Bill Earngey

"Remember friends as you pass by / As you are now so once was I / As I am now so you must be / Prepare for death and follow me."

(19th century headstone.)

Beginning in the Victorian era, death and cemeteries were romanticized, especially by the new concept of interment in secular, garden cemeteries rather than churchyards. Named from the Greek "koimeterion," meaning resting or sleeping place, cemeteries are reliable sources for town histories.

  For example, our first (1880) mayor, Elisha Roson, was impeached for malfeasance. Our second (still 1880) mayor, John Carroll, was a U.S. Marshall, who lost 17 deputies, all shot dead in one year. He's buried in our cemetery. Roson is a ghost.

  Gravestones, in this era, were usually professionally carved, using ornate symbols and brief sentimental passages -- ANGELS: to protect the soul in flight. BIRD: the soul flying to heaven. CLASPED HANDS (also, index finger pointing upward): a sentiment usually reinforced by words, like Farewell, Meet Me In Heaven, Gone Home. CROWN: the crown of righteousness. DOVE: constancy and devotion. FLOWER BUD: being cut from life before blooming. HEAVENLY GATES: welcome to heaven. LAMB: innocence. RECLINING CHILD: innocence, the sweetness of a short life. SCROLL: victory, the spiritual life of the mind. SHELL: rebirth. WILLOW TREE: mourning.

  Homemade gravestones were common in rural areas. Some had just a name etched in local stone, some were only a particularly handsome rock, and others tried to mimic bought ones; all were poignant and heartfelt.

  A mid-19th century homemade example unto itself was fashioned by a husband for his middle-age wife. The local stone is exceptionally smooth with a rounded top. The breadth is scored horizontally with lines to keep the letters even.

  On top is a dove, carved from the same stone. Below it, is an inscription, chiseled by the husband, obviously not schooled (The S and the Ls are hung backwards.), but educated by oral tradition. His title words: "I mourn my love" are followed beneath by her name and birth and death dates, and then: "I got this rock / to mark the spot / lest men should tread too near."

  "I mourn my love" is a direct quote from "Who Killed Cock Robin," a medieval English folksong or poem in which a dove speaks those words to honor the death of Robin Hood.

  And now, a somewhat cryptic, yet useful, tip for the truly obsessive: a cemetery research tool from the Skagit Valley Newsletter.

  To determine the precise birth date with only a death date, use the 8870 formula. Example: Died 1889, May 6 at 71 years, 7 months, 9 days: The math: death date (18890506) minus the life span (710709), minus the formula (8870) equals (19170927), or Sept. 27, 1817.

  Now that's really spooky.