Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Discovery and Sadness in Randolph Wisconsin.

A couple of years back I posted on an unusual variant of "Tree Shaped Tombstones" that I'd encountered in the area of Beaver Dam Wisconsin.  And so far nowhere else.  Obviously when I'm over that way I keep an extra sharp eye out, and even route through more of the small, off the beaten track communities that are numerous in eastern Wisconsin.  Such as...Randolph.  This is a nice little village of 1,800 current inhabitants and of course has an area on the edge of town for former ones....


Here's two of the "Beaver Dam" style tombstones, one in front of the other.  They are from two individuals with the name of Davis.


David Davis, born 1857.  


And William Davis, born 1887.  Presumably two generations then?   It's a bit unusual to have His Wife be 15 years older.  And were Edith and Margaret siblings of William?  Tucked back behind is another small, tragic mystery.

Infant mortality was so common back then.  Were some children who lived only a short time not even named?  Some tragedies of course were impossible to minimize in this fashion.  Elsewhere in the cemetery...


Our babies.  Two deaths in the spring of 1884.  Age 2 days and age 4 years.  Very unusually with a memorial over a century old, there are still flowers, albeit plastic ones, being placed on it.





1 comment:

Patrick Thibado said...

I've loved those WOW or WOA markers for many decades. My grandfather worked in a stone quarry near Dunnville, Wi and I have a picture of him standing next to a couple of those markers. Extremely diverse in appearance and such exquisite craftsmanship done locally, usually. Just a tad of info, most of these are made from quarried sandstone and because of their unique shapes, they were often made wrong which is why you see them fractured and broken. One rule of stone masonry is that it must be "laid as it was made" too often they were made to stand upright which should have been laid horizontal. I believe the mistake was honest and done because monuments aren't under 'pressure' as they would be if used as a building block. The artisans of the time didn't take into consideration the forces of nature alone.