Tag:

cemeteries

Workman Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup July 25, 2016

Last weekend Jeff and I took a little trip to visit a waterfall that was around two hours away. The drive was fairly uneventful. Ohio is a wonderful state, there’s lots to see here but there is no denying that sometimes the drive from one area to the next is boooring. At least for someone who grew up on this side of the US.* Rolling fields surrounded us, and apart from gorgeous old farmhouses every so often there wasn’t much to look at. Shortly before the waterfall we passed a beautiful cemetery. I spotted a few old stones from the road but didn’t think too much of it.

After having so much fun hiking around the waterfall, we weren’t quite ready for our little adventure to be over yet. Jeff asked if there was anything else I wanted to do while we were out and I suggested swinging by the cemetery we had seen earlier. I figured there would at least be a geocache there (there totally is!) and that maybe, just maybe, I could snag a few photos.

I hopped out of the car, examined my surroundings, and apologized to Jeff. “I’m going to be a while. I just need to shoot this, and this, and this! Oh and that!” The cemetery was a lot older than what it appeared to be from the road. While it was no Mount Moriah, it was even slightly overgrown in spots. I was in love!

We wandered around the cemetery for a while, going our separate ways then joining up again to excitedly point out interesting headstone to each other. This beautiful, old cemetery seemed so randomly placed. Surrounded by fields, it was like none I had ever visited before. I did a little research when I got home but could find no extra information or anything out of the ordinary on this place. (I was hoping for ghost stories, obviously!)

There were a lot of instances in this cemetery where I was super excited about this or that but I think that finding the face above took the cake. Jeff and I were admiring two large headstones, both doing the mean lean. They were meticulously carved with beautiful detail but I didn’t even notice the face until Jeff pointed it out. While it’s no skull and cross bones (number one on my to find wishlist!) it’s incredibly awesome!

Every time I think to myself that I’ve already visited all the interesting cemeteries in my surrounding area I’m proven wrong.
xoxo

*Last year when we visited Phoenix the guy at the rental car place asked where we were from and upon hearing Ohio exclaimed how green and beautiful it was here. He was amazed by all the trees! We, on the other hand, were completely enthralled with Phoenix and it’s desert landscape!

Orange Hogsback Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup June 16, 2016

Summer is supposed to be the most fun time of the year but it’s almost always the busiest which kind of makes it not so fun. Finding time to hang out with everyone lately has been hard. I’ve been that friend that is like “we HAVE to do something. I don’t care what it is, just something! It’s imperative!” So last week along with getting ice cream twice (seriously, my favorite way to meet up with friends) we did some long overdue geocaching.

We had plans to head to a cute little town not too far away that has a waterfall, hoping there would be lots of caches there but on the way I was browsing the app and found a cache in a cemetery. Geocaches in cemeteries combine two of my favorite things – cemeteries + finding treasure so I suggested we stop in and look for it.

The cache turned out to be a quick fairly easy find but the cemetery itself was a real treat. Nestled in the woods, you’d never know it was there if you weren’t out looking for it. We actually drove right by it and had to turn around. Orange Hogsback Cemetery has a total of sixty two permanent residents. The oldest we found dated back to 1813. That’s ninety nine years before the Titanic sunk!!!*

While someone else signed the log for everyone, I darted around taking photos. I had no intention of taking any photos when we got there, let alone enough for a post but it was such a wonderful location. Not to mention, it was a beautiful evening- not too hot, not too cool. I feel like the photos captured that. Clovers always feel like summer to me. The grass just looks so soft I want to crawl into the photos with a blanket and a book and spend all day relaxing.

If you haven’t tried out geocaching yet, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s such a fun hobby and a most excellent way to discover hidden gems. If I had never started I wouldn’t have found my new favorite beach or this wonderful cemetery! Plus it’s an awesome excuse to get your friends together.
xoxo

*When I was in grade school I was really into learning about the Titanic. While I was a hair too young to watch the movie without my mom covering my eyes when it came out, I still pored over every book I could find on that big boat. I don’t really remember much of what I learned about it but the year it sunk is still clearly ingrained in my head so it’s often how I compare history dates.

Brown Pet Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup May 19, 2016

While I was looking for things to check out on my little day trip to Columbus I stumbled across Brown Pet Cemetery. I have been to countless cemeteries over the years, like a lot a lot a lot. I blog about them so often that they’ve even earned their own tag here on the blog. I’ve never been to one that was the final resting place for people’s pets though. I wasn’t sure what to expect (yes, I did. I knew that I’d cry!) but felt compelled to check it out! What can I say, I was curious…

Brown Pet Cemetery is located in Columbus, Ohio, right across the street from the airport. Certainly not the most peaceful of resting places but an absolute beauty! Some of the oldest headstones I spotted date back to the 1920’s. Some are handmade, and others are more elaborate than some I’ve seen for humans. A surprising number of the headstones even had photos! The front of the cemetery seems to be fairly well maintained. The back half of the cemetery is nestled in the woods so it was understandable to see that a handful of headstones that have been damaged by fallen trees. It also appeared that some were slowly falling down the hill little by little each year.

The majority of the deceased seemed to be dogs, followed by cats but I also saw a headstone for a bird! Online, while researching this cemetery, I found a photo of a headstone for two ducks but I somehow missed that while I was there. Probably because my eyes were all blurry from crying!

So what was it like? Oh, I just sobbed… the whole time. Like red faced, snot nosed, runny make up SOBBING. Every time I’d start to regain my composure I’d find a headstone with an inscription that got me going all over again. Jeff texted me while I was there to say something like “Hope you’re having a nice day!” When I told him where I was his response was “What are you doing there?! Why!? That’s so sad!” While it was incredibly sad, it was overwhelmingly beautiful. Obviously I wept for their owner’s loss but half the tears came from a place of great appreciation for the friendships we form with animals. It makes my heart swell to think about those bonds. Seriously, I sometimes get teary eyed when I see strangers sharing a special moment with their pet. Basically, when it comes to animals, I’m a huge blubbering fool.

It’s so lovely to think what an impact these animals made on their owners lives that they decided to get them such beautiful headstones when they passed. Some of the headstones with photos were so old! It’s crazy to think about a time when photography wasn’t even a fraction as popular or accessible that someone was like “Yeah, I really love this cat. I’m going to need to get some glamour shots done of her.”

My absolute favorite photo found on a headstone at the pet cemetery.

I hesitated to share this post because it is sad and that’s not really the type of content I share on The Dainty Squid. Jeff even said “I’m not going to read that post, it’ll be too sad!” As much as I cried seeing this in person, and even though I got choked up a few times wiring it, like I said above, it really does warm my heart that people loved these animals so much! I hope you guys out there reading can see the beauty in it too.
xoxo

Greenlawn Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup May 10, 2016

I’m trying hard to get back into the habit of taking weekly drives to fun destinations. It’s a lot harder to find new places now that I’ve been doing this for a while so I’m having to dig deeper and most of the time, drive a lot further. Last week I wanted to find a new cemetery to check out so I did some browsing around Find A Grave and ended up discovering Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is a little bit of a drive for me, just over two hours, but the cemetery looked promising.

Greenlawn Cemetery was founded in 1848 and covers over 360 acres. It’s the final resting place for over 150,000 people. It’s probably in the top five largest cemeteries I’ve visited. It’s also probably the most confusing. Most cemeteries have a few main roads throughout, and even if they’re large you never really seem to get lost. Greenlawn, on the other hand, was almost like a maze. I ended up in the same few spots multiple times while trying to navigate my way around. I’m certainly not complaining, it made for a fun day!

A lot of cemeteries have a headstone that kind of becomes their most popular “attraction”. Cleveland’s Lake View Cemetery has the Haserot Angel, Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Ashtabula has the train disaster monument, and Greenlawn has George Blount. Seen directly above, below, and at the very beginning of this post. Georgie, as he is lovingly referred to, was born on Sept. 26, 1867, the only son of Eli and Sarah Blount. Mr. Blount owned the American House Hotel, where George slid down a banister and crashed into a heavy iron stove hearth. He died a week later. All these years later, locals still take care of Georgie. His headstone is one of the most visited in the cemetery, and apparently always decorated. When I visited the ground surrounding his headstone was covered in small trinkets and toys, and his hands were full of pennies. In the winter it’s a regular occurrence for him to be “decorated” with a hat and scarf (which can actually damage a headstone since they hold in moisture)

Little Georgie’s grand headstone was beautiful, no doubt, but I think my favorite of the day still has to go to Tommy with that incredible bed monument. He was only eight months old so the bed isn’t very large but my goodness, it’s detailed. I took so many close up photos trying to capture all the details, including the ruffles on the pillow, and tassels on the mattress. The artistry that goes into some of these headstones really just blows my mind.

Aside from these two, there was still tons to see! A cemetery this size is no doubt packed with amazing things. I’m sure there is so much I missed, especially since there was a section I was avoiding all together due to funeral proceedings. I did manage to find tons and tons of symbolism though. Here are few of my favorites featured in this post, see if you can spot them for yourself…

century plant – represents immortality; everlasting life.
clasped hands – farewell to Earthly existence and God’s welcome in heaven.
hand with heart – charity, used by both Odd Fellows & Masons.
lamb – innocence, often found on the gravestones of children.
willow tree – perpetual sadness or mourning

My final thoughts on Greenlawn? Definitely worth the drive!
xoxo

ladies of lake view cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup March 21, 2016

I’ve spent a few days over these last few weeks hanging out at Lake View Cemetery. Lake View Cemetery is what I would consider Cleveland’s best known cemetery, occasionally referred to as “Cleveland’s outdoor museum.” It occupies 285 acres and more than 107,000 people have been laid to rest there, including President Garfield.

In 2013, before living in Cleveland was ever even a spark of an idea in my mind, I drove up to photograph the cemetery. I was enamored! I wished so badly it was closer to home. Now I’m a mere fifteen minutes away… and never really spend anytime there. Then I saw that there were more than a handful of geocaches located in the cemetery. That was just the motivation I needed to get out and do some more exploring!

After two days of wandering around the grounds I still haven’t gotten all of the caches and definitely haven’t seen all of the cemetery. I’ve been parking my car in a random section then just walking from cache to cache (gotta get them steps on my Fitbit!) which is fairly exhausting. Lake View is very hilly, and the caches aren’t exactly close to each other. All that walking has given me lots of time to check out headstones. There are tons of incredibly interesting things to see here but I just kept noticing the statues of women. Some angels, some represent deceased, and others are mourning lovers. The detail is just mind blowing. I can’t even imagine how much work it took to carve these or how much money it cost.

crying angel, headstone, lake view cemetery, angel of death victorious

Although the post is titled “Ladies of Lake View Cemetery” I had to add these two. Above is the Haserot angel, or sometimes also called “The Angel of Death Victorious.” He holds an upside-down torch to symbolize a life extinguished. Due to weathering he has tear stains running down his cheeks. It’s one of the cemeteries most notable monuments. Not far from the Haserot angel I found the dude below who, in my opinion, is just as creepy! He also looks like he’s crying and I swear those eyes followed me everywhere I moved. The Haserot angel seems like he’s slightly less than life size… or maybe he’s just smaller than me but the guy below was life sized and it felt like he could just walk over to me when I wasn’t expecting it. I’m not one to be frightened by cemeteries, headstones, or anything like that but I was definitely happy to get my shot and get outta view of him.

I’m sure I’ll be back at Lake View again sometime soon to find the rest of the caches and take more photos. It was fun to choose a theme to photograph since it’s easy to be overwhelmed with what to shoot in there because of the size. Until next time, Lake View…
xoxo

Mound View Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup March 3, 2016

I love cemeteries, y’all know that. They’re peaceful and no matter where they’re located they’re almost always devoid of all people. Last week after visiting the Knox County Poorhouse I headed to Mound View Cemetery. It didn’t seem like it would be that big of a cemetery. My main reason for going was to search for a headstone I had seen a photo of online that read “Little Men”. I really really love headstones that say things that are a little bit out of the ordinary. Upon a little bit further research I found that these “little men” were actually the Wild Men of Borneo. I didn’t really know too much about them but I felt like I had heard that name before so I was definitely interested in finding the headstone.

Hiram and Barney were two mentally disabled brothers from Knox County. They were apparently sold to Doctor Warner in 1852 by their desperate mother after the passing of their father. Hiram and Barney were given new names, Waino and Plutanor, and a sensational back story about being from the island of Borneo, where they had been captured after an intense struggle. They were each around 40 inches tall and weighed about 45 pounds but could perform feats of great strength such as lifting heavy weights, and wrestling with audience members on stage. It is said that they could each lift around 300lbs on their own. They eventually became involved with P.T. Barnum and his traveling show. During their 25 years with him the pair made over $200,000 which in that time was an incredible sum of money.

I’m very interested in sideshow history and any headstone I can find information on is pretty cool my book, so this was definitely an awesome find. I’m actually surprised it took me this long to hear about it. I’m curious who chose to put “little men” on their headstone though. “Wild Men of Borneo” seems like a better fit if that’s what they went by…

The Wildmen of Borneo, Waino and Plutanor, Mound View Cemetery

Anyway, before even being able to find their headstone I was already more than impressed with this cemetery. It was easily in my top ten, mostly because it was absolutely teeming with symbolism! Lots and lots of older headstones have symbols on them. It’s nothing new for me. Over time I’ve become familiar with many of them. Some are so common I don’t think anything of them when I see them but everywhere I looked in Mound View there were symbols! It ended up being the majority of what I photographed.

I’m going to list a few of my favorites, see if you can find them in the photos…
anchor – hope or eternal life
arch – the passage to heaven
dove – peace, messenger of God
hand pointing up – hope for heaven
lamb – innocence, often found on the gravestones of children
upside down torch – the end of life, or a life extinguished
willow tree – perpetual sadness or mourning
wreath – victory in death

We have some really incredible cemeteries in Ohio, like this one. The one thing we don’t have going for us is that we aren’t very old, at least not compared to some other parts of the US that are a little further east. Symbols on graves aren’t all that popular anymore and haven’t been for a while so there are tons of them I’ve never actually seen in person. That’s not to say they aren’t in my state, I may have just not found them yet. I even have a list of symbols I’d love to find. Ranking high near the top is a skull and crossbones, just because it seems so stereotypical and like something that would a Halloween decoration instead of a real headstone, I guess. Thinking about finally finding one gets me all excited. Heading east this year is a must!
xoxo

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Mount Moriah Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup February 23, 2016

After deciding to take a spur of the moment trip to Philadelphia for Valentine’s Day, we hit the internet for ideas of what to do. I guess unlike most like people we weren’t looking for museums, or delicious restaurants, although we obviously love both of those things. We were looking for abandoned buildings, accessible rooftops, and any other little interesting, yet often overlooked, nooks and crannies. I knew from my last, visit a few years back, that Philadelphia has some really great cemeteries. I was thinking we could swing by Laurel Hill Cemetery again. It was beautiful, my photography has definitely improved since then and I’d love to re-shoot it. Then we found it… Mount Moriah Cemetery, the cemetery of my dreams.

Mount Moriah Cemetery was established in 1855. It’s the final resting places for over 80,000 people. It spans 380 acres. You can read the full history of the cemetery here. The short version is that the cemetery was privately owned but in 2004 the last known member of the association passed away. Basically it was a big legal mess and the cemetery was essentially abandoned. It suffered from years and year of neglect. Large sections became completely overgrown with weeds. I even saw a tree growing straight out of an obelisk! By golly, this place is a sight to see!

I didn’t do too much research on the cemetery before visiting. I guess I didn’t want to get too excited in case we weren’t able to make it there. So my first though upon parking outside the cemetery was “Okay, this has to be trespassing…”* Jeff and I slipped in through the broken fence and made our way to the gatehouse, which was what initially caught our attention in the photos online. It was in A LOT worse shape than we had seen. I actually didn’t even mange get a decent shot of it, the sun was at a funny spot in the sky, and I was completely overwhelmed with everything else that surrounded me.

I don’t even know how to describe this cemetery to you right now, except that it was all of my cemetery dreams come true. I know, I’m sorry, thats awful to say. I don’t think it’s awesome that someone royally screwed up and let this happen to a cemetery but I would be lying to say that “abandoned cemetery” didn’t rank SUPER high on my list of things I’d like to photograph.

In 2011, Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery was formed, a group of clearly amazing volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the cemetery. Although the cemetery was definitely overgrown, and in the worst shape I have I ever seen a cemetery in, it was obvious that lots of hard work had been going into it recently. Trees growing up beside headstones and been cut down, and there were piles of brush waiting to be hauled away.

Right now FOMMCI has a gofundme running to raise the money needed to save the gatehouse. It will cost $35,000 to stabilize the structure. They currently have $24,500 from a grant and previous donations. They need another $10,500 to keep it from becoming a pile of rubble. Any donations over their goal (which they reached in two days!) will be used for additional Mount Moriah Cemetery capital improvements. You can read more and donate, if you feel so inclined, here!

We barely saw a fraction of the cemetery. It’s the largest in the state of Pennsylvania! Part of me is sad that it’ll no longer exist in this condition. I’ll never be able to experience it like I did on this day but I guess that’s why I feel photography is so important… The other part of me knows that’s obviously a really good thing that it’s now on the up and up. I’m sure returning this cemetery to it’s former glory will take a very, very long time but it’s definitely on it’s way. FOMMCI, you guys rule!
xoxo

*Just wanted to note that everything I’ve read says the cemetery is open and visitors are welcome.

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Ballarat, CA

by Kaylah Stroup July 23, 2015

Fish Rocks, Salt Wells Canyon, CA

Cell phone service in the desert is hit or miss. I either had all my bars or nothing but while I did have service I was browsing Roadside America for spots to hit. That’s how we found Ballarat. Formerly a supply point for the mines nearby, Ballarat is now a ghost town. In it’s heyday it was home to nearly 500 people. It had 7 saloons, a jail, a school, a handful of hotels and more. There isn’t much left anymore, just a few rusted out all cars, shells of buildings, and a cemetery.

I was a bit nervous to visit since it’s a little ways off the main road. I was worried it would be home to someone who might be offended by our visit. A sign near the entrance of the town read as follows…

“this is a free zone take any kind of photos you want. camp party make movies etc no harm. nobody cares feel free. learn nothen setting in your car the friendly zone welcome to ballarat ghost town…”

After seeing that I felt free to roam…

The thing I was most excited about in Ballarat was the cemetery. I’d been on the lookout for an old desert cemetery since the last trip and we had yet to stumble across one. I saw photos of this one on Roadside America and that was actually one of the biggest reasons I wanted to visit. This one was smaller than I had been hoping for but still so awesome. It had such a gorgeous view and it was just a world of difference from the cemeteries we have here. And this headstone?! Get out! Easily one of the most interesting I’ve ever seen in person.

We didn’t stay too long in Ballarat, it was hot and we were both anxious to get into the national park but it was definitely a great stop.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Monroe Street Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup November 25, 2014

I love cemeteries but there is just something about cemeteries in the fall that makes them a thousand times more beautiful, and more peaceful. This cemetery is close to a few other places I frequent but somehow I’d never spent much time poking around in there. I finally got around to doing it last week and I couldn’t be more pleased with my photos. I actually spilled tea on my laptop just a few hours after I got done editing these and my first thought was “Nooooo! The cemetery photos!!!” After a few days in a bag of ride my laptop made a full recovery! Hooray! Although I am still finding pieces of rice everywhere…

It was a gorgeous day for checking out the cemetery, albeit pretty cold. The leaves were all different colors, and the sky was overcast which is my favorite to shoot it but for some reason all my shots looked uninspired. I just wasn’t able to capture what I was seeing in person. Right as I was about to leave a headstone off in the distance caught my eye. When I walked over to photograph it I realized there were all kind of tiny little headstones along the fence that had, for the most part, been neglected and forgotten. Ivy had begun to cover most and I even found a few that had been completely buried underneath growth. My fingers were so cold I felt like they might freeze but I had to keep looking for other little hidden treasures.

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.
xoxo

Bonus fun Monroe Street Cemetery fact : It was fenced during the 19th century to keep out wandering hogs.

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