The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-10-30
The GRAVE OF TIMROD.
A Great Granite Boulder and IFS
Simple Inscription.

Simple Inscription.
Columbia, October At is indeed
a happy thought, that of Capt. ". A.
Courtenay, that the memorial work
to Henry Timrod, the poet, should be
completed and ready for inspection
on the anniversary of his death. To
see that the work was properly and
well done Capt. Courtenay came here
and gave the work his personal super
vision and direction, and it is almost
needless to remark that the work has
been artistically and thoroughly done.
On the 9Th October, 1867, Henry
Tmrod passed way at his little cot
tage home On Henderson street, Whlch
is still standing, having escaped the
cruel and needless confagration OF the
city in February, 1855. Next Monday,
9TH October, will be the thirty-fourth
anniversary of his burial.
Those, amid blackened ruins and
gaunt chimneys, who bore the poet to
his last resting place IN Trinity Church
yard were Gen. Wade Hampton, A. N.
Talley, N. D., Robt. W. Gibbes, NJ.
D.. Hugh S. Thompson. Melvin M.
Cohen and F. G. de Fontaine. Those
were the sad and troublous times OF
bayonet rule in the then prostrate
State, changed to carpet-bag eHrontery
and negro Ignorance, which donl-
mated the State until the chief mourn
er at the poets grave redeemed the
State in 1875.
With the first dawn of the new pub
lie life (1S77) that gifted citizen and
loyal Carolinian, Carl Mckinley,
visited this then neglected grave and
wrote:
80 Our one sweet singer breaks no more
The silence sad and long;
The land is hushed from shore TO
shore,
It brooks no feebler song.
See where he lies-his last sad home
OF all memorial bare,
Save fer a little heap of leaves,
The winds have gathered there.
Those Of the present generation can
little realize the desolation-the de-
preston of spirit-in the 1865-76 pc
Rod; but it is comforting to know
that with the change from barbarism
to civilization our poet claimed early
attention. The repsonse to Carl Nc
Kinleys' poetic appeal was move
ment, headed by the Hon. H. s..
Thompson, the late Judge G. S. Bry-
an, Prof. F. A. Poreher, DR.. Jas. H.
Carlisle, Prof. ". J. Rivers, the Rev.
Ellison Capers and others, to at least
mark the grave, and this was done ;
true in very simple form, but sufi-
cient for the purpose.
After the end OF generation the
poets fame, keeping its freshness and
fidelity, has come to full maturity ;
his poems are now read in every State
of the Union, and they are now asked
for in Canada. An elegant art memo
rial has recently been unveiled in
Charleston, which has given very gen
eral satisfaction. The Memorial As
ISOLATION, - under whose auspices these
richly deserved honors have been ac-
eomplished, close their gracious Off
ces by coming to Columbia and restor-
ing the burial spot of the poet, his
mother and younger sister.
The glory dies not, and the grief is
past. "
The burial lot has been enclosed with
a handsome wrought iron fence, three
and a half feet high, erected on solid
granite coping; gate, closed with a
simple latch, gives entrance to the
sacred spot; the area has been graded
carefully and viii be planted in grass
with Ivy. Each burial place viii be
marked with a gray granite memorial,
in rustic fashion, which in each case
shows the aim and purpose Of perma-
nent structures, on solid concrete foun-
dations, that Will stand through the
centuries as
a forted Residence 'gainst the tooth
Of time, and Razure of oblivion. ..
Before Emerson died he requested
that MS grave be marked with gran
ite boulder, on which should be in
scribed the dates of birth and death
and his name. In Sleepy Hollow
Cemetery at Concord, on the same
path leading to the graves of Haw-
thorne, Thoreau and Miss Alcott,
stands Emerson's. simple boulder, as
he had wished it to be. The commit
tee directing this work, Governor H.
S. Thompson, DR.. 4. G. Woodward
and the Hon. VIM. a. Courtenay, J
have placed over the poets last rest
ing place gray granite boulder, five
and half feet high, three feet square
at base and about thirty inches at
top. In the front face is a sunken
panel bearing this simple epitaph:
l829-67.
Henry Timrod,
Poet,
and his only child-Willie-
lie buried here.
1901.
The next grave is that of the poets
younger sister; it is marked by neat
granite memorial bearing this epitaph {: