Oakland Cemetery, Little Rock, Pulaski Co., AR

Levi Storthz

These stones really struck me yesterday as I visited Oakland.

I don't know if vandalism or falling tree branches damaged this stone. Over the years, Oakland has removed trees too close to graves.

The base of the stone tells a story of heartbreak.

Earnest William, our darling boy

Mary, wife of W Strickland
Born Oct 27, 1860
Died Nov 17, 1889

Burnard Martin, our darling boy

Mary's headstone

William Strickland
Born in Slaidburn, Yorkshire, England
Dec 14, 1856
Died Aug 13, 1906

It was a perfect day for graving...

This is the family plot of Rev. William Dolphis Isbell.
.

.

August 10, 1969 was a horrific day for Charles Ry and Geneva L Ketcherside.

They lost their home in a fire, and with it, 6 children.

Randy L Duvall, b 27 Sep 1958 (son of Geneva and her first husband, Lee Duvall)
Connie L Ketcherside, b 20 Mar 1962, and her siblings
Aaron R, b 13 Nov 1963
Sheila K, b 20 Jun 1965
Dennis R, b 18 Oct 1966; and
Michael R, b 29 Oct 1967

The first burial here was in 1842.

The cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the reasons I am drawn to older stones is the stories I find written on them.

JWB Thomas, buried at the old cemetery bearing his surname in North Little Rock, has one of those stories.

His full inscription reads:
Our Beloved Father and Husband
JWB Thomas
Born In
Haywood Co., Tenn.
1839
Moved to Ark. 1867
Died
Jan 5, 1885,
Gone but not forgotten

The simple stone makes me wonder enough about JWB Thomas' 46 years of life to do a simple search.

I found that JWB Thomas was Joe William B Thomas, son of John B and Martha Thomas. I know that he married Sintha Jane Kirkman three days after Christmas in 1865, in Haywood Co., TN.

Two years later, JWB Thomas moved with his wife to Arkansas. The had at least 3 children.

That makes me smile.

JWB Thomas' stone doesn't look like my photo any more. Thomas Cemetery - neglected for decades - now has several heroes who have cleaned it up, and formed the Thomas Cemetery Association.

The photo of JWB Thomas's now cleaned and repaired gravestone is now the profile photo for Thomas Cemetery's Facebook page.

Go take a look.

Samuel Lasker was born in Russia on 22 Dec 1827, and died in Little Rock on 2 Nov 1886.

For a time after she was widowed, Augusta Lasker lived with her oldest daughter, Sallie (Lasker) Epstein, in Little Rock.

Augusta was born in Pleselien Prussia on 28 Dec 1830, and died in Little Rock on 31 Mar 1911.

She was the mother of 6 children.

Oakland Cemetery, Pulaski Co., AR

Some of Samuel and Augusta's children are also buried in this cemetery:
Henry Lasker, 1858-1923
Harry Samuel Lasker, 1865-1925
Bettie Lasker Alexander, 1867-1945
Esther Lasker Ehrman, 1870-1954

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Graven Images

Stories in Stone

Recent Entries

Sticky: Memento Mori...

One of my all time favorite monuments

Collegeville Cemetery, Saline Co., AR

Ford Cemetery, Appleton, Pope Co., AR

Wednesday's Child: Katharine Howell Hereford and Babe

Shady Grove Cemetery, Bald Knob, White Co., AR

Shadow Shot

Brearley Cemetery, Yell County, AR

Oakland Cemetery, Russellville, Pope Co., AR

Dr. Walter L Terry

(no subject)

(no subject)

More from Oakland Little Rock...

More from Oakland Little Rock...

Oakland Little Rock on a cloudy day...

Isbell family plot, St. Joe Cemetery, Pope Co., AR

St Joe Cemetery, outside Atkins, Pope County AR

Brearley Cemetery, Dardanelle, Yell Co., AR

Joe William B Thomas, 1839-1885

Samuel and Augusta Lasker