This fascinating book places 23 human-effigy folk gravestones and the persons and families they represent in genealogical, historical, and geographical context. Starting with nothing more than crudely inscribed information obtained from gravestones in rural and long-abandoned cemeteries, the authors identify the individuals and their extended family ties. Several individuals and families are traced to their Virginia, Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky homelands. A profusely illustrated, readable slice of pioneer life and an excellent example of combining gravestone and genealogical charts. Families include: Hazel, Rolston, Hays, Cotton, Hill, Ditterline, Ellis, Cannaday, Sullenger, Watson, Scott, Beanard and (Shuffle) Barger. 42 pages, 9 maps, 40 photos, 6 genealogical charts.
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Unusual Pioneer Gravestones,
By Richard M. Hutson, MD (Paducah, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Early pioneer gravestones of Pope County, Illlinois (Paperback)
My copy of "Early Pioneer Gravestones of Pope County, Illinois" is now wrinkled, filled with both underlining and notes written in the margins, and is being held together by judicious application of tape.This booklet of 42 pages is impressive for a thoroughness of research and comprehension which is belied by its brevity and ease of reading. Having sought out and found all the "effigy" or anthropomorphic gravestone sites the authors present, and having read the book several times, I can appreciate their efforts all the more. The reader is not only tutored in history and genealogy, but also is provided photographs and maps which are both interesting and instructive. The "head" stones, or "effigy" stones, were originally thought to represent a gravestone pattern carried from settlements in Virginia into Kentucky and southern Illinois. Further searching by the authors has resulted in the discovery of additional site locations not only in Illinois and Kentucky but also in Missouri. The stone for Daniel Boone's wife, Rebecca, who died in 1813 near St. Charles, MO, is representative of this gravestone pattern. Mr. McNerney's coauthor, Herb Meyer, informed me in a recent e-mail that they now believe the stones, since referred to as "necked" stones, actually derive from an older Celtic tradition which first found expression in England, Scotland and Ireland. To undertake a search for the "effigy" markers described in this book is to embark not only upon a physical task but a mental journey as well. In order to locate some of the stones' locations one must become familiar with both road maps and topographical maps. Having then set out, the traveler traverses the sandstone hills and mesophytic woods of southern Illinois and Shawnee Forest. The visual rewards of traveling about the bluffs, canyons, hillsides and streams of this region are many. And there are other rewards. To arrive at the Old Home Cemetery near Eddyville, Ill., for example, on a warm Autumn afternoon when large Maple trees in front of the white-frame, one room church are ablaze with orange-yellow foliage is a discovery worth making. The older "effigy", or "necked", stones are found on a gentle slope facing west. The hum of insects and bees imparts a languorous atmosphere to an otherwise lazy afternoon in which the traveler, lying at his or her ease among the crudely carved sandstone slabs as a gentle breeze comes up the hill, feels that Time has all but ceased at that moment. Contemplating the lives of those who once walked the same ground one attempts to conceive of their hardships, but also marvels at the simplicity and solitude that must have been their daily experience. This little book is a worthy guide not only to a unique form of pioneer craftsmanship from the early to mid-1800's, but also provides an opportunity for modern day readers to identify with and appreciate older core values of our American forbears. Richard M.Hutson, MD
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