Tag:

cemeteries

Vincent Baptist Church Cemetery – Chester Springs, Pennsylvania

by Kaylah Stroup

I feel like recently a lot of my posts have mentioned how ridiculously cool I think my family is. This is another one of those posts. Back in January, my sixteen-year-old nephew texted me about our many greats great grandfather. He’s super into genealogy which is something that interests me but basically only in the sense that I’d like the information handed to me and then I wanna go see where those folks are buried*. So, when he told me a bit of information about this random family member and mentioned he found the cemetery he was buried at, I was definitely interested!

*That really makes it sound like I’m not interested but I am! It’s just that I have a lot of other hobbies and spending time/money on genealogy sites just doesn’t make the cut at this time. There’s only so much time in a day, ya know?

Nearly a whole year has passed but as I was getting ready to hit the road and head to Philadelphia last weekend for a concert I happened to remember those texts. My nephew had mentioned it was ‘somewhat close to Philadelphia’. As luck would have it, it was only 20 minutes or so off our route. Of course I wanted to take a little pit-stop!

The route there from the highway was beautiful. Hilly, wooded, and speckled with beautiful old homes. I exclaimed more than once “this is where I wanna live!” The cemetery itself sits next to an old church. There are close to 900 memorials listed on FindAGrave but somehow I managed to essentially walk straight up to what I was looking for…

There he is, Daniel Evans. My great great great great great grandfather! Born in 1743 in Caernarfonshire, Wales, he emigrated to the United States in 1752. Daniel is thought to have been a soldier in the Revolutionary War and was a schoolmate of General “Mad Anthony” Wayne. He fathered eight (possibly nine) children. He died at age 76, in 1820.

I’ve never heard of this man. I know no stories of him, aside from what I read on his FindAGrave page but the excitement of finding a relative was immense! I don’t even have any relatives that I know of with the surname ‘Evans’ but suddenly every Evans in this cemetery was cause for squeals of excitement. Let me tell you, I just kept stumbling upon them too! Most were so old it was hard to make out dates and inscriptions. Still, SO exciting!!!

I kind of thought I’d just be sharing some photos from my little adventure and telling you just that it was a relative but gosh darn it, I’ve been cruising ancestry sites for the last oh… four hours. I’m excited to learn more and visit other cemeteries with the excuse of looking for relatives. I have a feeling that’s going to be my new obsession for a bit. While browsing the internet, I found my nephew’s records of our family tree, that’ll definitely make it a lot easier to start finding where folks are buried.

One of Daniel’s sons. So… an uncle of mine?

Here’s to finding more long lost relatives! xoxo

Check out more of my cemetery posts here.

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Mountainview Cemetery + Wild Horses

by Kaylah Stroup
Mountain View Cemetery in Wyoming

Driving through Wyoming on our road trip, our main interest was ghost towns. I knew from some research I did before hitting the road that the state had A LOT of them.

On the way to Superior, which to be fair I wouldn’t consider an actual ghost town at all, my eagle eye-d husband spotted this cemetery. From the road it doesn’t look like too much. Up on a hill and covered in sagebrush, the majority of the grave markers aren’t really visible until you get up close.

…But within minutes of being inside the small gates, I was exclaiming “this is definitely in my top ten!!!” It hits all the marks for me. Full of unique headstones? Check! Landscaping different than you’d see in the midwest? Check! Old? Check! Kinda sorta off the beaten path? Check! There’s just something truly special about cemeteries in the desert.

Mountain View Cemetery Wyoming

The majority of burials in this cemetery were done between 1900 and 1923, although a new section was opened for public use in 1994. The Superior, Wyoming website notes that most of the graves are dated during the influenza epidemic that followed World War 1.

Did you know that the flu epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people?! 25% of the United States population got it and within one year the average life expectancy dropped by 12 years. Ooof! The national archives and records administration has some information on this which you can find here. Quick, interesting read with historical photos + documents. We did not learn about this in school so I definitely just spend a couple hours learning some history!

As well as finding this excellent cemetery, we also spotted wild horses! It started with one. When we pulled over to take a photo of it, I spotted the baby! Then as I got the 70-200mm lens on my camera and set up my shot, I spotted even more of them. There ended up being nine of them in total!

(Little side note here, I LOVE this lens. At this point, it’s a road trip essential! Being able to get gorgeous animal photos without disturbing them is priceless.)

Not to sound dramatic buuuut it was magical. I’ve never been a horse girl but seeing wild horses is honestly one of the coolest things ever. I was over the moon. There’s just something really special about it. In all our road trips, this is only the second time I’ve seen wild horses. I hope it never loses its magic.

Wild horses in wyoming
wild horses in superior, wyoming

Our time in Wyoming was short but it left me wanting more! My feelings on it are similar to my feelings for Utah which are ‘holy cow, why does no one talk about this gorgeous state!?!” Totally underrated! I can’t wait to go back.

Other posts from this trip –

Check out even more road trip posts under the ‘travel‘ tag & more graveyard goodness under the ‘cemetery‘ tag.

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Old North Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup

Throwing it back to August’s New England road trip again today!

As I mentioned in previous posts from this trip*, we had no real destinations or purpose. Jeff wanted to eat lobster roll and I was interested in the many, many old cemeteries that cover the area. Even with those things in mind, we were really just driving around hoping fun things would fall into our laps. Not our brightest idea. Works in the desert because of the lack of other people but aimlessly driving through areas with high traffic is the worst.

Old North Cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire really was something that just fell into our laps though! While driving down the highway Jeff saw a sign for Portsmouth and asked if I’d like to take go there. I said, “why not?” I’d never been there before and I’ll always take any opportunity to explore a new area, even if only for a brief moment.

I think we both spotted the cemetery at the same time. I basically couldn’t get out of the car fast enough!

Old North Cemetery was established in 1753 and is the second old cemetery in the city of Portsmouth. Gosh darn it! See, if I had done my research beforehand like a normal person I could have visited the oldest one too. Looking on Google Streetview, it looks pretty awesome. Guess we should go back! It’s only an acre and a half of land but it’s jam-packed full of history, incredible headstones, and my favorite things – like skulls and chubby cherub faces. The cemetery is surrounded by a pond, a railyard and… wait for it… another cemetery. Basically, it’s perfect.

I spent so much time wandering around in the oppressive heat trying to see every single headstone. Every few steps I was motioning to Jeff, who was sitting in the air-conditioned car, how excited I was.

One of my favorites. Although not an old stone, what a title! ‘Sea captain of this town’!?! I also really appreciate that it says ‘husband of’. That’s not common at all.

Until next time, Portsmouth! We’ll be back with more time to wander, and maybe a better idea of what to get into so we don’t miss out again.
xoxo

More from this trip –
▴ Three days in New England
▴ Ponyhenge
▴ The Burying Point
▴ the Atlantic Ocean
▴ Old Burial Hill Cemetery

 

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three favorite Cleveland cemeteries

by Kaylah Stroup

The Haserot Angel, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland cemetery

I really love Cleveland. I think we’re a totally underrated city, and I want to do my best to help spread the word that this should be a place you visit at least once. Last month I shared some of my favorite spots in Cleveland, and before that, I spilled the beans on my favorite beachcombing spots in the city. Now, I’m back to talk about my favorite cemeteries.

One of the very first things I do after choosing a location to take a trip to is search for their best cemeteries. I wanna check out all the coolest headstones, and wander the oldest graveyards. Trouble is, without putting in a ton of research, it’s not that easy. Unless a city has a wildly popular memorial or is known for their cemeteries (hey there, Salem!) most people don’t necessarily go around posting lots of photos or information.

Buuut this is The Dainty Squid, and it’s October so here we go!

▴ Lake View Cemetery

12316 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH

Cleveland’s most popular cemetery! The kind of place that even if visiting cemeteries in each city you visit isn’t something you regularly do, you might come here. 285 beautiful acres, many famous interments including a former president, tons of beautiful headstones, and even a few geocaches. It’s a wonderful place to spend an afternoon – although it would take you a whole heck of a lot longer if you wanted to see everything. Every single time I go I find something new!

Must see memorial – The Haserot Angel, of course! A bronze sculpture of the ‘Angel of Death Victorious’ who appears to be weeping black tears. Lake View is pretty large and he’s easy to miss but the good news is you can simply use your GPS. The ‘maps’ app has The Haserot Angel listed as a landmark. Using the directions will only get you to the cemetery, not the memorial. Once inside you can use the location pinned as The Haserot Angel and yours to work your way closer.

Another favorite of mine is the weeping woman a few photos below. She’s life-sized and honestly, one of the most haunting statues I have ever seen. I am not superstitious nor do I think cemeteries are creepy but I’ll tell you what, I don’t like turning my back on her. My photo doesn’t do her extremely detailed and realistic face justice.

lake view cemetery, best cleveland cemeteries favorite cleveland cemeteries

▴ Monroe Street Cemetery

3200 Monroe Ave Cleveland, Ohio

Monroe Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery on the West side of Cleveland, until the late 1890’s it was actually the only public cemetery on the West side. It is said that burials began in 1818 but the earliest headstone that can be found is 1827. There are currently over 31k people buried on the 13.63 acres, over 500 of which were soldiers. During the civil war, soldiers who died at Army camps near Cleveland were often buried here. There are also two mayors, as well as many notable folks who helped build Cleveland and Ohio City buried here. My favorite fun fact about the cemetery though? It was fenced during the 19th century to keep out wandering hogs.

Must see memorial – This isn’t one specific memorial but since the moment I spotted them I’ve been enamored with the headstones that line the fence closest to the junkyard. When you enter the cemetery they’ll be to your far right approximately half way down the fence. They’re old and often, the greenery around them keeps them mostly hidden. The rest of the cemetery feels so open and inviting but this line of headstones feels so tucked away and secretive.

Monroe St. Cemetery, fall cemetery

▴ Riverside Cemetery

3607 Pearl Rd, Cleveland, OH

Riverside Cemetery is 102.5 hilly, green, tree-covered acres. Riverside was the first major-sized, non-sectarian, garden-type Cemetery established west of the Cuyahoga River. The cemetery is just over 140 years old and offers a wide variety of memorials. Just like Lake View, on each visit I find something new and interesting.

Must see memorial – One of my favorite headstones in Riverside is Thomas Baran’s. It’s an interesting collage of seemingly random items. Easily one of the most unique headstones I have ever seen! Multiple portraits of Jesus, book covers, telescopes, planets, and so much more can be found on the headstone. I have a few more photos of it located in this post. If you’re entering the cemetery off of Pearl Road, stay to your left and about 3/4 of the way to the back of the cemetery, it’ll be on your right side.

best Cleveland cemeteries Riverside Cemetery, Cleveland cemeteries, best cleveland cemeteries

Two notable mentions –

▴ Erie Street Cemetery is the city’s oldest existing cemetery. It’s fairly small but definitely worth a peek if you’re out wandering around the city. Although they aren’t all marked, there are nearly 18,000 interments!

▴ Not in Cleveland but worth a stop if you’re traveling through or up for an afternoon drive, Willoughby Village Cemetery is home to ‘the girl in blue’. One of my absolute favorite headstones. Read more about her here.

I’d love to hear about your favorite cemeteries in your city!
xoxo

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Old Burial Hill Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup

Old Burial Hill Marblehead, MA

Old Burial Hill Cemetery in Marblehead, Massachusetts came highly recommended by many folks whose travel suggestions I hold in high regard. Not that that matters because after visiting Salem I had completely forgotten about those recommendations. Luckily, as we were leaving the area, I thought to look at the FindAGrave app. I spotted the name ‘Old Burial Hill’ and instantly recognized it as somewhere I remembered looking up previously. I’d have definitely been bummed to miss out on this beauty!

Old Burial Hill Cemetery was established in 1638. It’s one of the oldest graveyards in New England. Surrounded by gorgeous old homes, on top of a rocky hill, overlooking the Atlantic, it basically could not be any more picturesque. The headstones are all beautifully preserved, and in incredible shape for their age. Nearly every one of them covered in symbolism. Skulls galore!!! Will I ever get over the excitement of skulls on headstones? I think not.

Aside from the hot sun relentlessly beating down us, our visit couldn’t have been more lovely. It seemed like every time I turned around there was something super awesome that caught my attention. I was especially fond of how close the houses were to the graveyard. One house, in particular, stands out in my mind it had a kitchen window that looked directly out onto the cemetery. Taking photos of headstones near it felt weird because it was THAT close.

'2 children' headstone

More from this trip –
▴ Three days in New England
▴ Ponyhenge
▴ The Burying Point
▴ the Atlantic Ocean

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The Burying Point

by Kaylah Stroup

Charter Street Cemetery

In the past few years, I’ve crossed off more than a few bucket list travel spots. Two bigs ones being Roswell and most recently, Salem. Both places, although very different, I love for the same reason. They’ve embraced their pasts and in turn, become kitschy as all heck. Roswell is covered in aliens, even places like the local furniture store have alien decor. Similarly, Salem has something witch-related every way you turn! Witches don’t interest me the way that aliens do but it still ranked pretty high on my list of must-visit cities.

Salem was just as lovely as I imagined. Witches everywhere! It was such a sweet, little walkable city. We left our hotel early in the morning and explored Salem before it really got busy for the day. We wandered the streets, peeking in storefronts that weren’t open yet, grabbed a coffee and headed toward the one thing I really wanted to check out on our short visit – The Burying Point. One of the oldest cemeteries in the US and the oldest one in Salem!

Charter Street Cemetery

I was a little nervous about the small cemetery being busy. Even if you’re not the kind of person who visits cemeteries while on vacation, The Burying Point would probably still be somewhere you’d visit while in Salem. Being an earlier riser certainly has its perks though! We were the only people around aside from some construction workers across the street.

Each headstone was more beautiful than the last! It killed me to have to stay on the path (although I do understand the reasoning in such a high traffic cemetery.) Being from the midwest, where our cemeteries aren’t that old and definitely don’t have as interesting headstones, I still freak out over headstones with skulls. I enjoyed every second of our visit.

headstone with skull and wings

Beside the main cemetery is the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. Built in 1992, the memorial consists of 20 granite benches dedicated to the victims of the Salem witch trials. Each states the victim’s name, the date of their death, and how they died. We visited these a little bit later in the day when the city was much busier. People filed through the memorial, briefly glancing at each inscription. There were flowers on each of the benches and other small trinkets throughout (including a Reese’s Cup! Why a Reese’s Cup!?) There was a much more somber vibe here than in the cemetery, despite only being a few feet away.

So hard to believe the Salem Witch Trials were something that really happened. Giles Corey, whose memorial is pictured below, is especially hard to fathom. Retelling history isn’t exactly my forte, so instead, I’ll point you to his Wiki page. Yikes.

Pressed to Death

I wish we had spent more time in Salem. I certainly wouldn’t mind going back and actually checking out all the museums and shops. I definitely still consider our visit a success though. Coffee, a beautiful cemetery, a souvenir t-shirt from a bike shop (it has a witch on a bike!!!) and some of the most delicious macarons I’ve ever eaten.

Until next time, Salem!
xoxo

More from this trip –
▴ Three days in New England
▴ Ponyhenge
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Thurber Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup

The very last stop on our epic family roadtrip / destination wedding adventure was easily one of my favorites. It’s hard to say something is your favorite when you literally just got married a few days earlier and spent a whole bunch of time with the people most important to you. So, let’s call this my favorite aside from the things that basically automatically get ‘favorite’ status. Although, one could argue an old cemetery complete with friendly livestock grazing inside automatically ranks up there as well.

This was another FindAGrave app find. Just like our previous stop, we were all hankering for a place to stretch our legs and explore. I browsed Roadside America but didn’t find anything that looked interesting on our route so I turned to my second app of choice, FindAGrave. The reason I always say it’s not the best is because of the limited information it gives on places. It’s nice for locating cemeteries but who really knows if it’s going to be worth checking out or not. I decided it was worth the gamble since it wasn’t too far off the highway in the direction we were heading.

We arrived at the address only to see it was wooded, gated, not visible from the road and presumably, up a bumpy looking dirt road. Worse than that was that, there was someone at the gate closing it up. We pulled into the large pull off area in front of the gate and asked ‘Is the cemetery up there?’ hoping if he had some sort of authority he’d say it was okay if we poked around. He cheerily responded that yeah, it was up there, the road was driveable, he was just visiting his grandparents, to make sure to close the gate behind us and to have fun!

We crept up the dirt trail in our rental cars. After going through a second gate, we entered the cemetery. I could immediately see that it was going to be a good one. Then I spotted why there were so many gates and why it was so important to keep them closed! A beautiful cow was grazing alongside the graves. I’m not sure if there were more but I was excited just to see her. It was a really beautiful sight, and of course, I’m always excited to see animals. I was also very happy we’d been dragging around the 70-200mm lens. I was able to get some nice close up without disturbing her.

After getting my shots of the seemingly random cemetery cow, I started to wander around the rest of the grounds. It seemed like everywhere I looked there was something that got me all excited. One of the things I loved most was the huge range of different grave marker types. The whole thing was the complete opposite of the uniformity most cemeteries have. There were crosses made from pipes, headstones that appeared to be stamped somehow, metal crosses, and of course, your classic granite obelisk among many other unique one of a kind things I’d have trouble even describing.

Thurber Cemetery has a ton of history, and what makes it most interesting is that they have signs scattered about with little factoids. Instead of being dry and boring, they were actually fairly humorous. Clearly written by someone with a lot of opinions – check out the one a few photos below. “idiotic cemetery restoration attempt…” 

I hesitate to describe a cemetery as ‘fun’ but I’m having a hard time thinking of any other descriptor that works as well or sums up my feeling on it. There was a cow, there were cactus, a little bit of every type of grave marker you could think of, and interesting information sprinkled throughout. I loved Thurber Cemetery. I’m really glad we got off the highway to check it out!
xoxo

More from this trip;
▴ just married!
▴ instant photos from our wedding week
▴ that time I got married in a ghost town
▴ Cadillac Ranch
▴ Boothill Graveyard
▴ Twin Arrows + Two Guns
▴ Steins Cemetery
▴ abandoned motel in New Mexico

Clearly, it needs updated since in the two years after hitting publish I’ve found many others I LOVE but I have a list of my top ten cemeteries!

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Steins Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup

ghost town cemetery, Steins Cemetery

The FindAGrave app isn’t perfect but it did lead me here and that definitely counts for something!

Normally the drive back from anywhere feels so much shorter because you have whatever you did to occupy your mind. This definitely should have been the case, since Jeff and I had just gotten married a few short days earlier, buuut the drive from Phoenix back to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport was long. LONG. Loooong. I guess what made it feel so long was that we knew we were on a tight-ish schedule. There was time to explore but at the same time, we all just really wanted to get some miles behind us so that it didn’t seem quite so daunting. Fifteen and a half hours is a lot of time in the car!

It had only been a few hours since our detour to Tombstone, AZ but we were all ready to find somewhere to stop again. This will be a repeating theme throughout the rest of the posts I have from our drive after the wedding. I love long car rides but what’s the fun if you’re not stopping every twenty minutes to check out things along the side of the road and take photos?! Luckily, my husband and my parents feel the same way.

I haven’t been to too many of them, but I’m hooked on desert cemeteries. On any road trip, I’m going to make an effort to find interesting cemeteries but in the desert my need to find them is even more intense. The FindAGrave app showed Steins Cemetery coming up, it looked pretty small. Only 24 memorials are listed but the three small thumbnails in the app looked promising. I was stoked from the second we pulled up! It was beautiful! Okay, maybe not everyone’s vision of a beautiful cemetery but the absolute perfect desert cemetery. A strange variety of memorial types – flat stones, crumbling concrete crosses, and small wooden planks – all weathered by the hot sun. No two headstones were the same, and most weren’t even remotely similar to the ones beside it. It was an interesting hodgepodge of styles, for sure!

desert ghost town cemetery Steins Cemetery ghost town cemetery

The cemetery is small but an excellent place to stop, stretch your legs, and of course, poke around a bit. There’s even a geocache right outside the cemetery! Here are five reasons to start geocaching, if you haven’t already.

More from this trip;
▴ just married!
▴ instant photos from our wedding week
▴ that time I got married in a ghost town
▴ Cadillac Ranch
▴ Boothill Graveyard
▴ Twin Arrows + Two Guns

ghost town cemetery

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Boothill Graveyard

by Kaylah Stroup

Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona is easily the most tourist filled cemetery I have been to. Even more so than Granary Burying Ground! It also marks the first cemetery I have ever paid admission to check out. $3 gets you entry, a pamphlet detailing all of the known burials, and a short speech about the cemetery from the sweetest little old lady. (Dream job much???)

Tombstone wasn’t originally on our itinerary but when I realized how close we were I figured it’d definitely be worth a detour. With a name like Tombstone, it’s no surprise that I’d be interested in visiting this historic town. Tombstone calls itself ‘the town too tough to die!’ Its a place essentially frozen in time. Down the main strip, lots of original buildings remain some even decorated with bullet holes from gunfights. There are ghost tours, daily gun fight reenactments, mine tours, gift shops, a shooting gallery and most exciting to me, pressed penny machines galore!

All of that was great but I was most enthused by the cemetery! Since the original grave markers were wood very few stood up to the test of time. What can be found now are recreations. Some are humorous, like Lester Moore whose epitaph reads as follows…

‘four slugs
from a 44
no les
no more’

Others give the cause of death such as Six-Shooter Jim who was ‘shot by Burt Alvord’. Then there are lots that are just ‘unknown’. The pamphlet you get when you enter gives you even more information. To be honest, I didn’t look at it once while still in the cemetery because I was so excited to see everything and take photos but I really enjoyed reading it once we got back in the car. The cemetery isn’t that large but there’s lot to see.

boothill graveyard, tombstone, arizona, cemetery Boothill Graveyard Tombstone, AZ

It was hot as heck, and the graveyard was full of living folks (I did an A+ job shooting around people, huh?) but we all really enjoyed ourselves. Definitely worth the price of admission to cross yet another famous US cemetery off my list!
xoxo

More from this trip;
▴ just married!
▴ instant photos from our wedding week
▴ that time I got married in a ghost town
▴ Cadillac Ranch

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