Boonslick Cemeteries -- Chapter 10 -- Granite, Metal and Later Motifs

I. THE PERMANENCE OF GRANITE AND THE TRANSITION
     Granite replaced marble as the choice for gravestones because it conformed to the late nineteenth century ideal of permanence and strength. No longer did poetry and weeping seem necessary. Instead, the family as a unit desired a monument reflecting their earthly status. Granite offered the chance to be commemorated forever with an igneous stone usually quarried in Vermont although the color might vary. During the 1890's, the idea of perpetual care (endowment) funds for cemeteries sprang into existence as well. With an endowment, the care of the graves was relieved from family responsibility (where favoritism or neglect could be evident) to professionals hired to keep the burial grounds in manicured condition. The monuments assume even greater mass and height. Railroads delivered these gravestones to the most remote town or hamlet and the gradual death of the generation of monument men who were carving in marble meant that the market shifted to monument companies which merely sold the gravestone and erected it, but it was carved elsewhere. The purse became the controlling factor in gravestone selection, rather than the creative and artistic ability of a local sculptor.

     The transition from marble to granite or other extremely hard stone was gradual, like any transition. But it was steady and eventually marble was no longer used. One of the most popular transition gravestones features a draped column with a closed Bible on top (Illustration 207). These gravestones dot the Boonslick landscape in the late 1880's and 1890's. Sometimes two, closed books were placed on top and the fringe size varied, but the basics remained the same.

     Christian iconography continued in gravestones carved in high relief. Excellent examples that illustrate not only this iconography, but also the transition from locally carved to mass produced, are two gravestones in New Hope Baptist Church Graveyard (H17) in Howard County. The 1900 gravestone to Mary Feland (Illustration 208) features an open gate with a raised curtain withdrawn into a proscenium arch capped by a keystone Composite columns hold this arch in position. A cross and crown occupy center stage. The top of the gravestone is draped. A tiled floor leads the viewer's eye through the open gate. The poem underneath contains traditional terminology and reads:

                         "Like a star of the morning in its route
                         Like a sun in the Bible to my soul,
                         Shining clear on the way of love and duty
                         As I hasten on my Journey to the goal."

    The 1906 gravestone to Susie Quinly is identical except for the pictorial area, showing that these were standard gravestones that were ordered with different reliefs (Illustration 209). Once again, the arch, keystone, and columns reveal a rising curtain while in center stage a young woman clings to a cross while standing upon a cloud. With blowing hair and billowing skirts, she matches the description from the popular hymn, Rock of Ages, which states:

                     " Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I
                     cling; Naked, come to thee for dress; Helpless look to
                     thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me,
                     Savior, or I die."¹

    The word "Rock of Ages" is inscribed beneath the relief and "Life, Joy, Truth" are inscribed in the column bases and keystone. In the six years between the gravestones, the poem has disappeared.

     Other transitional, granite gravestones contain this religious theme, but are not carved in relief, being inscribed instead. An excellent example of this motif is found at Dripping Springs (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (B22) in Boone County (Illustration 210). Here the gravestone to Lucy Pearl Alspaw, 1904, shows the composite columns, the arch is now a floral garland wreath in place of a keystone, and the open gate with a plain banner in center stage. Centered in the gravestone, the tiled floor assumes a position of importance lacking in the gravestones discussed above. The final phase of this design can be seen at Mt. Pisgah Graveyard (B7), which is actually in Audrain County, but which was the major burial ground for the northern Boone County residents of Sturgeon during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Here in 1916, Mayme Keith was buried (Illustration 211). The front of this granite block has been smoothed while the rest remains rough hewn. The composite columns now extend the entire length of the sides and hold up a small arched top which is fancifully decorated. Gone is the central gate and floor. Instead, the vital statistics of the deceased are carved in the area.

     For those people who preferred a monument with classical roots, the monument companies offered a vast array. Rectangular pedestals with draped, Grecian urns in granite instead of marble, were naturally popular because only the medium was different. However, these newer gravestones lacked the marble poetry, reflecting their hardness. The double gravestone to Adam and Isabella Hendrix (Illustration 212) in the Fayette Cemetery (H64), in Howard County shows this motif complete with a granite sarcophagus lid with acroteria. Adam Hendrix was a Fayette banker and Isabella Hendrix was a noted Methodist church volunteer. Their son became a Methodist bishop and their home is now the Alumni Building for Central Methodist College. This is mentioned because for this couple their life was wrapped up in their religious faith; yet they saw nothing amiss with this classical type of gravestone.

     Many family gravestones were centered on the lot by the turn of the century and then smaller gravestones were placed at the head of the individual graves. These large monuments often combined different themes as can be seen in the Finks gravestone (Illustration 213) in Roanoke Cemetery (H5) in Howard County. Here a rough hewn gravestone features a central scroll with a Masonic emblem, a composite Corinthian column to the right and a ribboned palm branch to the left. The palm branches were popular during Puritan days and symbolized the palm of Victory.2 On Puritan gravestones usually the hand of God could be seen holding the palm. Here a ribbon serves the function. Other gravestones of this era might contain IOOF chains or flowers or some other fraternity or sorority symbol. The gravestone might be an unusual color. The gravestone to the Nixon family (Illustration 214) in Pilot Grove Cemetery (C37) in Cooper County is a shade of dark, jade green.

     For limited budgets, the Victorian world offered several standard gravestones which were repeatedly placed throughout the Boonslick (Illustration 215). A typical example is the gravestone to W. P. and Martha S. Delano in Pilot Grove Municipal Cemetery (C37) in Cooper County. Martha died in 1889 and W. P. lived until 1914; the gravestone was obviously erected after Martha died as the death date for W. P. is carved differently. A square column, the top is capped with a bell like object upon which sits another abstracted Grecian urn. Another common gravestone featured a round globe sitting upon a cupped depression (Illustration 216). This motif was used in the marble gravestone to Leona Havter (Illustration 156 and IIlustration 157) in Boonsboro (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard dating from 1863, but in these gravestones the globes or balls become the decoration in themselves.

II. THE URGE TO AGGRANDIZE
     Victorians were excessive. Their homes were large and rambling, their funerals were splendid but their years of mourning were unending, and even their gravestones became monuments to money. The results could be restrained (Illustration 217) as shown in the gravestone to the Hulz family in Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County or as eclectic as the bulbous and ponderous gravestone to James and Sarah Turner (Illustration 218) in Mt. Pisgah Cemetery (B7). Here a ponderous gazebo overpowers a square pedestal, a relic carried forward from the marble columns of the past. Not all of this type were so ponderous. Three gravestones to the Lowry family (Illustration 219) show how the same style could feature some restraint. These were made by E. Farley of Columbia which may account for their appearance because he was classically trained.

     For those who desired height, the granite column to James and Mary Estill (Illustration 220) in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (H71) near New Franklin serves as an excellent example. Capped with the standard, draped Grecian urn, the column is about twice the height of marble columns of the same style. Granite columns and obelisks of this type can be found over the entire Boonslick region. All share the same sense of height and the urge to aggrandize since they are usually placed prominently upon a lot close to the road.

     For those who sought uniqueness and had the necessary funds, several options were available. The gravestone could be as simple as the 1912 gravestone (Illustration 221) to James O. Finks in Washington Cemetery (H47) in Glasgow in Howard County. Here a laurel wreath rests upon ferns with a festooned ribbon. The 1882 gravestone (Illustration 222) to Martha Gordon Clinkscales in Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County, is a large capped Grecian urn placed upon a rock pile with floral wreaths, scrolls, and drapery. The Richardsonian Romanesque impulse in the rock pile contrasts with the delicate arrangement of the floral wreath and the other flowers festooning the monument. The daughter of an old Columbia family and the wife of another successful Columbia citizen, Martha's gravestone reveals a shift from purely classical to a varied format.

     Emphasis upon the Classical returns in 1912 in the twenty foot tall monument erected to Laura Speed Elliott (Illustration 223), in Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Boonville in Cooper County. A Roman sarcophagus rests upon four Doric columns with Greek meanders underneath, garlands, and a large Ionic volute at the top. The junior high school in Boonville is named for this Cooper County women who came from the family that settled the village of Speed. Thus, money was easily available to purchase the type of gravestone desired.

III. GRAVESTONE MOTIFS
     These motifs are numbered as found in Table 3 in Chapter 6 where the different motifs of gravestones are discussed and categorized.

17. FEMALE FIGURES
     As shown in Table 3, around the turn of the century, female figures appear on gravestones in the Boonslick region. Prior to this time, two marble statues had already been erected (Illustration 39 and Illustration154). Chapter 7 discusses the possible Bingham connection to one of these monuments. These later, mass produced female figures are carved in a much harder stone than the monuments of Bingham's time. The 1896 monument to the Massie family (Illustration 224) in Washington Cemetery (H47) in Glasgow in Howard County is typical. A woman dressed in ancient Grecian clothing with sandals and long hair, sits upon a bench. Her left hand is placed on her cheek in the pose of the Thinker by Rodin. In the right hand she holds the traditional floral, funeral wreath. She is not crying, but is reflecting. Larger than lifesize, the placement of this gravestone on top of the hill immediately inside and to the left of the front gate gives double visibility and this placement was no doubt chosen with the urge to aggrandize in mind.

     Three young women in the Boonslick were immortalized by their parents and husband with statues of a young female placed upon their graves. The best example (Illustration 225) is the gravestone to Magdalene Chinn in Rocheport Cemetery (B34) in Boone County. She died in 1912; the gravestone sits upon a rusticated base with her name and vital statistics underneath the actual sculpture. A young woman stands in front of a rocky craig, wearing loose flowing clothing. Body form is clearly delineated as her knee and leg are visible. She looks downward and carries a bouquet in her right hand. A headband around her forehead accents her hair. She is barefooted and carefully steps upon the rocks.

     In Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Boonville in Cooper County, three female figures stand on three adjacent lots (Illustration 226). These statues were used in an essay written by Marie Bell McCoy who grew up nearby.

     The final two, female figures are also found in Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) (Illustration 227 and Illustration 228). These were erected by two sisters, Nadine Nelson Leonard and Margaret Nelson Stephens Johnston. Their ancestors included the Wyan and Gibson, as well as the Nelson, Stephens and Leonard families, who were instrumental in the establishment of cemeteries in Boonville. Nadine built Ravenswood, an extravagant mansion twelve miles south of Boonville in Cooper County while Margaret married Lon V. Stephens and became First Lady of Missouri around 1900. Both women outlived their spouses and were in charge of the construction of these monuments featuring female figures. Nadine Nelson Leonard had a mausoleum placed underground with the section above ground featuring a young woman pensively leaning against the monument tablet. In 1923, Margaret Nelson Stephens erected only a large gravestone at the head of the grave. She chose a granite monument with the inscription written on the east side. The gravestone sits upon a granite base that features steps. On top of the gravestone sits a woman in antique dress with her hands quietly folded in her lap. Her hair is rolled up into a headband and is not long like the other female figures in the Boonslick. The writing underneath her states, "Weeping may endure for a night. But joy cometh in the morning." The emphasis is rapidly turning to the twentieth century ideal of invisible death. No longer is the message one of grief for years, with all the attendant rites of mourning; instead, the message proclaimed is that joy will shortly return. For Margaret this was true. Shortly after erecting this gravestone, she married a man thirty years her junior and moved to Florida where she already spent the winters. Two years later, she died and was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery.⁴ In keeping with the standards of family unity and appearance still desired in the Boonslick in 1929, Margaret's last name from her second marriage was omitted from the gravestone and is only written in the office records; it does not show in the cemetery.

     The use of female figures on these gravestones follows the trend of using female figures as allegories. This was a well established custom; the differences came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century use of these female figures as allegories of purity and virtue. As defined by the Victorian world view, the role of women in the late nineteenth century was restricted to reproduction and family life. Young women were especially adulated since they contained the greatest potential for reproduction. The Gibson girl was a popular female figure, always young and virtuous, even if flirtatious. Ironically, the more limited the world became for women, the more they were allegorized as ethereal creatures.⁵ The decade of the 1920's changed this perspective and the last female figure in the Boonslick dates from 1923 and was erected by an older widow, Margaret Nelson Stephens who then promptly remarried. This last female figure is a mature woman, not a young female.

18. METAL MONUMENTS (GRAVESTONES)
     Twelve monuments (gravestones) made of metal were bought in the three county Boonslick area in the period 1888 through 1912. Each county contains monuments made of metal. Barbara Rotundo has written an excellent article, "Monumental Bronze: A Representative American Company," which is in the newly published Cemeteries and Gravemarkers: Voices of American Culture, edited by Richard Meyer. Rotundo explains that the common term for these gravestones is "white bronze", but that they are actually pure zinc.⁶ Salesmen filled orders and each order was custom made by putting together several mass produced pieces, identical in concept to pattern book houses and marble columned gravestones. Only the medium was metal. The disadvantage was that people could only look at a catalogue unless there was already a monument of this type nearby.

     But to many citizens, this metal monument represented progress and an improvement over Nature, the opposite of Romanticism. This belief was so prevalent that it is even discussed in the popular turn of the century novel, Laddie, by Gene Stratton-Porter. This book was especially recommended for young women to read and shows the importance placed upon cemeteries as part of the female role. The gravestone discussion follows:

The discussion continues and Mrs. Freshett reveals that she desires to purchase one for her dead son, Henry, if everybody else in the neighborhood does so Henry will have the same respect as the others in the cemetery. She had been saving money to buy her living daughter an organ, but she could use it for a metal grave cover if needed. The Mother solves the dilemma by saying,:

The mother is definitely practical, but the novel points up the social status seeking of the late nineteenth cemeteries.

Yet, the styles offered in the catalogues from the monument companies were always conservative and ranged from plain tablets, to inverted torches discussed earlier, to Bibles. Of the twelve monuments in the Boonslick, seven are of standard full size of at least six feet in height while five are smaller. The Western White Monument Company, Des Moines, Iowa, which was the source for all the signed, white bronze monuments in the Boonslick began production in 1886.⁸ Table 4 shows these unusual grave markers.

TABLE 4 METAL MONUMENTS
Cemetery	Person Commemorated	Date*
Union Graveyard (B3)	Charlie & Bessie Tatum (brother & sister)	1890
Mt. Pisgah Graveyard (B7)	John Rucker	1889
Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10)	Perry and Kueckelhan families 3 metal markers	1890*
New Salem Baptist Church Graveyard (B60)	Martin family	1900*
Lamine Graveyard (C6)	Minnie Harris	1889
Boonville Catholic Cemetery (C11)	John & Mary Foley	1889
Washington Cemetery (H47)	Thomas & Ann Morehead	1902
Richland (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (H51)	John Wells	1897
Locust Grove Baptist Graveyard (B10)	Plaque Removed	No Date
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (H71)	Our Darling

*Date is approximate since the plaques could be inserted into the metal marker as needed and thus several probably were added at a later date.

The largest of these white bronze monuments is designed for Major John Fleming Rucker (Illustration 229) and can be found in Mt. Pisgah Graveyard (B7). This metal obelisk features a different panel on each of the four sides. The panels contain an anchor, flowers, Grecian women, and the Masonic emblem. Plus, there is tasseled drapery, a rusticated base, abstracted foliage, and Rucker's name in high relief formed to look like wooden sticks. Not to be outdone, the poem at the bottom reads:

The Kueckelhan family, which was one of the three founding families of Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Cooper County, also had a white bronze monument. A monument made by Western White Bronze Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, graces the grave in Lamine Graveyard (C6) of Minnie Lee Harris who died in 1889 (Illustration 230). This particular monument is eight feet tall and more refined than the monument to Major John Rucker. A traditional obelisk capped by an urn rises from a square pedestal, only in metal instead of marble. A metal rusticated base is at the bottom and throughout arabesque scrolling provides accents. In the Catholic Cemetery and Boonville Reformatory Burial Ground (C11) in Cooper County, a six foot metal monument done in the traditions of those above is topped with a cross, showing that white bronze could be adapted to any religious group.

The smaller, metal monuments mark the graves of both adults and children. One says simply, "Our Darling," and nothing else. One three foot monument to the Tatum children in Union Graveyard (B3) in Boone County is almost identical to the monument to Minnie Lee Harris, only three feet in height, rather than eight feet. Some illness must have killed Charlie D. and Bessie E. Tatum in August 1890. Teen aged brother and sister, their grieving family erected a double metal monument to them with a long song of praise:

At Richland (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (H51), the monument to John Wells (Figure #212) is also three feet tall and much squatter. The entire surface of this monument looks like a large, rough hewn stone block, an interesting Victorian use of metal to replicate stone. In Washington Cemetery (H47) in Glasgow in Howard County, Thomas and Ann Morehead have a white bronze, three foot tall, metal monument with rounded windows containing the vital statistics with an abstracted snowflake above (Illustration 231). This metal monument shows how the individual plates were screwed into position as seen by the screws above the names. This has proven to be one of the worst problems with this type of monument because often there is rusting or moisture around the screws.

Just as gravestones featured female figures, white bronze, metal monuments did not want to be outdone. The 1912 monument to the Martin family (Illustration 232) in New Salem Baptist Church Graveyard (B60) in Boone County reveals a white bronze monument shaped like a granite, Roman sarcophagus with composite columns, rusticated base, stick lettering for the name, and a raised sarcophagus lid. On top of the lid, a winged angel kneels with her hands folded in prayer and her right elbow on her upraised, right knee. Even the feathers of her wings are clearly delineated. She rests upon a pile of rocks, probably another reference to the Rock of Ages theme which was so popular during this time period (Illustration 233).

19. THE AGRARIAN IDEAL: WOODMEN OF THE WORLD
As the world of the late nineteenth century shifted more and more from an agrarian base before the War Between the States to an industrial nation by World War I, the country began to idealize a world already slipping from grasp. Naturally, farmers were particularly distressed by this change and sought ways to idealize rural life. Fitting well into this climate of idealization was Joseph Cullen Root of Lyons, Iowa, who organized the fraternity, the Modern Woodmen of the World. Root was a small businessman and a lawyer who had devoted his energies to fraternalism throughout his career. He designed an initiation with scenes set in a forest and a Roman court. By chance, he heard a sermon about a man clearing a forest, and from it he named his new group. Being liberal in theology, he intended to found a fraternity that would bind together Protestant, Catholic and Jew. In 1883, he began his crusade with a limited solicitation to the twelve "healthiest" states of the union (healthiest was defined by Root as those with the strongest agrarian culture): Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, North and South Dakota, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio. Because he believed that physically fit members could be found only in small towns and on farms (in keeping with the idealization of rural life already in progress around the country), Root refused membership to men in cities such as Chicago or St. Louis even though their states had chapters. Membership was limited to white males between 18 and 45, and the membership list specifically excluded men who followed certain professions, including saloon bartender, professional football player, railway engineer, and a soldier in the regular army in times of war. One of the main benefits of this organization was the life insurance policy available to members. By 1889, 40,000 people had purchased this option.

The Modern Woodmen of the World fraternity underwent an internal fight and in 1890 Root was deposed. He moved to Omaha where he set up a group known as Woodmen of the World.
This group also sold life insurance and gravestones.⁹

     "The membership creed of both fraternities supported the concept of a right to the dignity of a marked grave. A policyholder could, therefore, arrange to have a monument engraved with the Woodmen of the World logo erected on his grave, the cost covered by a modest rider on the holder's insurance policy."¹⁰
     In the Boonslick, the two competing fraternities joined together and had prosperous camps, as local chapters were called, in the Boonslick region. Pictures show the members enjoying picnics near Gooch's Mill in Cooper County (Illustration 234). Like the fraternity, the gravestones epitomized the virtues of a naturally growing, rural world, ironically covering the graves of the very segment of the society rapidly plowing up every piece of uncultivated land.

     Because of the symbolism of the fraternity, the gravestones featured the theme of trees and Nature. The earliest gravestone is a cenotaph to four members of the Rollins family (Illustration 235) in Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County. The earliest member died in 1842 and the last in 1886, the apparent year the gravestone was erected. There is no Woodmen of the World or Modern Woodmen of the World logo, but these early gravestones do not features such symbols. The tree trunk alone denotes the fraternal organization. A cut stump rests upon a pile of rocks upon which ferns are growing. Centered in the middle of the base of each of the four sides of these rocks are medallions filled with information about the four members of the Rollins family. Climbing up the tree stump are vines while lilies sprout at the base of the tree. Throughout the trunk, branches have been loped off. The idea of branches being loped off was popular in the literature of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Lovers in novels and magazine articles often talked about parting from each other for a set period of time with the statement that they were "loping off the branches" in order to have better fruit in the future.¹¹
     This concept is continued in the 1889 memorial gravestone to Agnes Green Walker at Pleasant Green United Methodist Church Graveyard (C49) in Cooper County (Illustration 236). Here the tree trunk is compressed into a gravestone only two feet tall and one and one half feet wide at the base, a very small size. The trunk is devoid of foliage, but does have vines with no greenery roped around the tree. The rock base has regular vines.

     By the end of the 1880's, the concept of vines, trees and a quasi-religious theme led to some extremely unusual combinations. One of these stands in Pilot Grove Municipal Cemetery (C37) in Cooper County (Illustration 237). An identical gravestone marks two graves in Union Cemetery in Lee County, Illinois, 100 miles west of Chicago and dates from the same decade showing the universality of this theme. The one in Illinois marks the grave of a minister and his wife who were married over fifty years, while the one in Pilot Grove marks the graves of two youthful brothers, Willie and Harry Day. In both gravestones, a large book representing a Bible is open and laid on the tree trunk which forms a reading stand. Inscribed into the open leaves (which even contain a tuck in the page at the upper right corner) are the vital statistics. Vines run up the trunk and branches have been loped off. The base of the trunk is uneven and not completely circular, realistically replicating a tree trunk.

     This realism continues in an 1889 gravestone where a potted lily is shooting upward against the right front part of the tree trunk (Illustration 238). A member of the Page family is buried at Richland (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (H51) with this gravestone. Two branches have been loped off and the trunk is scorched, an area stripped smooth of the bark appearance where the vital statistics are written. The lily is reminiscent of the African stink pot lily which was considered quite a curiosity and was grown by Victorian gardeners as something exotic.¹⁰ Only a botanist could say if this is truly a representation of such a plant, but it blends in with the known provenance of horticulture at that time.

     Joseph Hume died in 1894 and was buried in a community cemetery (H49) in Howard County (Illustration 239). Erected over his grave was a 5 1/2 foot tall tree trunk with vines and flowers climbing upward from the base to the top and three loped branches. The base is rusticated on the other three sides while the vital statistics are on the smooth front. The flower is reminiscent of a pumpkin flower or some sort of garden vegetable variety.

     The most elaborate of these trees is the gravestone to Waller and Nancy C. Prewitt Pattrick in the Harrisburg Cemetery (B15) in Boone County. Nancy was the daughter of Frederick Moss and Nancy Johnston Prewitt who had the Bingham connection. Naturally by the time Waller and Nancy C. Prewitt Pattrick died in 1896 and 1899 respectively, George Caleb Bingham had been dead for about twenty years since he died in July 1879.¹³ But the Prewitt estate and the resultant bank connection meant the couple had discretionary income to spend on such an elaborate gravestone (Illustration 240). About ten to twelve feet in height, the tree has several loped branches, but also contains one branch which is wrapped around the trunk. The base has a stone bench attached to the tree. On the bench are two closed books and a potted lily identical to the one in the above example. A section of the front trunk has been scorched as if peeled by lightening to reveal the vital statistics of the couple (Illustration 241). On the lowest loped branch on the right side, a stone woven basket filled with garden flowers hangs from the cut branch. The top of the tree is uneven suggesting it was struck by lightening and destroyed, a metaphor for a life ended.

     At Locust Grove United Methodist Church Graveyard (B36) in Boone County two Woodmen of the World gravestones for a husband and wife, Jack and Nora Hays, are placed side by side to resemble a forest. Scrolls are unrolled from loped off branches while the tops of the trees are uneven, giving the appearance of being blasted by lightening. Ferns grow at the bottom of the trunk and the base is larger than the top.

     Although the Pattrick gravestone is the tallest, a memorial cenotaph in the Boonsboro (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (B54) in Howard County has the largest bulk (Illustration 242). Erected in memory of Virgil Searcy who drowned in the 1903 flood of the Missouri River and whose body was never recovered, this tree trunk is sawed off evenly at the top and has the Woodman of the World seal directly in the middle front. The tree trunk tapers downward, the opposite of reality and rests upon four sawn logs, in front of which ferns grow, vines trail and lilies bloom. In the lower front under the seal, a rectangular smoothed area gives the vital statistics of the deceased. The tree trunk appears much like an abstract human figure with arms reaching up over his head. The seal approximates the head. Woodmen of the World gravestones become more and more abstract from this time forward.

     By 1912 the tree trunk had become a log with small evenly spaced projections representing loped branches. The Woodmen of the World seal dominated the front of the gravestone with medallions containing the information about the deceased (Illustration 243). Once again, the trunk sits upon a base of sawn logs with ferns and foliage. By 1919 the final step of abstraction has occurred. Now the loped branches remain two equal projections at the top of the tree trunk. The seal is still centered in front but has brackets from which the scroll unrolls (Illustration 244). The tree trunk no longer features realistic bark, but has evenly spaced, rectangular chips which cover the entire trunk surface, giving one of the strangest appearances in the three county gravestone survey.

     Meanwhile, some gravestones had granite bases like the standard gravestones of the Boonslick region. The vital statistics and seal would be inscribed on the front while the top of the gravestone would feature a horizontal log covered with bark and inscribed with the last name of the deceased. The chapter where the deceased had his membership might also be inscribed (Illustration 245). In the gravestone at Union Primitive Baptist Church Graveyard (B48) in Boone County, the gravestone to James Adams says "Gooch's Mill Camp No. 87" and contains the poem,

     The final step in the progression of these monuments can be seen in the family gravestone in Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County to the Richards Family (Illustration 246). Here a granite rough hewn gravestone has a Woodmen of the World medallion centered above the family name. No other symbolism is featured.

     These gravestones disappear by the end of World War I as the fraternal organization became a life insurance company which is still in business. The rural people who belonged to Woodmen of the World fraternities turned their attention to farm cooperatives as the Roaring Twenties were anything but prosperous for farmers in the Boonslick.¹⁴ Out of this banding together for political strength and financial incentives came groups such as the Mid-Continent Farmers Association (MFA) which is still headquartered in Columbia in 1989. Far removed from the fraternalism and gravestones of the Woodmen of the World organizations, these farm cooperatives took the fraternal lessons of working cooperatively together seriously.¹⁵ By the late 1980's, few remembered the beginnings of this movement lost in a world vanished forever while the farm organizations search for ways to promote and protect the ever diminishing number of farmers.

20 and 21. LAMB OF GOD & THE DOVE
     For the first time, differences become apparent between gravestones for children and adults during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Victorian society assigned every person a place. Men ran the business world with its attendant financial risks while women controlled the home and the family, and were placed upon a pedestal as being morally superior. Children were supposedly innocent creatures who in dying remained unsullied.¹⁶ On top of this cultural perception, changes in medical knowledge in the last quarter of the nineteenth century meant people were gradually living longer as cleanliness and knowledge of infectious diseases meant the number of people who lived after being critically ill increased. People began to feel they ought to be able to rear their children to adulthood; a far different concept from the previous generation where it was assumed that half of a couple's children would die. Unfortunately, the perception of "ought to raise" and "did raise" were two totally different realms. Reality was not so kind and most families still lost at least one child. But losing one child to death versus losing three or four as their parents had experienced was a gain. Thus, the loss of even one child meant a tragedy for the family which demanded artistic representation unlike that of previous generations.

     Nothing seems more helpless and innocent than a lamb, and lambs were the most popular motif for the gravestones of children. No doubt part of the popularity was the rural location and the association with actual sheep in the surrounding countryside or on the family farm. The tail of the lamb featured on these gravestones was never docked (in contrast to modern herd health practices) so sometimes this animal is incorrectly referred to as a dog, due to tail length. Nothing is more defenseless against predators than a lamb. Religious considerations included the idea of the sacrificial nature of a lamb. Biblical quotations discussed Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for the sins of humanity.

     As early as 1858, lambs appear on Boonslick gravestones erected to children. In New Hope Baptist Graveyard (H17) in Howard County, George Washington Dougherty died in 1858 at age 3 (Illustration 247). His marble gravestone features a lamb lying with his head outstretched on the ground in front, the standard position of a dead sheep. A shell motif behind gives emphasis to the figure. The neck of the lamb is out of proportion to the rest of the body but otherwise the sheep is anatomically correct. In 1874, this same basic motif is found in the gravestone to Charlie Hornbeck who died at a year of age (Illustration 248) and was buried at New Salem Graveyard (C26) in Cooper County. Here the lamb is recumbent with an erect head inside the shell motif.

     The Boonslick contains abundant numbers of gravestones where lambs are sitting on the top of the gravestone. A unique gravestone in the Lamine Graveyard (C6) in Cooper County, contains this motif with a twist. Robert Levi Shemwell died at age one (Illustration 249) and is memorialized by this gravestone. Here the lamb is captured in the midst of either sitting down or getting up. He realistically has his rear portion lowered to the ground and is bending down upon his front legs, the actual way sheep lie down. The opposite and the sheep rises. He sits upon a rock pile which has the name of the child on the front side. The other unusual gravestone with this motif is found in Goshen Primitive Baptist Church Graveyard (B62) in Boone County (Illustration 250). On the flat top of this gravestone, a lamb reclines with his head upon the ground; a floral garland spreads over his neck and down the side of the gravestone. Erected in honor of Isom Hart who died at age 5, even the ears of the lamb are clearly spread apart as if the little sheep was listening intently.

     Several gravestones contain a pair of lambs and honor more than one child. One example of this (now headless) is located in the Robinson family burial ground (H73) in Howard County where two recumbent lambs face straight forward. In the Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County, two lambs face each other on a marble gravestone that is now totally illegible (Illustration 251).

     The Woodmen of the World gravestones featured a version for children with a lamb that was extremely popular. The gravestone was about three feet tall and had a square rock, hewn appearing base with the vital statistics of the deceased written on a scroll draped over the front of the base. A short, cut tree trunk with two loped branches set atop the base pedestal while the area in front of the trunk featured an animal (Illustration 252). Usually the lamb had an erect head and folded legs. The top of the tree trunk featured tree growth rings. One exception to this rule was found in Mt. Pisgah Graveyard (B7) where the lamb is sleeping with head at ground level (Illustration 253). In this figure, the front legs of the lamb are correctly bent backwards which occurs when sheep rest. Again the tail is long and not docked. This gravestone features a short poem,

     Although lambs were by far the most popular animal theme, several gravestones have birds flying or perched on them. The bird theme dates back to antiquity where the dove was shown as one of the animal consorts of the Magna Mater, the Great Mother.¹⁷ The dove also has Biblical roots as the dove of the Holy Spirit who descended upon Jesus after his baptism as he "came up out of the water."¹⁸ The Protestant sects in the Boonslick placed great emphasis upon baptism by immersion and thus the dove was doubly important. Certainly, the parents of eighteen year old Sarah Bell Bastin who died in 1870 were not thinking about a fertility goddess when they selected a marble gravestone for her grave in Richland (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (H51) (Illustration 254). This four foot tall gravestone features a dove flying to the left with a rosebud in its mouth and flowers underneath. The rose bud signifies a life just beginning to blossom which was plucked too soon as Sarah was just eighteen. One of the most popular books for girls during this last half of the nineteenth century was the Louisa May Alcott story, Rose In Bloom. This novel basically told the story of a young girl from her eighteenth birthday to her marriage at age twenty.¹⁹

     Three year old Lorna Ketchum rated a dead dove atop her marble gravestone in Smith Chapel United Methodist Graveyard (H87) in Howard County (Illustration 255). Here the bird is not only dead, it is upside down with the breast up and thus the tenderest part exposed. Almost identical is the 1904 gravestone to Stinson Truitt in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (H71) near New Franklin in Howard County (Illustration 256) which is also a Woodman of the World gravestone. Instead of a lamb in front of the tree, a dead bird lays in front with an upright wing against the tree.

     Most gravestones featured live doves instead of dead birds as can be seen by the gravestone in the Fayette Cemetery (H64) in Howard County to Bonnie Howard Tolson who died at age one in 1877. A dove has just landed on the top of this gravestone and even the bird's wings are not yet totally folded into place (Illustration 257). In the bird's talons is an anchor. An unrolled scroll with a strawberry plant leaf at the bottom gives the vital statistics of this infant.

22. CHILDREN ASLEEP
     Animals may be metaphors but nothing represents innocence like a sleeping child. In the Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County there is a flat sarcophagus with the statue of a sleeping baby on the top. Chubby with baby fat, the child reclines on a pillow and wears a loose gown, exposing little, bare feet. The gravestone is so weathered nothing is legible about name or date. A similar theme of a small child can be found in Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Boonville in Cooper County (Illustration 258). Here a small child sucks his thumb while sitting on a flower strewn pile of rocks with a cross in the background. Garbed in a loincloth cinched with a rose in full bloom, the child leans upon a bench while sitting upon a pile of rocks. The innocence of the child is reinforced by the thumb sucking.

23. YOUNG MAIDENS
     Several gravestones have realistic statues of children on the top of the gravestones. The gravestone to Iza Prewitt in the Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County is a good example (Illustration 259). Iza died in 1876 at age 5 and was the granddaughter of Frederick Moss and Nancy Johnston Prewitt whose large, artistic gravestone and the Bingham connection have already been discussed. In this gravestone, a girl about the age of the deceased is shown in the attitude of prayer with folded hands, long hair and her face looking forward. The sculpture has been broken at some unknown point and merely replaced upon the top of the gravestone base. Examination of the remaining sections, show the legs were delineated at least to the knees so the girl must have been standing originally. At Lone Elm Lutheran (Missouri Synod) Church Graveyard (C60) in Cooper County, the gravestone to George B. Kaiser who died in 1906 features a young, barefoot girl wearing a loose gown to her knees carrying a lily in her left hand and holding a lily petal in her right hand. She stands upon a granite base (Illustration 260) and looks down at the lily petal in her hand. The young maiden stands upon a pile of rocks, the standard base for these works.

24. STANDING ANGELS
     From children to cherubs is a short jump. Cherubs had been used since Puritan days, but at the end of the nineteenth century, cherubs were used only for the graves of children and one young man. The gravestone to Olive Genevieve Eppenhauer who died at age six months in 1901 (Illustration 261) shows this move. Buried at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (H71) near New Franklin in Howard County, the pedestal base is topped with a winged cherub clothed with a strategic ribbon. With fluttering wings, the cherub is dashing away with upraised arms while looking at the viewer of the gravestone. A pile of rocks again forms the base and at the bottom the motto, "Our Angel Pet" is carved into the gravestone. More realistic is the 1906 statue over the grave of Amelia Stevinson (Illustration 262) in Red Top (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (B20) in Boone County. Here a girl almost identical to the girl on the gravestone to George Kaiser at Lone Elm Cemetery (C60) in Cooper County (Illustration 260), only with wings holds flowers in her left hand and flower petals in the downward right hand. With downcast head, she appears to be spreading the petals along beside her. Poetry continues with the verses,

Once again in Lone Elm Lutheran (Missouri Synod) Church Graveyard (C60) in Cooper County, there is another granite based gravestone with a childish figure, this time an angel (Illustration 263). This cherub has her hands clasped in prayer while underneath the poetry continues, this time in German:

     This trend toward cherubs (versus adult angels) continues in the 1910 gravestone to Audrey Besgrove in the Fayette Cemetery (H64) in Howard County (Illustration 264 and Illustration 265). Set upon a concrete base, the pile of rocks features a tree behind with climbing flowers, a motif of the Woodman of the World. However, the presence of the cherub places this gravestone in the children category. A winged cherub with a pencil in the right hand traces the vital statistics inscribed on the scroll unrolled in front of the tree trunk. Bare footed and with hair parted down the middle, the loosely gowned angel sits upon vines clinging to the rock pile and with her knees holds another scroll which proclaims, "Asleep in Jesus." The detailing is so delineated that even the crocheted shell pattern found along the edges of garments is clearly seen.

     There is one gravestone to a child that features a dignified angel whose emphasis is not sentimental (Illustration 266). This gravestone covers the grave of Arthur Davis in the Fayette Cemetery (H64) in Howard County. Unlike the other cherubs or angels, this statue is metal rather than stone. The right arm has been broken and the head and neck joint is rapidly loosening. The angel is fully adult with classical features and stands upright with the left knee slightly bent as seen through the tunic. The left foot is exposed around the toe area with each toe nail clearly delineated (Illustration 267). The sentiment and cuteness that fairly oozes from some of the other monuments is absent in this gravestone.

IV. UNIQUE GRAVESTONES
     In New Lebanon Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery (C51) in Cooper County, Samuel and Nancy Burke were buried in 1873 and 1880 in an enclosed plot the size of two graves (Illustration 268). Gravestones were placed on the west end with a wrought iron gate at the east end and the interior appears to have been planted with either flowers or herbs. The graves have not been planted recently. The enclosure fence is capped with a different color and kind of stone, adding a touch of color and texture to the complex.

     Frank B. Rollins was buried under a megalithic, Grecian vase (Illustration 269) in Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County. The gigantic, flower draped vase with Greek laurel wreaths contains a long poem on the back and the short message, "His dying was the only grief he ever caused" on the front.

     Similar in scale are the two Doric columns in the Columbia Cemetery (B38) to Herbert and Anna Martin who died in 1909 and 1915 respectively. Raised upon steps with the vital statistics inscribed under each column, these columns are reminiscent of the gravestone to Frederick Moss and Nancy Johnston Prewitt also in this cemetery. (Illustration 151). However, these columns are of the same height, unlike the Prewitt gravestone. They are also spaced farther apart and are more closely reminiscent of the columns on the Francis Quadrangle, approximately four blocks to the east, than the Prewitt gravestone.

     From megalithic to small, the granite gravestones from this last quarter of the nineteenth century are held together by the medium and the search for permanency. The gravestone to Virginia Fox (Illustration 270) in Washington Cemetery (H47) in Glasgow in Howard County continues this theme. This small gravestone is only three feet tall and is inspired by the shell theme which has been repeatedly used in European civilization. Roots for this shell motif can be traced to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of erotic love, who was born of the foam of the sea and carried to shore on a shell. The shell theme was a popular decorative device on the eastern coast during the eighteenth century. It was also used during the Classical Revival and obviously was never totally abandoned.

     Continuing the Classical interest, in 1923 the Duncan family ordered an exact copy, but smaller in scale, of the Nike of Samothrace for the grave of family member Mary E. Duncan Young (Illustration 271). The Duncan family owned a monument company about the turn of the century and thus had access and interest above the average citizen. After Mary E. Duncan Young was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Boonville in 1914, her daughters paid $3,000.00 for this copy to be made and shipped from Italy.²⁰

     Not all unique gravestones were classically inspired. In the Columbia Cemetery (B38) in Boone County, the Jacobs family erected a large central family monument (Illustration 272) about 1916. Here, the large rock mass features Jesus praying with outstretched arms at the door of a tomb. Bodily form is visible under the figure who is authentically dressed. Above the head of Jesus lilies form a cross and inscribed in a flat slab the words "I am the Resurrection, the truth and the light." The rear of the gravestone is a rock pile with a sculptured head of a dead Christ. Lilies rise at the extreme left of the rock pile.

     Not all gravestones were as solemn or as grand. People always have had a sense of humor or made gravestones that commemorated what mattered to them. In Walnut Grove Cemetery (C10) in Boonville in Cooper County, Charles C. Bell erected a granite bell (Illustration 273) over the graves of his parents, an obvious pun. The gravestone to Henry Kella (Illustration 274) in Salt Fork Presbyterian Cemetery (C4) in Cooper County, features a tied horse incised into the gravestone with a vine and scrollwork to the left. The memorial poem states, "A brother from us has gone, a place is vacant in our home, the soul is safe in heaven." The natural question that first pops into mind is why a horse was featured on the gravestone. Perhaps Henry Kella was a horse trainer maybe he owned lots of horses for pleasure or profit. Thoroughbreds were in high demand in mid-Missouri with horse races at county fairs one of the highlights of the social season.

    A gravestone in New Providence Baptist Church Graveyard (B32) in Boone County (Illustration 275) is unique. No connections to any type of motif could be established for this stone pot. Inscribed midway down the pot is the family name of "Statterfield" while underneath that inscription are the names of the family members, Inman, Cora and Simple Irene with the vital statistics of each. The pot is filled with dirt and contained flowers this past summer. Only thirty inches in height, the handles and the bulbous bottom are reminiscent of the lard kettles that were found all over the Boonslick during this time period and were used in hog butchering.

     World War I permanently altered the lifestyle of the United States and effectively ushered in the communication and transportation age where gasoline powered pistons drove the country into the Roaring Twenties. Not everybody came home from the war alive though. The memorial to George Uthlaut in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (H71) near New Franklin in Howard County (Illustration 276), honors a deceased soldier. Two crossed American flags are above a scroll which states the name, dates of birth and death, and date of burial in the cemetery which was three years after he died. A short poem asks, "Peaceful be thy silent slumber, Peaceful in thy grave so low." A picture of the young man in his uniform is inset between the flags.

     Just as in adult gravestones there is always the search for the unique, this remains true in the gravestones designed for children. In Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (H71) near New Franklin in Howard County, a double gravestone to two sons of W.P. and Martha Kirkbride who died in 1871 and 1872 features the older son (age four) with the taller marker while the younger son (age three months) has the shorter one (Illustration 277). The two motifs in the top sections of each gravestone are a weeping willow tree and a dead bird. The 1906 death of 16 year old Besse Berry (Illustration 278) and her burial in Red Top (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church Graveyard (B20) in Boone County once again features the recurrent theme of the palm of victory and the anchor. However, these were considered conservative themes by the time they were placed in 1906, showing they were now considered proper for young maidens. The chain on the end of the anchor even turns. In the Lamine Graveyard (C6) in Cooper County a small, illegible crypt is positioned over what must be a child's grave (Illustration 279). The inscription is totally illegible but the size give the inference of a baby. Set upon a concrete pad with a stone base the gravestone features a long unrolled scroll.

     The most sentimental gravestone is the 1890 gravestone to Horace Melton Walker who died at age two (Illustrations 280 and 281). The gravestone is located in Wesley Chapel Cemetery (H3) in Howard County and follows in every respect the Late Victorian attention to sentiment and emotion. A pair of shoes and socks are carelessly strewn over the draped top of the gravestone as if the boy had just left them there in a pile, the typical unconcern of a two year old. The poem at the bottom states,

The emphasis upon innocence and beauty provoked comments about the statuary to both adults and children in cemeteries:

Certainly, Victorian parents loved their children and underwent grief when they died all too soon. So had each previous generation of parents. But it is only the Victorian world that encases the innocence of a child with sentiment to form a spectacle. World War I erased innocence. By the 1920's and the continued rapid development of medical knowledge, death from disease in childhood became much more remote. Parents could at last count upon rearing all their offspring, baring an accident, a guarantee never before offered in the history of the country or the world.

¹Sturgis, J. E., editor, Favorite Hymns (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1933), p. 211.

²Ludwig, Allan I., Graven Images, New England Stonecarving and its Symbols, 1650-1815 (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1975), p. 124.

³McCoy, Marie Bell, Unpublished Memoirs in the archives of the Friends of Histpric Boonville.

⁵Green, Harvey, The Light of the Home (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983), p.117.

⁶Meyer, Richard, editor, Cemeteries and Gravemarkers, Voices of American Culture (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1989), p. 263.

⁷Stratton-Porter, Gene, Laddie, A True Blue Story (New York: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1913), p. 55.

⁹Whalen, William J., Handbook of Secret Organizations (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1966), p. 159.

¹²Interview with Paul Rhodes Mossholder in 1980. Paul originally lived in Illinois and owned a collection of African stink pot lilies. When he moved to Arizona in 1970, no family would take the collection because of the lily smell and the Arizona heat was too intense for the lilies, so Paul disposed of his collection.

¹³Bloch, E. Maurice, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), p. 4.

¹⁴Receipts from the 1920's in the possession of Don M. Harshbarger of Centralia, Missouri.

¹⁵Minutes of the Friendship Farm Club, 1918, in the possession of Don M. Harshbarger of Centralia, Missouri.

¹⁷Jordan, Terry, Texas Graveyards, A Cultural Legacy (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982), p. 55.

¹⁸Matthew 3:16 of the New Testament.

¹⁹Alcott, Luisa May, Rose in Bloom, (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Jovanich, 1952), p.1