More Cemetery Musings....

I'm on a cemetery post roll right now, I guess.

Over in Brown's Mill Cemetery near my home, through which I run whenever I get a chance, sits the Clippinger headstone: mother Martha, daughter Mary, and father Howard. A typical family from the late 1800s, living well into the next century.

Howard lived from 1887 to 1970...but look off to the left of the stone. That's a GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) brass flag holder.  Trouble is, the GAR commemorates Union veterans of the American Civil War, which ended 22 years prior to Howard's birth.

All image credits Gary

Here's a close up of the standard GAR piece:

Far from being static, cemeteries are actually dynamic, changing places, and I'm not just talking about new burials.  Stones topple from the heaving of frost--or from the action of earthquakes (see my previous post on that topic here).  Lawnmowers sometimes snag a stone.  And as in the example above, small markers such as the GAR memorial piece come out of the ground and get stuck back at the wrong place.

Stones that tip over may not quite make it back on top of the grave that they were supposed to forever mark, as in this photo:

The point I am making is not to scold the cemetery management, but just to observe that when you have an old cemetery, over time things just happen.