Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-12-15
TOMBSTONE LITERATURE,
Some Curious Epitaphs Collected on Long
Island and Elsewhere.


Island and Elsewhere
tSag Harbor Correspondence New York SUM-
I am something of traveller, and [
have a weakness for tombstone itera-
tnre. My notebook is full of lines copied
from inscriptions on marble slabs in diff
ferent parts of the country-some of
them half effaced by time, and many of
them written with little skill of song
craft. / am particularly struck with
those [ find on the east end of Long
Island, for the reason that they refer in
so many cases to the nautical life in
which so many old Long Islanders en-
gagged. Here ill Sag Harbor I find
stone at the head Of the grave of a sailor
who, the inscription explains, &" died in
port" Below is the following:
Rude Boreas' winds and Neptune's waves
Have tossed me to and fro;
BY Gods decree, you plainly see,
IN harbored here below.
1t was the old time practice here to
tell how the deceased person lost his life:
hence | find in this cemetery scores of
graves with the inscription after the
names and dates:
Killed by Whale.
''.'''.....'-'.-..
One stone says that the graves occu-
pant was ''Shot by gum, "and another
man [ find "died by lightning" A hand
some shaft stands in the Sag Harbor
cemetery erected to the memory of sail
ors killed by whales. On one side of the
monument is cut representing whale
striking small boat with his fukes and
a number of sailors trying to escape. Out
on Block Island [ found this over a sea
captain:
He's done catching cod
And gone to meet his God.
In the Sag Harbor burial ground
three children of the same parents are
buried. The epitaphs bear witness that
the first has "Gone to heaven" the
second "Gone to meet her brother"
The third has the following:
Kate, aged years, months.
Twas here. IT'S gone. Where is it
/ wondered whether the parents had
changed their religious views, or whether
the youthful Kate had been guilty of
sins that, in the minds of her parents,
untitled her for association with her de-
ceased brother and sister, and which
made her whereabouts after death con-
lecture.
The grave of Captain David Hand,
who died in 1910, at the age of eighty
one, is in the same cemetery. He had
five wives, who are all sleeping near him
in a row. Upon the tombstone of his
third wife is the following:
Behold, We living mortals passing by,
How thick the partners of one husband lie.
Vast and unsearchable the ways Of God,
just, but severe, feel his Christening rod.
l was told by a descendant of the
family that the captain had secured the
affections of sixth lady just previous to
his death, which leaves the inference
that he did not mean that the ones who
had gone before were to him as &c chas-
tening rod.
The following epitaph of recent date
exhausts the vocabulary of adulation and
suggests a sufficient 'Fcause of death"
1t is on stone near Easthampton, L. L.:
j. NJ. C., Esq, age %.
1t is but just tribute of respect and
affection to the memory of this excellent
young man to say that he possesses a
strong and improved mind, amiable dis
position, dignity of department, gener-
OS1ty VI SpHlt, uUoTdllGy Ol sentiment,
benevolence of feeling, kindness of heart,
truly characteristic of those Christian
principles which he early imbibed and
which inspired him with patience through
long and distressing illness, stripped
death of it's terrors, the grave of its
gloom, clothed his face with smiles upon
the dying couch, and filed his soul
with the hope of blessed Immortality.
In New London, Conn.,, is lot con-
tanning five graves, those of man and
his four wives. The women's form four
sides of square, and the mans is in the
center, while the inscriptions are as fol-
lows:
= My l. Wife. ::