Grave Misgivings

A Calendar To Die For

2010-09-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

When traveling, it is important to be flexible about your itinerary. And now we take a little side trip into the world of fundraising. Yes. In 2007, the Men of Mortuaries" calendar made its debut. The proceeds went to charity and they probably killed. This video will explain it all. Highlights include the cover of Funeral Director magazine with JOHN DENVER on the cover, twelve morticians come to bury a game show contestant, arriving ANYWHERE in a hearse and more dead jokes than you can shake a shovel at. Check it out.

Pilarcitos Cemetery and Oddfellows Cemetery, Half Moon Bay, California

2010-07-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

I know I’ve been away for a while so to make up for it, I give you a twofer: Pilarcitos Cemetery and Oddfellows Cemetery, both in Half Moon Bay.

Half Moon Bay is a very historic little coastal town just south of San Francisco. During the days of Prohibition, rumrunners used its many beaches and coastal pockets as receiving grounds for illegal booze on its way to San Francisco. Now it is known mostly for its fishing, expensive homes with ocean views and annual Pumpkin Festival.

According to a plaque inside Pilarcitos Cemetery, what is now Half Moon Bay was once known as San Benito.

“The first Roman Catholic church in San Mateo County’s oldest town, San Benito (better known as Spanishtown and later to become Half Moon Bay), was built in this cemetery in 1856. The land was purchased from Tiburcio Vasquez, who was granted Rancho Corral de Tierra in 1840.

Wandering through these grounds one can find the names of the many families who influenced the founding of Spanishtown. Prominent among these are the early Spanish, Portuguese, Irish and Italian pioneers.

May we who lie here rest in peace.

This plaque presented to the Spanishtown Historical Society

1973

IN MEMORY OF GEORGE E. DUNN, SR. 1880 – 1971”

Nice cross with an IHS. These initials are derived from the first three letters of Jesus’ name written in Greek: Iota, Eta, Sigma. The flowers look like lilies to me. Lilies stand for purity.

Here’s a very sad tombstone. This is probably a mother and daughter, both carrying the same name and buried together for all time. The ivy is associated with immortality and fidelity (ever try to kill it?) and the shape of its leaves invokes the Holy Trinity.

This fellow was a Woodsman of the World. I hear these tombstones are considered rare and hard to find, but there seem to be a lot of them in this area.

Here’s another example of a cast zinc monument. The top was broken off and it is hollow inside.

Nice weeping willow, the tree of mourning.

Calla lilies are also frequently used to express mourning. You find them on tombstones a lot and at funerals in the flower arrangements. The one used at funerals are almost exclusively white, although the flower comes in many colors, including yellow and red. There are also some lilies of the valley mixed in here.

Here’s a sheaf of wheat, something I haven’t seen too much of. It appears on the gravestones of people who had lived a long and fruitful life, usually over seventy years.

While Pilarcitos Cemetery is still in use and is well-maintained, its neighbor, the Oddfellows Cemetery, seems abandoned and neglected. It is one of the saddest places I have ever been. Some of the headstones are crooked and broken, the lids of the vaults are caving in, and the graves are wildly overgrown.

These branches probably blew down a couple of years ago during a particularly bad wind storm and no one has bothered to remove them.

No one comes by to freshen these flowers any more.

But there is still beauty to be found here.

This unusual headstone caught my eye.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is descended from the British fraternal order established in the 1700s. The Order came to America in 1819 and the word “Independent” was added to its name by the parent organization, probably to differentiate it from its British counterpart.

From the Oddfellows website:

“Odd Fellowship became the 1st national fraternity to include both men and women when it adopted the beautiful Rebekah Degree on September 20, 1851. This degree is based on the teachings found in the Holy Bible, and was written by the Honorable Schuyler Colfax who was Vice President of the United States during the period 1868-1873. Odd Fellows and Rebekahs were also the first fraternal organization to establish homes for our senior members and for orphaned children.”

While there are some newer graves here, the vast majority of them are older. This place reminds me of why I do not wish to be buried. I do not want to lie forgotten in some desolate place with only dried flowers and tall weeds for company.

Pet's Rest Cemetery, Colma, California

2010-01-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Colma is located about 20 miles south of San Francisco. It is known as “The City of the Silent” or “City of Souls” as it has the greatest concentration of cemeteries in the area. This is because in the early part of the twentieth century, the good people of San Francisco found themselves in a real-estate crisis. Remember, in 1849 there was a little thing called the Gold Rush which made the little town of Yerba Buena the most popular travel destination in the country. Increasing property values made all that empty space reserved for cemeteries very inviting to ambitious real estate developers. After all, dead people don't pay rent. In 1900, San Francisco passed an ordinance banning the construction of any more cemeteries within the city limits. Then, in 1912, they added insult to injury and forcibly relocated the inhabitants of its existing cemeteries to its less-prestigious neighbor to the south, Colma, known then as Lawndale. They told people it was for health reasons, but I think we can safely say that was a fib.

Today, there are only two cemeteries remaining within the borders of the city and county of San Francisco: the San Francisco National Cemetery, located in the Presidio, and Mission Dolores. Apparently, they missed a few people in the move, though. During the renovation of the Palace of the Legion of Honor, workers stumbled across some Gold-Rush era graves that had been left behind. Turns out this ground was once a potter's field for the City of San Francisco. It was called City Cemetery, or Golden Gate Cemetery. According to this fascinating article, there may still be some remains at the site. This is a very interesting article, I highly recommend reading it. (After you're done with my blog, of course.) It gives the locations of the defunct cemeteries from which came the future residents of Colma.

The current population of Colma is listed as approximately 1600 (living) and over 1.5 million (deceased). There are 16 cemeteries located in Colma, among them Cypress Lawn, Holy Cross, Hills of Eternity, Woodlawn and numerous ethnic and faith-specific burial grounds. Many famous folk call Colma their final resting place: William Randolph Hearst, Joe DiMaggio, Wyatt Earp, Charles De Young, William Henry Crocker, Abigail Folger, Bill Graham and that most eccentric of San Francisco characters, Emperor Norton. Colma has even achieved pop culture status. It is the subject of a 2004 documentary, A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco’s Lost Cemeteries and Colma, the Musical (2006).

I plan to visit many of these cemeteries over the next few months, but I begin my sojourn through the City of the Dead by visiting the only cemetery dedicated to our dearly departed animal companions.

Pet's Rest is a small cemetery. When you enter, the first thing you see is this brightly-colored mural depicting the passage of our pets to the afterlife. I like the St. Bernard Dog leading the way.

Not much in symbolism here. The gravesites reflect the preferences of the bereaved owners. What affected me was the devotion to the animals.

The markers ranged from the elaborate to the very simple.

There was quite a lot of lovely statuary.

Here's St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. No pet cemetery would be complete without him.

Broken column!

Every type of pet is welcome here.

Where there is one...

There is always the other.

This headstone literally reduced me to tears.

I stood in the cemetery crying like a baby. I never get this emotional in the human cemeteries I visit. I wonder what that says about me?

Pine Grove Cemetery, Nevada City, California

2009-12-05T22:44:00.000-08:00

I made another trip to the Sierra Foothills recently. This area is full of interesting cemeteries. Despite having been to Nevada City several times before, I had never been to Pine Grove Cemetery. It is truly lovely place.

Many of the symbols here are familiar. There are a lot of draped urns and interlocked hands.

A downward pointing hand represents the Hand of God. There was a time when you were not allowed to depict the image of God, so the hand was as close as the carver could get.

There are some new ones, as well. In this picture, you can see a tombstone topped with an open book. Closed books indicate a life ended, a story told. Open books are thought to represent the Bible.

I have come to the conclusion that the Sierra Foothills are a major hub for Freemasonry in California. They are all over the place. After saying in an earlier entry that I had never seen a Masonic keystone before, look what I found. Here's a whole flock of them in their own private enclosure, complete with Masonic pyramid.

A cross paired with a crown is also a Masonic symbol. When used in this manner, the crown stands for victory and the cross for Christianity. Its use on a tombtone means that the deceased was a member of the York Rite Masons, a branch of Masonry closely associated with the Knights Templar.

Another Templar symbol is the Maltese cross. This particular one has a Latin cross enclosed within it. The Latin cross is the most familiar symbol of Christianity.

The neatest symbol I saw in this cemetery is this one. I think it is meant to be the all-seeing eye, yet another Masonic symbol. If it looks familiar, check out the back of the $1 bill. When used with the three-link chain, however, it denotes the grave of a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, known as the "poor man's Freemasonry". See what I mean? Everywhere.

One of the most striking features of this cemetery is the amazing ironwork that surrounds many of the plots.

The detail on this gate is incredible. Willow trees and lambs are worked into the design, indicating that these are the graves of children.

Many of the headstones are so old as to be illegible.

This was the oldest legible stone I could find. This grave marker is probably older, but I couldn't read it:

In this cemetery I found something I had never seen before: monuments that appeared to be made of metal, yet were very old. They held extraordinary detail.

After doing some research, I discovered these tombstone are made of cast zinc! The coating is zinc carbonate, which is highly rust-resistant. Apparently, these monuments were not popular, and the "white bronze" label was used to boost their appeal. The Western White Bronze Company of Des Moines closed its doors in 1908. For a fascinating and detailed analysis of these metal monuments, check out this web page.

This is the most unusual tombstone I have ever seen. I can only offer a theory as to its meaning. The diamond-shaped portion fits into the lower half using a V-shaped protrubance. If you bisect the diamond, you are left with two triangles. The bottom triangle is the ancient symbol of the sacred feminine, the Chalice. The upper triangle equates to the masculine symbol of the Blade. When the two symbols fit together, they indicate the marriage of male and female into a perfect partnership: two halves of the same whole. This is my personal theory, but if my interpretation is correct, this is the only tombstone I have ever come across with purely Pagan symbolism.

I could write about this cemetery forever. It is definitely one of the most fascinating and symbol-rich I have visited so far. I highly recommend it anyone who enjoys crawling through graveyards. Here are some last images of this extraordinary place.

Look! The grave of Sherlock Holmes? Probably not, but wouldn't be magical if it were true?

Death's Day

2009-10-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

October 31 is the festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-en). It is the end of the yearly cycle, when the earth and her inhabitants enter the cold, dark winter and await the coming of spring. It is the beginning of the Celtic New Year, and one of the most sacred days on the pagan calendar. It is a day for communing with the spirits of our ancestors, asking for aid or advice or simply wishing them well in their journey through the afterlife.

The mundane world knows this day as Halloween, or Hallowe’en, a contraction of All Hallow’s Eve. The holiday begins at sundown and continues through November 2, celebrated in Mexico as the Day of the Dead.

Many of the customs associated with Halloween originate in pagan practices. Lanterns were carved out of gourds or squash and put in windows to light the way for the spirits. This evolved into the Jack O’ Lantern. People dressed in costumes to disguise themselves in hopes of fooling harmful spirits into passing them over when out to make mischief among the living. Children would go door-to-door asking for treats in return for not playing tricks on their neighbors. Sound familiar?

Another custom is to prepare food to be consumed as sustenance for the spirits as they pass by. Some people go so far as to set an extra place at the dinner table for their dearly departed ancestors and friends. Popular foods are apples, cider or ale and bread. In Mexico and other Latin countries, families have picnics at the gravesites of their loved ones, often eating the favorite foods of the dead and leaving offerings of the food behind to be “eaten”.

Traditions holds that on this day the veil between the spirit world and the mundane world is at its thinnest, allowing the spirits free passage between the two. It also allows us to communicate with those who have passed, ask their counsel and hope they will pass on some of the wisdom they accumulated in their own long lives. It is a good night for divination rituals of all kinds. If you have any questions about how the coming year will go for you, now is the time to ask.

I celebrate this day the way most people do: I carve pumpkins, decorate my house with bats, skulls, ghosts and ghouls, and hand out candy to the neighborhood children when they come to the door. On November 1, I make an altar dedicated to the spirits of those I have known who have passed. I often include a remembrance of all those who suffer and die needlessly for their untraditional beliefs, such as all the victims of the Salem Witch Trials.

My altar usually looks like this:

Anubis is represented, because he is the lord of the underworld and this is an important day for him. The Nile River Goddess is also there, opposite him. She represents the ongoing cycle of life, death and rebirth. I decorate the altar with sprigs of rosemary, the herb of remembrance, and marigolds, flowers often associated with the dead. The skulls represent the voices of the dead, and the knowledge they have to bequeath to us.

I prepare a meal, which consists of bread, apple juice (I am teetotaler so the spirits don’t get ale from me.) and an apple. Apples stand for new beginnings and rebirth. For this reason, they are also traditionally eaten on May Day, or Beltane, the holiday directly opposite Samhain on the pagan calendar. I make a spirit candle to let the spirits know there is a friendly stop for them on their journey.

Samhain is one of the oldest holidays we humans celebrate. It allows us to get in touch with our mortality, broadens our minds and inspires us with courage to face a continuing life in an alternate plane of existence. When you think of how many other “lives” we may have, some of the things we think are so important don’t really seem like a such a big deal, after all. As our modern society gets farther and farther away from its roots, the origins of this day, and all the old celebrations, fade into obscurity. I’m doing my part. As long as someone continues to celebrate these old holidays, the old traditions will stay with us. They will never die.

Happy Hallowe’en.

Smartsville Cemetery, Smartsville, California

2009-10-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

Continuing my gold rush theme, I visited Smartsville Cemetery in Yuba County, California. This town was once called Smartville, but it is now Smartsville. It was named after Jim Smart, a local hotelier. The U.S. Post Office eliminated the “s” in 1909. The town regained its “s” in August 2008 and it’s been Smartsville ever since. My town is just too boring.

Smartsville loaned its name to the “Smartville Complex” (note the lack of “s”), which is a geologic feature of the Sierra Nevada area. Its eastern boundary marks the easternmost end of the Mother Lode, the gold-bearing rocks without which California might not be a state. (We all know the only reason California was allowed to join the union was because of the gold in them thar hills.) It is also known as the “Smartville Block” or the “Smartville Intrusive Complex”. This means that the chunk of rock constituting the Smartville Complex got in the way of the collision between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. As a result of being subjected to enormous amounts of heat and pressure, hot mineral-bearing water was driven through fissures in the rock. When the water cooled, the minerals therein precipitated out and were deposited in veins running through the granite bedrock which became the Sierra Nevada Mountains. One of these minerals was gold. And the rest, as they say, is history. Geology lesson in a nutshell. (I can never, ever, just walk past a rock without checking it out and big holes in the ground are endlessly fascinating.)

In addition to its peek-a-boo “s”, Smartsville possesses a very cool historic cemetery.

Spread out under the oaks, the cemetery attracts all sorts of visitors. Even Omar likes tombstones. Omar likes a lot of things.

There are familiar symbols here: the draped urn

The broken column

Here's a nice example of joined hands.

This usually indicated matrimony. If you look closely at the cuffs on the sleeves, you can see that one appears masculine and the other feminine. The letters "FLT" stand for Friendship, Love and Truth. It is the motto of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows . They are also known as the "Three-Link Fraternity" because of thier symbol of three links of chain. Perhaps they were considred odd because of their love of cemeteries? When a new Odd Fellows lodge was established, the first order of business was often to buy cemetery plots or even create a new cemetery where their members could be buried. Odd, indeed.

This tombstone features a willow tree. Weeping willows were often associated with mourning and in several cultures are also considered the tree of immortality.

Here's the grave of a military man.

That is most likely his infantry division.

This man belonged to the Loyal Order of the Moose, whimsical fraternal organization founded in 1888 well, just because. Later, a man by the name of James L. Davis got himself elected Supreme Organizer. He thought of the idea of giving "protection" to the family of every man who joined. This simply meant that if the gentleman became ill or disabled or died, his family would be provided for in perpetuity. His sales pitch worked, for by 1928 there were over 650,000 active members. Compare that to the mere 247 when Davis himself joined. Today, there are over 1.8 million.

Here's an impressive one and the first I have seen. The letters stand for "Hiram The Widow's Son Sent To King Solomon". They are enclosed within a keystone. This man is buried under the Masonic Mark of an Ancient Grand Master.

In contrast with this, some tombstones are very simple.

This is a painted cast iron tassell. I've never seen one before and I think it is the coolest thing in this very cool cemetery.

Soledad Cemetery, Soledad, California

2009-09-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

Soledad is a town near Monterey, California. John Steinbeck made Soledad famous in his novel Of Mice and Men. I’m glad someone did, because there is really no other reason to go to Soledad unless you are a) a wine drinker, b) a fan of caves, c) lost trying to find your way to Solvang or d) a convict. If you like wine, Soledad is located in the grape-growing belt of Central California and thus is surrounded by vineyards and wineries. There is a mission: Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, founded in 1791 and one of California’s many historic missions. Pinnacles National Monument is nearby, with hiking trails, talus caves and condors. There are not one but TWO prisons in Soledad: the Salinas Valley State Prison and Soledad Prison – not really tourist attractions but good to know if you are staying in the area. Picking up hitchhikers is never a good idea but especially not in Soledad. Soledad is Spanish for solitary and believe me, you do not have to be in prison to feel alone in Soledad.

But, Soledad does have a fine little cemetery.

Lots of requisite angels.

My favorite: the dramtaic weeping angel.

Here's a coy little cherub.

Here is a very unusual headstone with a representation of rosary beads.

No comment.

Ditto.

I have absolutely nothing to say about this headstone except that he was an American Freemason. British Masons do not use the "G" in their symbol. Like almost everything about the Freemasons, the exact meaning of the "G" is unclear, but it is thought to represent God or geometry, both revered by the Masons.

This five-pointed star has many meanings. It is a very old symbol. Here, it is hard to make out the specific interpretation of this one, but it could stand for a number of societies for women, including the Order of the Eastern Star, a female-only offshoot of the Freemasons.

Grave markers carved in the shape of trees or stumps were popular in Victorian times. They were a product of the rusticity movement. They are also used very frequently to mark the grave of a member of the Woodsmen of the World. Members received insurance-like benefits from the organization, including, according to their bylaws, a tombstone upon their death.

Here is an example of a sarcophagus tomb. Most sarcophagus tombs do not actually contain bodies. I did not get close enough to find out if this one does.

Once you enter Soledad, it is very hard to leave again.

Special News Update! ME Party!

2009-09-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

The ME's come to town. Now this is an event I could get into. Too bad it's over. No crashing opportunities. I miss all the fun. I need a new job.

Historic Rough and Ready Cemetery, Rough and Ready, California

2009-09-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

Rough and Ready is a mining town in the heart of Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. The town was born in 1849 and named for “Old Rough and Ready” Zachary Taylor. The founder of the town, Capt. A.A. Townsend, served under Taylor in the Mexican War. Rough and Ready was actually an independent republic for all of two months in 1850. The miners who inhabited the town were furious at the imposition of a mining tax and voted to secede from the United States on April 7, 1850. They elected themselves a president and wrote a constitution. By July 4, though, the idea had lost its charm, and the Stars and Bars flew from the flagpole in the center of town and no one seemed to mind.

This cemetery's personality is as unique as the town's. The gravestones are tucked under spreading oak trees under the hot California sun. The graves here are original and sometimes whimsical. Some go out of their way to honor the special quirks or hobbies of the deceased.

I believe these are flower buds. They represent the fragility of life and are often depicted as broken, meaning a life cut short too soon. For this reason, they are often found on the headstones of children. Some of the saddest graves are those of children.

Here’s a nice dove. The dove is the symbol of peace and is associated with the Holy Spirit in the Christian tradition.

This is my favorite headstone in this cemetery. The hand pointed upwards indicates that the soul has risen to heaven, whatever form heaven may take.

Brompton Cemetery, London, England

2009-09-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new Blog! I know that death is an uncomfortable subject for some, but we all have to die some day, so I figure I’d better get as comfortable as I can with the idea. It might make the transition a little easier.

My focus will be on cemeteries I visit, tombstone art and symbolism (a fascinating subject all its own) and anything else I feel would fit in.

My first stop is Brompton Cemetery in London, England. Brompton opened in 1840. It was established as part of an initiative to create a ring of seven “modern” cemeteries around London. The other cemeteries in this group are: Kensal Green, West Norwood, Highgate, Abney Park, Nunhead and Tower Hamlets. They are known as the “Magnificent Seven”. HA! The movie buff in me rejoices. Brompton is still used for burials, but is actually under the care of the Royal Parks of London. It is located in Kensington in South West London.

The view from outside the fence.

A sea of crosses.

The cemetery is very crowded.

The broken column symbolizes a life cut short.

This was the most interesting inscription. I neglected to get this chap’s name, but he was an Egyptologist.

A pair of draped urns. These urns were vey popular in the mid-ninteenth century, which is interesting, since most people were buried rather than cremated. Nevertheless, here they are. The drape over the urn is thought to be a symbol of reverance.

This is a good example of a Chi-Rho emblem. The Chi-Rho is the oldest emblem in Christianity, Chi and Rho are the first letters in the name Jesus Christ when written in Greek. When joined together as these are, it resembles the Latin word for "peace": pax. This example incorporates the Alpha and the Omega, first and last letters of the Greek alphabet: the beginning and the end.

What would a cemetery be without angels?

Not an angel, but very nice.

As I left the cemetery, I was able to capture this final, very Edgar Allan Poe-ish image: