Monday, October 6, 2008

101 Ways, Part 51: Lost His Life by a Fall From a Tree

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

To celebrate the halfway mark, I present one of my favorite gravestones: the Allen Wardwell Pitman stone from Bristol, RI. I've been visiting this stone for several years now, and it's buried a little deeper every time I see it. As you can see in this picture, only the bottom right corner was exposed — I had to clean off the rest with a brush. Ordinarily, I don't go around digging in graveyards, but I wanted to get a picture before this stone gets completely buried.

ALLEN WARDWELL
son of Mr. Peleg
Pitman & Mary his
wife; who lost his
life by a fall from 
a tree April 13th
1799, in the 11th
Year of his age.
While on the tree
The summons came
And call'd me
to my GOD.

There appears to be a small urn at the top of the stone, but, obviously, the most intriguing part of the design is the gruesomely literal depiction of young Allen's demise.
Notice the little hat.

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