Wednesday 2 March 2011
American Headstone - On the other side.
A couple of weeks ago, I published a photograph of a headstone bearing the name of John E Gibbs. Amazingly, I have purchased a glass plate negative of the headstones on the other side of the ivy clad building! It features a number of Pickens family graves. The pair to the right are Asa Pickens who was born in Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts in 1797 who died in 1883 aged 85 and his wife Sally Cummings who died in 1868 aged 65. The curious headstone to the left marks the grave of George Picken who died in 1912 and his wife Mary B who passed away in 1909. I say curious as the headstone has blank stone rectangles for the dates of death to be carved out of. Does this mean they were far from dead when this photograph was taken?
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11 comments:
Hi,
I am a hobo with not much to do and I just happened to be passing through. I like your site, so now…
I’m following you.
Thanks!
Signed, hobo
PS
http://bellybuttonsandgravestones.blogspot.com
It usesually means the stone was placed before thier death. Sometimes when they buy a plot they place the stone before death and once they die they will come back and carve the dates in.
What an awesome picture! Love it!
Thank you Hobo. Glad to have you visit. I enjoyed visiting yours.
Tammi, thanks - useful information!
Welcome, Dorene. Glad you enjoyed it.
Yes, I think your hunch is correct, Laurie. They wanted to take care of their gravesites and headstones when they were still alive. My mother--still quite living--has a headstone above her burial site with her name, date of birth, and a -. How awful is that to see!
Thanks, Margaret. I can't stop thinking about you walking by your 'living' mother's headstone . . .
BELLY BUTTONS & GRAVESTONES
The word GRAVE means; to mark or to engrave. BELLY BUTTONS & GRAVESTONES are marks left behind after a passing.
Mother Nature gave you a BELLY BUTTON on your very first birthday so that you would never forget just how "remarkable" you are.
Your BELLY BUTTON is living proof that you had to survive death to get here because in childbirth there are many that do not survive the ordeal.
A BELLY BUTTON is a symbol of your past life and the mark of an extraordinary survivor.
GRAVESTONES are freaky because they remind us of our own mortality. BELLY BUTTONS are freaky because they remind us of our own immortality.
And there you were thinking that your BELLY BUTTON was nothing more than a dust collector!
http://bellybuttonsandgravestones.blogspot.com
Fear nothing for you are bound to live for ever.
However! Beware because quality of life is always going to be an issue.
Signed, hobo
Hey hobo, I'll bear that in mind!
Laurie
Wonderful picture...
Thanks so much for this picture! It is nowhere else online and helped me with my family history in the Pickens Family. Thanks for reaching out to let me know that you had this!
BTW, John E. Gibbs was the husband of Elizabeth F. Pickens, aka "Lizzie", who was the son of George Pickens in your picture above. I know he died between 1900 and 1910 but not when. Do you have this pic posted somewhere?
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