Friday, August 2, 2019

Tree Shaped Tombstones - A Classic near Fountain City Wisconsin

Taking a circuitous route home from a road trip I ran across a cemetery east of Fountain City that I had not known about.  It defied my usual notion, that any cemetery with one "Tree Shaped Tombstone" will have more than one, but the sole example was a really nice one.



Not only was this one in nice condition, it had an unusual degree of "Woodmen" connections on display.  I think this is the first one I've seen that specified the lodge that the man belonged to.  (I have it should be noted seen a couple of examples for the Woodman's lady's auxiliary with similar information).


And although it lacks the official Modern Woodmen of America logo and Latin motto, it does have their traditional symbols, the axe, wedge and mallet.  Superbly done I might add.


One of these days I intend to actually dig in and research the logistics of Woodmen tombstones.  It is known that there was a benefit included in membership that helped pay for tombstones.  Below is a low res scan from a Sears, Roebuck catalog that suggests it was $100 that you could spend in a discretionary fashion.*  But that leaves a variety of questions without answers.  Could you spend it on a generic tombstone?  Could it only be used to pay for the logo and/or regalia?  


There are extant records from local chapters of the Woodmen, and some day when foul weather and idleness permit I plan on spending a day with dusty boxes of papers. Was there perhaps an order form?  It would explain a lot....could you check off which height of "tree" you wanted?  Was there some Chinese Restaurant list of features you could tick off?  "Yes, I'd like one with four branches, a resting dove, and, oh what the heck, give me one of those rope and anchor motifs..."
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* The very observant will note that this is Woodmen of the World.  The tombstone above is from Modern Woodmen of America.  Very similar rival organizations started by the same man.

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