A Surprisingly Lively Destination: Visiting the Past Safely at a Historic Cemetery By Elizabeth Baird Hardy
D
uring the nineteenth century, when most of our great public cemeteries were established, the prevailing idea was that cemeteries should be more than merely final resting places for the deceased: they should be places of reflection, meditation, and even recreation. Often we have lush, park-like settings with birdbaths, benches, and winding pathways. Sometimes, these became parks with graves scattered throughout them, providing much-needed green space. Today, we don’t often think of cemeteries as great places to visit. After all, we are not Victorians, for whom mourning was a lifestyle choice rather than a temporary condition. In our region, cemeteries are more often church, or family, plots than the sweeping expanses of places like Oakwood in Richmond, Virginia, or Bonaventure in Savannah, Georgia. Yet, the cemeteries here can also be fascinating places to visit, with opportunities to learn about the past and enjoy our present. Who goes to Cemeteries? Everybody! A historic cemetery, whether large or small, offers many incentives to different kinds of visitors. For the natureseeker, these sites can provide a peaceful spot to enjoy plants and trees, along with the occasional squirrel. Graves are some-
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times bedecked with beautiful shrubs, antique rose bushes, or other botanical specimens planted long ago. Many of our region’s older cemeteries occupy hillsides, so the view is often spectacular. A quiet, windswept vista frequently awaits those who trek up the slopes of our older cemeteries. For the art-lover, cemeteries are galleries in stone, presenting a wide variety of beautiful carving and artwork. The study of tombstone art is called taphography, and sends many practitioners to older burying grounds. Whether you are a novice who just likes seeing the carved angels and urns, or an expert in the symbols and themes presented on tombstones, a historic cemetery provides a wealth of opportunity to view gravestone art. To learn more about the symbols one might find in our regional burying grounds, you would do well to consult Stories in Stone by Douglas Keister, or Sticks and Stones by Ruth Little. Many of the simplest carvings have a great depth of meaning, from the pointing fingers to the broken chains, and there are many examples of both popular and unique motifs. A large, urban cemetery may have more to offer in terms of impressive statuary, but stones in our region have their own artistry and unique style. For example, the Bear Creek Baptist Church Cemetery boasts the impressive and unique pyramid of Professor Wing, who was committed to education
in Mitchell County early in its history. Other headstones are striking for their homemade simplicity. Preserving the past is a central reason why people visit old cemeteries. When we walk among the graves, we learn much about history. A number of famous individuals are buried in our area: from the nephew of Benjamin Franklin, buried in the Pisgah United Methodist Church in Crossnore, to the notorious Keith and Malinda Blaylock, who both served in both the Union and Confederate armies, and who are buried in the Montezuma Cemetery. Many people who visit cemeteries do so to learn about their own families as they search for the graves of ancestors. But the graves of strangers can also be educational. Even children can learn from a cemetery visit. They can see how short lives could be in the past, and even notice trends, such as a number of graves from the same times, marking a war or an epidemic like the tragic 1918 Spanish Influenza outbreak. We can better understand how people saw the world, as the stones declare their feelings about life, death, and faith. For example, a number of stones have typical nineteenth-century statements that we might find morbid today, such as, “As I once was, so you are now. As I am now am, so you will be.” We can learn about common beliefs like the value placed on
