Thursday, June 01, 2006

Old Gravestone

There is an old cemetery on the property that is adjactent to ours and I've visited it a few times since we moved here. The last time I went back there I decided to take the camera and get a picture of the only stone that clearly shows an engraving. Altogether, there are about 12 gravesites marked back there, but the area is large, and I suspect there are more. As you can see in the picture, the engraving on this stone is nearly gone, and so I thought I would preserve it's legacy by posting it here. It appears to say, "R - J 1811", but the 11 part is a bit unusual. Actually, it looks like two upside down "7"s. I did a little research on the internet on old gravestone numbering but didn't come up with an answer. I did read some interesting stuff, though. According to the information I did find, mispellings and the like are very common on old graves. One of the websites noted that due to the fact that people in America generally spelled phonetically when they mispelled, that provided a clue to earlier pronunciations of certain words. For instance, a common misspelling on gravemarkers was the word "dafter" instead of "daughter". This gives some reason to believe that "dah-ter" was originally pronounced "daf-ter". Compare the similar spellings and the differing way we pronounce "laughter" and "daughter." It's unfortunate that there are only initials on this stone rather than a full name, but that's better than the nothing that seems to be on the other stones. I hope this picture comes through looking as clear as it does on my computer.

2 Comments:

At 6:05 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is so interesting. I really want to see it when I am there next. Did I ever tell you about the times grandma Purple took me and maybe Jon to do gravestone rubbings. She was really into it for awhile. You have someone hold a piece of paper on the stone while you rub over it with a crayon...I think thats what we used. That grave looks pretty rough so I'm not sure it would work. Did I ever show you the pictures of the neat gravestones at the cemetary in White Oak VA where Pops grandmother is buried, That would be Grandma Harding's mother.

 
At 6:20 PM , Blogger Sara said...

Hey Mom, I don't think I ever saw those pictures. Can you scan them in?
Speaking of coming down here, we've been meaning to invite you and Pop and Amy and Paula (and anyone else who wants to come) to Miriam's first birthday party. We are going to have the party on Saturday the 10th, which is actually the day after her birthday. Do you think you might be able to make it?

 

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