Tree Shaped Tombstones - A Separation in Coloma Wisconsin

When you look at a map of Wisconsin there are lots of towns and cities along obvious transportation routes.  The shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior.  Along the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers.  Then there are places sitting all by themselves in the middle of the state.  Presumably when thinly settled land got divided up into counties they just figured they needed a place for the courthouse and some little cross roads/county store got promoted.   I think that's the case with Coloma Wisconsin, although I shall state for the record that it is a nice little town.

In the cemetery I found one of those curiosities that have been bothering me.  A Tree Shaped tombstone with room for husband and wife....but with one absent.  Here it is as photographed late in the day as the first flakes of an oncoming blizzard began to swirl.

This style of "book" turns up once in a while.  It looks as if it would be easy to damage with lawn care, and it has not weathered as nicely as one would like.  The inscription says:

NEMA WIFE OF W.A. ROBLIER Died Mar 8 1894 AGED 24 years 8 months.

So where is her husband?

William Roblier is to be found many rows back, as the cemetery filled up.

He lived from 1869 to 1940.  So at the time of his death Nema had been gone for 46 years.  His second wife, Mona, is buried next to him.  She lived all the way to 1968....more than seven decades past the first Mrs. Roblier.

It's the sort of scenario that must have played out often in an era where people, especially women and children, often died young.  And where remarriage was socially expected.

I guess it made sense for W.A. to be buried where he is.  I can't imagine the second wife being on board with him being laid to rest next to a woman gone nearly half a century.  And as for Nema, well she was not entirely alone.

These little half round markers at the foot of adult graves are usually the resting places of children who died very young.  For some reason there are two here.  This one is blank.  Here's the other one.

 Born Jan (?) 1891 Died

The inscription is very worn, I could not for instance see the name Gladys that records indicate is on top.  The poor little thing died in 1891 at the age of one month.

A sad story but history contains many such.  Also a peek into the sociology of burial practices in a time when people tended to marry young and to live for highly variable spans. 

The light of her young life went down,
As sinks behind the hill
The glory of a setting star,	15
Clear, suddenly, and still.

It's a verse from a long, mournful poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.