New Exhibit at PHS

If you are as interested in hair art as I am or just want to check out some beautiful Victorian art made by a prominent Brunswick family, be sure not to miss this exhibit at the Pejepscot Historical Society!

More Interesting Epitaphs

In a blog post last month, I explored the many things the epitaphs of Pine Grove Cemetery can teach us about the lives, careers, families and--of course--deaths of those buried there. But there is more to be read into these epitaphs than what they tell us about the deceased--they also tell us about the culture in which they were produced.

One trend visible in these epitaphs indicates the process of the sentimentalization of death which I discussed in an earlier blog post about mourning scenes. The wife of James H. Alexander--who died on February 10, 1866 at the age of 29--had inscribed on her husband's gravestone:

"In memory of my husband
Earth has but one dear spot for me
And that is my husband's arms."

This romantic idea of death can be seen in the epitaph of another man who died in 1866, Algernon Hinkson. Hinkson was actually the widower of Julia Dennison (1826-1848), but he remarried after Julia's death and is buried next to his second wife, Sarah. When Hinkson died on July 15 at the age of 40, his family ordered a stone which reads:

"We have tearfully folded his cold white hands
Lovingly over his breast;
We have kissed the pale lips forevermore dead
And laid him down gently to rest."

In addition to these sentimental epitaphs, there are many traditional religious verses and quotations found on Pine Grove gravestones. For example, Francis Owen's grave (she died on May 21, 1865 at the age of 46) bears the simple epitaph "The Lord is my Shepherd." An interesting parallel can be seen in the use of religious themes in both the home and the graveyard. In his book Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture, Kenneth L. Ames notes that embroidered mottoes/needlepoint and epitaphs had much in common: "These texts echo some of the same sentiments, the same rhythms--and sometimes even the same words--thus linking house and cemetery, life and death, earthly home and heavenly home." (134) An excellent example of this can be found with the grave of Lida Williams Stone Holmes (1842-1897), whose gravestone reads "Simply to thy cross I cling." The same phrase can be found on a needlepoint at the Woolwich Historical Society.

Embroidered motto reading "Simply to thy [cross] I cling." From the Woolwich Historical Society, Woolwich, Maine.

The comparison of human lives as plants is another theme one can see in the epitaphs at Pine Grove, particularly among the young. Addison F. Swett died on January 19, 1847 at the age of 6 years, 6 months. On his tombstone is the epitaph "A lovely flower transplanted to richer sod and warmer climate." This idea of death as God "replanting" a soul from Earth into heaven is not isolated to the epitaph of one Pine Grove youth. Robert S. Skolfield (died October 5, 1872) lived only to be 6 months, 17 days old. His epitaph reads: "A bud snatched from earth, to blossom in heaven." But this idea of "replanting" is no more poetically put than in the epitaph of Sarah Hinkley, who died at the age of 3 years, 8 months, 21 days:

"The dearest rose begins to bloom,
and sheds its fragrance round.
The gardener gently takes it home
To thrive in richer ground."

Sources:
Ames, Kenneth L. Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.
Cheetham, Donald & Mark. Pine Grove Cemetery, Bath Road, Brunswick, Maine, volumes 1 & 2 (Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2006.7.1 & 2006.7.2), 2005.

Special thanks to the Woolwich Historical Society!

Victorian Women & Death

Looking at the statistics, it is no surprise that during the Victorian* era, women were more associated with death than men. In every single year of the Victorian era in America, the majority of women did not live long enough to see all their children grow up. In fact, it was not until 1920 when more than half of women were able to complete what we now consider a normal life cycle. Thanks primarily to the dangers of childbirth, in 1830 less than a quarter of the women in the U.S. lived long enough to see their children grow up (Green, 166). Women became associated with death not only because it seemed to target them more than men, but also because of their spiritual, emotional and domestic roles in society.

A statue of a mourning woman sits atop the monument to Captain John and Harriet S. Johnson Bishop in Pine Grove Cemetery. This grave is located near the front of the ninth row from the right.

Since colonial America, women have made up the bulk of churchgoers. By the 1870s--though priests and pastors and reverends were all men--women were the ones filling the pews and "engag[ing] in religious introspection" (Corbett, 165). Additionally, religious rhetoric increasingly posed the commercial against the religious. Because men (who held jobs as bankers and businessmen) embodied the commercial, it is no surprise that women, almost by default, became the symbol of religion. Because death was such a religious issue, the more women became associated with religion, they more they became associated with death.

In addition to religion, women were associated with emotions. Women were the major consumers of romantic and emotional literature (Corbett, 165). Because death was, and of course still is, a very emotional experience, women once again were connected to death. This association even affected mourning art. As we have already seen, mourning scenes commonly featured weeping women. In Pine Grove Cemetery, statuary featuring mourning women are among the most striking funerary art found there.

Another statue of a mourning woman in Pine Grove Cemetery. This gorgeous example is at the monument dedicated to the Williams family, located near the end of the ninth row from the right.

Victorian American women were also defined by their domesticity. A stroll through any old cemetery can reveal this. As Katharine T. Corbett points out, the graves of women refer to them as "wife of" and "mother of", whereas their male children and husbands were rarely identified in relation to women, such as "husband of" or "son of". Though the epitaphs of men would praise their business acumen, bravery or accomplishments, those of women focused on their domestic skills, labeling them good, kind mothers and wives.

But how does this female cult of domesticity relate to death? Long before the advent of funeral parlors, death was very much a domestic issue. When a loved one died, their body was cleaned, dressed and prepared by the family. The funeral itself usually took place at home, not in a church or funeral home. For example, after the 1895 death of prominent Brunswick resident Alfred Skolfield (of the Skolfield-Whittier House) the family held his funeral in the formal parlor of their home. It was not until late in the 1800s that the utilization of a funeral parlor became common among the bereaved.

The Woodside family plot, located in Pine Grove Cemetery in the front of the second row from the right.

In her article titled "Called Home: Finding Women's History in Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries", Katharine T. Corbett argues that women's domestic roles extended into death. After all, she points out, what are cemeteries but "cities of the dead", filled with family plots that are arranged like houses upon a street? The Woodside family plot pictured above serves as an excellent example of the similarities between the home and the family cemetery plot. There are "walls" marking the edge of the plot--there are even front steps leading into it, just as there are front steps leading to a home. In both life and death, women found their role to be situated in the home.


*The Victorian era is defined as lasting from 1837 to 1901, when the Queen for whom the era is named ruled England.

Sources:
Corbett, Katharine T. "Called Home: Finding Women's History in Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries." From Her Past Around Us: Interpreting Sites For Women's History. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company, 2003.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Hone: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Pejepscot Historical Society. Skolfield-Whittier House tour manual. 2009.

Receiving Tomb

Pine Grove Cemetery has one receiving tomb, which sits on Pine Street. A receiving tomb was an important building in any graveyard that was subject to harsh winters. The bodies of those who died in the winter were stored in a receiving tomb, so that they could be buried in the spring when the ground was softer.

Silent City on a Hill, a book about Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, notes that receiving tombs had other uses as well. Bodies were stored there for short periods if the grave was not ready, or if a monument or tomb was not complete, or even if the body was to be shipped somewhere else. Storing a body in a receiving tomb had an added perk of preventing the "dead" from being buried alive, if in fact they were not dead. Check out an interesting article about the history of live burial--and the precautions taken to prevent it--here.

The receiving tomb at Pine Grove Cemetery, photographed in 1913 for The Brunswick Record.

The current receiving tomb at Pine Grove Cemetery was completed in late 1912/early 1913. On January 24, 1913, The Brunswick Record printed the following article about the new tomb:

"Handsome Structure Recently Built in Pine Grove Cemetery.

"The new receiving tomb at Pine Grove Cemetery recently completed by the Sanders Construction Co. of this town is probably the first tomb in this part of the country to be built of concrete. The structure was built from the plans drawn by E.E. Sanders. Although the trustees of Pine Grove Cemetery were advised by Massachusetts men not to build of concrete, the results have been so satisfactory that men are coming here from various places in Maine and Massachusetts to examine the new tomb.

"The building replaces the old mound tomb, and is situated in the southeast corner of the cemetery, near the Bath road. The outside dimensions are 18 x 23 feet; extreme height 14 feet. The inside measurements are 16 x 20 feet and its is designed to hold 34 caskets.

"The entire structure is of concrete, including the roof, which is made in one-piece construction, reinforced with steel. The concrete mixture was one part cement, two parts of sand and four parts of crushed granite. The wall, which is thirteen inches thick, embodies the new plan of making the tomb damp proof, the inside being constructed of gypsum tiles, with an inch air space between the concrete wall and the tiling. This plan obviates the dampness of ordinary concrete construction.

"The doors are of steel; the finished portions of the exterior have been rubbed with carborundum brick, and the panels were bush hammered to represent stone work.

"As will be noticed by the accompanying illustration, the architecture is plain Grecian, on the lines of the well-known Greek temple, giving a dignity and harmony that is unusual in such construction.

"The cost of the tomb was about $2500, and the work was done under the direction of a committee composed of E.H. Woodside, I.H. Danforth and J.S. Towne, trustees of Pine Grove Cemetery Association. They had good reason to feel proud of the structure, as it marks an important improvement in the cemetery, and adds beauty and dignity to the grounds.

"Mr. Sanders, head of the E.E. Sanders Construction Co., is receiving many compliments for his work. His company, which has recently been incorporated, makes a specialty of concrete and bridge work, and the plan is to have men of prominence in all branches of engineering included in the corporation."

The receiving tomb at Pine Grove Cemetery as it appears today.

Sources:
"Handsome Structure Recently Built in Pine Grove Cemetery." The Brunswick Record. 24 January 1913.
Linden, Blanche M. G. Silent City On a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery. Library of American Landscape History, 2007.

“Thus Perish Our Hopes”: The Dead of Bowdoin College

The gravestone of Aretus H. Chase. Chase is buried in the first row on the right, just before the granite-curbed Booker family plot.

As we have already seen, many Bowdoin College presidents and professors have been buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, but many of the school’s students rest there as well.

There are many former students buried in Pine Grove Cemetery who wished to permanently memorialize their connection to their alma mater. Winfield S. Hutchinson, for example, lived to be 66, and despite the fact that he graduated from Harvard Law School and was a lawyer for over 35 years, his gravestone only mentions that he was a member of the Bowdoin College class of 1867. Brothers George Sidney (1835-1861) and Nathaniel H. Whitmore (1833-1871) have their class years inscribed on their tombstones as 1856 and 1854, respectively. Morrill M. Tozier lived to be 67 and worked as a newspaper reporter before holding several different positions in the federal government has a gravestone which has only the dates of his birth, death, and the words “Bowdoin College, Class of 1932, Magna Cum Laude”.

The footstone of Morrill Tozier, located in the front of the fifth row from the right.

While there were people like Tozier, the Whitmores and Hutchinson who chose to forever honor their enrollment at Bowdoin College on their gravestones, there are others buried in Pine Grove whose young lives were cut so short that they were defined by nothing but their years at Bowdoin. Jonathan Ela, whose gravestone mentions that he was a sophomore at Bowdoin when he died in 1830 at age 29, has an epitaph which reads: “He was preparing to serve God on earth: God took him to serve him in heaven.”

In many cases, the deceased’s classmates assisted in paying for a gravestone and plot. Bowdoin College junior William O’Brien died in 1856 at age 21, and his stone bears the words: “This stone is erected by his classmates as a testimonial of affectionate regard. Even so them also which sleep with Jesus shall God bring with him.” 27 year old Aretus H. Chase of the Maine Medical School at Bowdoin died in 1833 and now lies beneath a gravestone which reads: “To know him was to love him. Erected by his classmates.”

One of the most touching of these Bowdoin College student epitaphs reads in full: “WILLIAM CURTIS Jr., member of the senior class of Bowdoin College, distinguished scholar, and not less beloved as a friend. Died July 2, 1826, aged 20. His afflicted classmates erect this monument in his memory. Thus perish our hopes.”

The gravestone of William Curtis, Jr., who is buried in the second row from the right.

Perhaps it is best that a dead Bowdoin student’s classmates no longer are responsible for arranging for a burial. One gravestone in Pine Grove Cemetery reads:

“HENRY RAND of the Freshman Class, Bowdoin College: died Aug. 12, 1830: aged 19 years. An orphan and friendless, he sought the path of learning with a zeal that neither sickness nor poverty could subdue. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.”

The gravestone of Henry Rand laying on the ground. Jonathan Ela is buried next to him, and Aretus H. Chase is one grave over from Ela.

Sources:
Cheetham, Donald & Mark. Pine Grove Cemetery, Bath Road, Brunswick, Maine, volumes 1 & 2 (Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2006.7.1 & 2006.7.2), 2005.
General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794-1912.
Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1912.
General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine: A Biographical Record of Alumni and Officers, 1900-1975. Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1978.

“Poor Mahershalalhasbaz!”: How New Englanders Were Named

Have you ever walked around an old New England graveyard? If you have, you may have noticed that some of the names used back then are very uncommon today—you just don’t meet many Ephraims or Ebenezers these days.

New England, more than any other region of America, relied on the Bible as the source of names. In his ridiculously thorough book Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, David Hackett Fischer discusses this phenomenon. By his count, “In seventeenth-century Boston, 90 percent of all first names were taken from the Bible; in Concord, 91 percent; in Hingham, 95 percent. That proportion was nearly twice as great as in non-Puritan colonies” (Fischer, 94).

Though Fischer does not look specifically at the naming practices here in Maine, a tour though Pine Grove Cemetery suggests that the same traditions were used here. Though there are no people named Mahershalalhasbaz—the longest name in the Bible—plenty of Biblical names appear on the gravestones here. I’ve already mentioned Alpheus S. Packard—In the Bible, Alpheus was the father of 3 of the 12 apostles. Among some of the simpler Biblical names appearing in Pine Grove are Israel, Magdalene, and Nahum (a Biblical prophet), but they certainly get more complicated. There is an Erastus, an Abiah, a Thirza, a Tryphena, a Huldah, an Abiezer, a Mehitable and at least two Beulahs.

Fischer also mentions that there is some evidence to suggest New England parents “sometimes shut their eyes, opened the good book and pointed to a word at random” to come up with their child’s name (Fischer, 94). This may explain how Pine Grove residents Experience, Thankful, Charity, Prudence and Mindwell got their names.

Fischer goes on to describe how necronyms, the practice of using the names of the dead, was another common New England practice: “When New England families lost a child, its name was used again in 80 percent of all cases where another baby of the same sex was born” (96). Apparently, this practice is still going on today. One of our faithful volunteers here at the Pejepscot Historical Society, who used to work at the Town Clerk’s office, recalls when a gentleman—“Dave”—came in requesting a copy of his birth certificate. She took Dave’s name and the names of his parents and pulled the birth certificate from the files. When Dave saw the birth certificate, he noticed that the date of birth was incorrect. After some research, our volunteer discovered that Dave had an older brother who had died before Dave’s birth, and Dave’s parents had simply reused the name when he came along—the birth certificate she had pulled belonged to a sibling he didn’t even know he had.

Sources:
Fischer, David Hackett. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

An exhaustive list of Biblical names can be found here.