Ahh, here we go; I stumbled upon a cemetery a few months ago and never got the pics/writeup done. It was in early November, the air was quite chilly but the sky was clear and the roads were beckoning. I did my usual "pick a direction and see where I wind up" thing and after about an hour, I saw an old beat-up sign for a cemetery entrance coming up. Nice - I like checking out cemeteries, let's see what this one holds.
Pulling in, I was surprised to see how expansive it was. Situated atop a large hill, it sat right next to a main thoroughfare, yet due to its elevation; passers-by would be hard pressed to even know it was there.
There was a gigantic oak tree perched almost dead-center on the peak of the hill. It was almost completely bereft of leaves, yet its branches swept outwards over the gravestones like large protective arms.
Setting the kickstand, I began by heading over to a small plot off by its own, against the back fence. The stones here were far too old to make out any distinguishing markings, but whomever was here, they'd apparently served their country, as indicated by the diligent placement of a small flag in the Veteran's marker.
From here, I ambled about, trying to make out dates and writings on some of the stones. This was indeed a very old cemetery; most of the markers were the old sandstone style, and had worn tremendously...
...or delaminated completely. (If you click on the picture and look closely, you can still see markings of some sort of circular design at the top.)
I wasn't sure what to make of this one. From the enormous lettering and dates, it appears this is only the left side of a full stone, yet the round, centered peak on top seems to indicate it's the stone in its entirety.
This stone is well under way toward being overrun with fungus. If you look closely, you can still make out a couple of "A"s, maybe a "K", and what could possibly be the top half of an "S".
This appeared to be a family section. The headstones, despite being quite old marble, were still the newest ones around. The square granite posts surrounding them used to support an iron rail of some sort, and you can see the remains of an iron pinning embedded in the top of the post closest in the pic.
Now this stone wound up bringing me a surprise, but I didn't realize it when I took the pic. I didn't realize it until just now, as I'm writing this post... I tried reading the inscription and wasn't sure if it was a personal message, or maybe a poem used for graves. I figured what the heck, I'll try Googling it and seeing if it's on-line somewhere. Turns out it was, but not because the poem is well known, but because there's a website out there that posts about historic gravestones...and they'd done a post about this particular stone - very cool!
Here's the link, check it out; http://symbolicpast.blogspot.com/2011/10/deacon-joseph-holbrook-bellingham-ma.html
This monument stood quite tall amongst the other markers, and seemed picture-worthy.
This guy has seen some long days and years. The death date is noted as November 17, 1922, for a 30 year old Miss Polly Hill. There appeared to be glue residue on the bottom of the split so perhaps this stone has been repaired before.
The sun was fading in the distance and the chill was getting deeper. I had a number of miles between myself and home, so I decided to take my leave...
...but not before one more picture.
The cemetery was in shade, the setting sun was emblazoning the surrounding trees with one last burst of light before dropping away for the evening...it was time to call it a day.
I wrapped myself back up in my cold weather trappings, eased the kickstand back up to it's resting spot against the primary, and with one last look at the scenery around me, I pointed my tire for home.
Ride Hard, Take Chances
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