101 Ways, Part 110: Vanquished the World and Relinquished It

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

Simon Bradstreet

d. 1697

Salem, MA

Simon Bradstreet's tomb in Salem bears a copper plaque erected in 1917 to replace the inscription that was wearing away. I have not preserved the capitalization from the plaque because I'm not sure that it is original to the inscription. Also, it's annoying to type 200 words in all caps. I have formatted the epitaph in a way that makes sense to me.

Simon Bradstreet, Esquire

In the Senate of the Massachusetts Colony

from the year 1630 to the year 1673,

then Lieutenant Governor to the year 1679,

and at last, until the year 1686,

Governor of the same Colony

by the general and determined vote of the people.

He was a man endowed with keen judgment

whom neither threats nor honors could sway.

He weighed the authority of the King

and the Liberty of the People

in even scales.

In Religion devout and upright in his ways,

he vanquished the world and relinquished it

on the XXVIIth day of March

in the year of our Lord MDCXCVII,

and in the IXth year of King William Third,

and of his life the XCIVth.

101 Ways, Part 109: Killed by Falling from Cliffs

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

I lied a little bit when I said I didn't do any gravestoning in Bar Harbor. Just a little.

There are an awful lot of epitaphs that say "Killed by X." I didn't want to include them all in 101 Ways because the verb was always the same, but I might as well put them up now. This one from Bar Harbor, Maine is very sad:

Lucreatia K.

dau. of

Rev. Wm. S. & Priscilla

Douglass,

was killed by falling from

Cliffs on Newport, Mt. Eden, Me.

Aug. 3. 1853.

AE 12 yrs.

Dead, but not forgotten.

Erected by her Brother

J.H. Douglass, in 1880.

More Overdressed Kids in Hats

I have about a hundred of these. Poor little 19th-century kids. I'd probably be pursing my lips if someone made me wear that fetching little collar when I'd rather be making mud pies.

More available via Harvard VIA.

Depated #12

I never tire of these. See #1-10 here and #11 here.

Jonathan Lawrance

d. 1775

Groton, MA

Queen Mary 2 in Bar Harbor

Last Sunday, we looked out our hotel window in Bar Harbor and saw a giant ship. Really, it was about the size of the whole town. A little research (and a good zoom) revealed that it was the Queen Mary 2, one of the largest passenger ships in the world. It looked like an island.

101 Ways, Part 108: Perished With 41 Other Persons

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

Now that I've gone beyond 101, I feel that I can include entries that didn't make the cut the first time around. This one was too close to #21: Perished in a Storm.

JACOB JOHNSON, JUN.

who perished with 41 other

persons in Columbia River

Oregon on the night of

Jan. 31, 1852.

by the wrecking of the

Steamer Gen. Warren.

AEt. 32 yrs. 9 mos.

The General Warren ran aground in the Graveyard of the Pacific — the treacherous coast between Tilamook Bay and Vancouver Island. The captain sent a boat for help, but by the time rescuers arrived, 42 people, including Jacob Johnson of Brunswick, Maine, were dead. Some of the bodies were recovered, but I have not found any evidence that Johnson's was among them.

Nice Hat, Kid

Someone in this photo is a teeny bit overdressed:

More adorable kids in hats@ Harvard Visual Information Access.

Murder in America

Readers of this blog may be interested in Jill Lepore's most recent piece in The New Yorker: Rap Sheet: Why is America So Murderous?

Please note the reference to the Lydia Beadle gravestone.

Name of the Day

Begat Eggleston

According to the vital records of Windsor, CT, Begat Eggleston was "nere 100 yer ould" when he died in 1674. This seems slightly unlikely to me, in part because his youngest child, Benjamin, was born only 21 years before. Then again, perhaps Begat lived up to his name and kept on begetting until he was nearly 80.

Begat fathered at least 7 children while living in Windsor: Thomas (b. 1638), Marcy (b. 1641), Sarah (b. 1643), Rebecca (b. 1644), Abigail (b. 1648), Joseph (b. 1651), and Benjamin (b. 1653). It is entirely possible that he had other children born when the people of Windsor were living in their first settlement (Dorchester, MA) or their place of origin (Dorchester, Dorset, England).

In Albion's Seed, David Hackett Fischer argued that Puritan parents occasionally named their children by opening the Bible at random and placing a finger at random on the page. I'm not sure whether I believe that, but it would be a good explanation for Begat Eggleston.

Sadly, while Begat had many heirs, he had no namesakes.

"Euphemisms for Death and Murder"

 
Wikipedia has quite an impressive entry on the subject.
 

In Which A Moral Panic Overtakes Us

See here, you whippersnappers. This newfangled fellytone will be the downfall of our society! Before you know it, you young rascals will be ringing up our daughters and whispering scandalous things in their ears, all without parental supervision!

Gone are the days when a gentleman did his courting in his lady's parlor under the watchful eyes of half a dozen relatives. No longer does the accumulated wisdom of the community steer couples as they try to earn each other's commitment. No — it's all gadding about  on those infernal bicycles and going to the moving picture shows. Where will it end?


Photo via Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century. My apologies to the bespectacled gentleman, who may have been a bicycle enthusiast himself.

101 Ways, Part 107: Passed Away

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

"Passed away" is one of the most common euphemisms for "died" in modern American English. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, phrasal verbs such as "pass away," "pass onward," and "pass hence" have been used as synonyms for "die" since the 14th century. The earliest usages refer to the life or soul leaving the body, but by the 18th century, "passed away" definitely meant "died."

Yet, I have not seen very many New England epitaphs that say that the deceased "passed away." The earliest example I can find is from 1866:

It seems possible that "passed away" may not have been in common usage in New England before the 19th century. By the time New Englanders started using the phrase (mid 19th c.?), they were writing shorter epitaphs that often recorded vital dates without any verbs at all.

I don't know why this might be, though. The OED finds the phrase in all the major works of English literature (Chaucer, Shakespeare, etc.) and it's used several times in the King James Bible. Admittedly, most of the Biblical usages refer to physical movement, but there are enough death-related verses that I would expect people who know 101 ways to say died to pick up on them:

• Job 34:20 — In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.
• Psalms 78:39 —  For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
• Ecclesiastes 1:4 — One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
• Luke 21:32 — Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

I don't know why they chose not to put this on gravestones.

101 Ways, Part 106: Passed Onward

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

Olin E. Webster

d. 1856

Plymouth, MA

OLIN E.

Son of Dr. Ervin & Harriet W. Webster;

passed onward Aug. 28, 1856,

aged 4 years 1 mon. & 20 days.

This transcription comes from Benjamin Drew's Burial Hill. I do not know whether this stone still exists, though I suspect that it may be illegible if it does. Time has not been kind to the marble monuments of Plymouth.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

My brother is 24 today.

101 Ways, Part 105: Left This World

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

Mary Emerson

d. 1784

Pepperell, MA

Be wise to day, tis madness to defer

Erected to Ye Memory of

Miss MARY EMERSON,

only Daughter of Ye,

Revd JOSEPH EMERSON

& Mrs. ABIGAIL his wife,

who in hopes of a better

Left this World June 20th; 1784

in the 33d Year of her age.

Though the righteous be

prevented by death it

Shall be well with him

for wisdom is Ye gray hair

unto man, & an . . .

This is a combination of two themes — leaving the world and exchanging this world for a better:

• #12: Went Rejoycing Out of This World
• #22: Departed From This In Hope of a Better Life
  
• #27: Bid Farewell to This World
• #73: Exchanged This for a Better Life

Don't Light a Torch on Michael Wigglesworth's Grave

Today's Maine Sunday Telegram features a story about Walter Skold, founder of the Dead Poets Society of America. Skold visits the graves of American poets, documenting them and occasionally leaving poems and trinkets.

My favorite part of the article was this anecdote from Skold's visit to Michael Wigglesworth's grave in Malden:

Visiting a graveyard at night can be a dicey proposition and requires special permission. Skold learned that lesson the hard way last year on Halloween when he was nearly arrested in Malden, Mass., where he and his son lit torches at the tomb of the Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, Puritan author of the "Day of Doom."
"Little did I know that there was a little woman who watches over the cemetery and she told the police that there were people performing satanic rituals," he said.

Back from Acadia

Some pictures below the fold, mostly for the benefit of any parents who may be reading this blog.

Acadia National Park

In celebration of my birthday, Pete and I are spending the weekend in Acadia National Park. This is the one weekend in the year during which I cannot go gravestoning without getting suspicious looks and visits from groundskeepers/police/passersby, so we are spending some time in the woods instead. The weather is lovely and the trees are only slightly past their peak.