Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Tree Shaped Tombstones-Catholic Variants

Some times I vary my commuting routes so as to pass through smaller communities.  It breaks up the monotony, and I can continue my search for odd bits of Americana.  I have found more "Tree Shaped Tombstones" and in some interesting variations.

These examples come from cemeteries further north, and from a couple of Catholic ones.  I had previously been of the opinion that "Trees" were less common in Catholic than Protestant cemeteries, but this seems not to be true.


This is a strange one.  It is of the "stack of logs" type and sits on a plinth of a different color.  The stone proper seems to be limestone covered with a slip of plaster.  Not really a pleasing effect after all these years, one supposes they were trying to look like upscale marble.  As you will note, this is a genuine Woodman marker:


Here is another official Woodman marker.  I think that an organization so named would be OK with a large shrub nudging in on things....


And here is a Woodmen marker without any tree elements.  Lots of ferns and vines though..


Evidently the Woodmen gave you a choice about what kind of marker you would get.  I see some grey showing through near the top, so perhaps this is another faux marble stone but somewhat better done.

And talking about vines, here is an example just full of them.  It is also the farthest north "tree" to date:


And here is an interesting pairing.  An elaborate tree shaped tombstone-note the inset log near the bottom and the Christ on the rugged tree-next to an actual tree stump!  It appears that the real tree was starting to displace the false one.


Jesus on the Tree appears to be specific to Catholic cemeteries, at least so far.  I have found examples in two widely separate communities that may be the work of a single craftsman.  Next time a series of these...

1 comment:

Harry said...

The last picture reminds me of a JRRT quote from the book of his letters: "Every tree has its enemy, few have an advocate."