Tagged With: Cemetery

William B. Scott, CSA

William B. Scott, CSA

William B. Scott, CSA

With all the hoo-ha about Civil War statues, it is sometimes easy to forget that these were people. William D. Scott was a member of Company D, 14th Virginia Cavalry. He was wounded in action against Union forces and subsequently died. He was buried in a churchyard in Montgomery County, Maryland. His grave is not in the cemetery but on the other side of the building. He is believed to be the only Confederate soldier who was killed in action and is buried in a marked grave in the county.

I don’t know how William felt about slavery, whether he was fighting for what he saw as state’s rights, or if he was simply pressed into service. Regardless, he was a young man, killed in war. He likely had parents, siblings and possibly even a wife and children. People die in war but if you think he deserved to die, then I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree. May God have mercy on him.

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Rockville Cemetery

Rockville Cemetery

Rockville Cemetery

I stopped briefly at Rockville Cemetery on the way home. It isn’t on my normal route home but it isn’t all that far out of my way, either. I had to run to the bank after work, so that put it more or less convenient. The sun was setting through the trees to the west and I got a few pictures of the grave stones lit by the nearly horizontal rays. Then I turned at the upper part of the cemetery and took this one looking into the sun. Actually, it’s an HDR photo, make from three images and then mostly desaturated to produce the nearly monochrome image.

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U. S. National Cemetery, Winchester, Virginia

U. S. National Cemetery, Winchester, Virginia

U. S. National Cemetery, Winchester, Virginia

Yesterday evening, after our 3.5 mile walk on the battlefield of the Third Battle of Winchester, we visited the National Cemetery in downtown Winchester. We went there again this morning because Cathy had remembered the name of another man in Henry’s (Cathy’s great, great grandfather) division. One marker was for a man in his company and who died of wounds received the same day Henry died. Henry’s remains were never identified so we assume his is one of the graves marked, like the one in the lower right of this photograph, “Unknown U. S. Soldier”. For all we know, this is his grave (unlikely, but possible).

The large column on the left memorializes Brigadier General David A. Russell. He commanded a brigade of the 6th Army Corps in which Henry served. Gen. Russell died the same day as Henry, September 19, 1864 at the Third Battle of Winchester.

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Turkeys in a Cemetery

Turkeys in a Cemetery

Turkeys in a Cemetery

As we left our AirBnB this morning, heading for home, we passed this little cemetery and saw a flock of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) among the grave markers. We stopped and took some time to walk around the cemetery a little and enjoy the quiet, as well as the birds. As I walked across the top of the cemetery, they moved slowly towards and then through an opening in the fence behind them. We used to see turkeys a lot more often than we do now. In Pennsylvania we would see them somewhat regularly and also ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus, the common pheasant of Asia, introduced into North America in the late 18th century). We almost never see them any more, so this was a treat for us.

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St. Rose of Lima

St. Rose of Lima

St. Rose of Lima

I had a dentist appointment today so I was up north of Gaithersburg this morning. After I was done there, I cut trough the woods on Game Preserve Road to Clopper Road. I stopped briefly at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church and took some photos in their graveyard, including this one of cross shaped markers seen here against the white of the church building. This is the older part of the graveyard and includes members of the Clopper family, after whom the road was named. This road, although not in West Virginia, is reputed to be the inspiration for Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert who wrote Take Me Home, Country Roads and then finished it with John Denver, who recorded it in 1971.

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Rockville Cemetery

Rockville Cemetery

Rockville Cemetery

I stopped at Rockville Cemetery on the way home today. With the weather turning warmer (relatively) and the sun out, it’s very tempting to be outdoors as much as possible. My job, of course, keeps me inside most of the time and it’s been fairly busy lately, with lots of revisions and bug fixes. That’s meant that I haven’t been out during the day too often. With the time change it’s light later in the day and that gives me more of a chance to get out after work.

Rockville Cemetery, on Old Baltimore Road, is a nice, relatively quiet place. The eponym of my high school alma mater is buried there. The graves of Walter Johnson and his wife Hazel are in a very shady spot under a pair of mature spruce trees. Generally it’s hard to get a good picture of them because it’s so shady but when I was there today the sun was slanting under the trees’ lower branches and lighting up the grave markers. This photo is from another part of the cemetery, though. I really love big, old, white oaks (Quercus alba) and this is a nice specimen.

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Dancers in Mourning

Dancers in Mourning

Dancers in Mourning

With apologies for Margery Allingham (whose book was the inspiration for the title of my post), this is art work in a cemetery near where we live. I went to a burial there today, followed by a memorial service in Clarksburg. I didn’t really know the woman who died but I’ve known her husband for over 45 years. We’ve lost touch a bit but we’d run into one another occasionally. Nevertheless, he’s one of a small number of men who influenced me pretty significantly in my early life. After the service, I drove back to the cemetery and wandered around a bit and took some pictures. This art is in a Jewish section of the cemetery and I really like it. There was another similarly designed piece with Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea. I’m assuming that this is Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, who:

…took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

(Exodus 15:20–21)

She was not mourning, of course, but as this artwork is decorating a cemetery, I thought that title might fit well.

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Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery

Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery

Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery

As mentioned in yesterday’s post of Rehoboth Beach, we were here for a funeral. We came out yesterday and went to the viewing and spent the evening with our friend and some other family members and friends. The funeral itself was late this morning and we went from the funeral home to the cemetery, about a half hour away. I’ve been in funeral processions before but this was a bit different, with multiple vehicles with flashing lights zooming ahead to stop traffic at four-way stops and lights and then, after we were past, zooming past again for the next location. Clearly they’ve done this before. The interment was at the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Bear, Delaware. Since Veterans’ Day was last week, there were flags on all the graves. After the short program there, Cathy and I walked around the cemetery briefly and I took a few photographs.

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Beallsville Cemetery Chapel

Beallsville Cemetery Chapel

Beallsville Cemetery Chapel

We met Dorothy out in Poolesville today after she spent the night and took care of the animals for a friend. After breakfast we drove out to Beallsville and stopped at the cemetery there. This photo of Dorothy and Cathy was taken outside the chapel there. I also got a few photos of the stained glass from inside, but thought I’d go with this informal portrait, instead. The cemetery was incorporated May 27, 1862 and the you can find more information about it on the BeallsvilleCemetery.org website. That web site has a scanned copy of the cemetery charter, as amended in 1912. There are also quite a few photos on Find-a-Grave. We weren’t looking for any grave in particular but did wander about a bit, looking at the stones. It was a beautiful day and we like cemeteries, particularly old cemeteries.

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Sandy Spring Meeting House and Cemetery

Sandy Spring Meeting House and Cemetery

Sandy Spring Meeting House and Cemetery

It was a busy day today, starting off with us heading out to Rocklands to meet Dorothy and help her move a pile of mulch. I gave Dorothy a brief lesson in driving the tractor and using that certainly sped up the job. She did well, shifting gears without too much trouble. I do have a few photos of Dorothy driving the tractor but she’s not always anxious to have her photo posted, so I’ve skipped that for today.

Later in the day, Cathy and I went to see her mom. Unfortunately we got there just as they were all sitting down to dinner. Because of the Covid-inspired visitation rules, we were not allowed to see her. I don’t know if they ever plan to loosen the restrictions or if they prefer the near total lock-down. It’s certainly annoying to the family and friends of their residents. I suspect the question is whether it is easier on the facility administration.

In any case, we drove a little ways to the Sandy Spring Meeting House Cemetery and walked around that for a while. One of the grave markers is for Benjamin Hallowell (August 17, 1799 – September 7, 1877). He was, among other things, the first president of the Maryland Agricultural College, established in 1859. The school was renamed Maryland State College in 1916 and in 1920 it became the University of Maryland’s undergraduate campus.

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Heron Sculpture, Parklawn Cemetery

Heron Sculpture, Parklawn Cemetery

Heron Sculpture, Parklawn Cemetery

We went to Parklawn Cemetery today to put flowers on the graves of Cathy’s dad and of the good family friend, Karo (Karabet). It’s been a few years since we’ve been there and the ‘neighborhood’ has changed a bit. Jim’s grave has had another right next to it but now there’s a relatively new grave on the other side. In the past we could look for two markers together but having a third threw us off a bit.

After putting those flowers out, we took some pictures to fulfill requests on Find-A-Grave. We found two of the requested markers and I got photos as well as GPS coordinates. It turns out someone had beat me to it, but it was a good exercise, anyway. While we were doing that I took a few pictures of this Heron sculpture. There were requests for other pictures but it’s such a huge cemetery, without some idea where the graves are, they’re going to be impossible to find. We’d need to go to the cemetery office to get locations and it was too hot to do that today. We may go back, however.

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