Historical Tombstones

I spoke earlier about the impending sale of our historical Warwick church and schoolhouse, the latter of which dates back to 1873. And I mentioned the cemetery across the street. Susan and I have discussed the virtues of cremation vs. cemeteries, she in favor of the former and I the later.

Last summer we strolled through the local cemetery, amazed at the age of some of the tombstones. I vowed to come back with my camera and take pictures. It took a year, but I finally did it and was shocked at how ill kempt the place is. If this is the fate of a cemetery I may be burried in, I may reconsider my stance. The tombstone on the right dates from 1878. The one on the left is broken but looks like William was a soldier in an unreadable division; others are covered in weeds.

As I was walking among the tombstones and weeds, my foot fell into a hole. I hope it was merely the hole made by the marker and not a grave. I shudder to think about that.

Warwick is an historic town and the cemetery contains tombstones from soldiers who died during the Civil War, children who died too early, women who supported their men at war. There’s a current tombstone commemorating soldiers who took part in the Revolutionary War. It is a shame to envision a time when these monuments to our past are destroyed either intentionally or through neglect.

I know I’m pontificating here, but for some reason the neglect of the cemetery really got to me. I’m almost tempted to systematically take pictures of every tombstone vs. my random wanderings. This way at least there will be a record.

I’ll post more photos on Facebook shortly, since I took about 30 of them, each more interesting than the previous one.