Fairchild Wisconsin is one of many little communities that got off to a good start but never really hit a "boom". It's a sleepy little place in 2023. But it has a nice cemetery and must have had a Woodman's lodge of one variety or another.
A nice specimen. The American Flag in the background and the subtle GAR star lower right are appropriate. Fairchild was named after a Colonel Lucius Fairchild who lost an arm at Gettysburg but went on to become Governor of Wisconsin.
Here's an oddity. You see these "Book and Tree" variants pretty often. But this one appeared to be leaning out at a weird angle...
It's probably just leaning forward and about to tip over. Glad it did not happen when we were inspecting it. A few rows over we have one in a more typical, i.e. stable, configuration.
Swell stone carving on this one. I've seen hundreds of these things by now and they still amaze me.
I'm always trying to figure out stories. The style seen here with a forked branch is often a married couple. Commonly there will be one branch on each fork reaching out for all eternity towards its mate. But here....one name and one branch....
Note the letter C carved into a cut off branch. That was not the initial of the man buried here. Was "C" the long lost Love of his Life? The One that Got Away? The carved verse is particularly mournful and all about meeting again in the next life. Alas we can't really know. But from the various implements down at the base of the monument we do know he was a Woodman.
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