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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Friday's Tour

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my oldest and youngest daughter at the Jacksonville cemetery. It was established in 1860. Thousands of tourists along with locals visit the cemetery every year. 
The history and the craftsmanship of the head stones is fascinating. There are sections throughout the cemetery such as Masonic, Catholic, Jewish, etc...
I know, some of you think it is morbid to visit a cemetery, but others also find it fascinating. Stew over at   http://brightergrave.blogspot.com/ and John over at http://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/  I'm sure will like this post today.
Hoping you will enjoy the pics.
The Krause family was one of the first to settle here in the valley back in the 1850's.


Just like the headstone on this one.


This is the marker for the Paupers section. There are no headstones in the section. The last man who was hung in Jacksonville is buried here somewhere.

The quality and craftsmanship of some of the old headstones is quite remarkable.




I hope you enjoyed the visit today. In the near future I will post more pics of the cemetery. By the time we left I had taken 124 pics!

Until next time.......................................

10 comments:

  1. I do love old cemeteries. They do have such beautiful craftsmanship, and I love the symbolism in the artwork.

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  2. Great post, I just love the craftsmanship of the old stonework. It does make one wonder if their descendants still come to the graves and leave flowers for remembrance?

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  3. yes a lovely interesting post..... the difference in US headstones and the UK ones is facinating!!!
    thanks for that!the paupers' stone is of particular interest

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  4. I like the statement of the last picture. Everyone's life is an amazing story. To have your headstone in the shape of a book symbolizes that fact marvelously. A lot of times you'll see symbols of books representing the bible. This one seems to be representing the story of the family.

    In the second picture, this would have been a family member of someone that was associated with the now defunct Woodsman fraternity. Usually there is a central marker that looks like a tall tree stump for the father. Around that would be markers like this one that are "branches" of that tree.

    I'm always fascinated by the stories of the lives that have been lived before us. They have made us and this world what it is today. By visiting cemeteries, you are experiencing what the families wanted to be passed on about their loved ones. I always come away a little more humbled and wonder, what will people remember of me?

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  5. Loved this! Nothing is more relaxing than spending a couple hours roaming around a cemetery. It is usually a summer pastime of ours.
    Great photos and amazingly different tombstones.

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  6. I love to visit cemetaries too. I imagine all kinds of stories about the people buried in them, especially the old, old ones. Glad you got to have a good, restful visit with your girls.

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  7. Thanks for the tour. When you come to see us I will take you to Galveston where there is a very old cemetery. Glad you enjoyed your day.

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  8. I could spend hours in a place like that.

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  9. Very interesting place. I love places like that and I'm glad you had a nice day with so many pictures to remind you later.--Inger

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  10. I think history is fascinating, and cemetaries are no exception. Great photos!

    Cat

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