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Unusual and interesting gravestones.
These pictures and stories have been submitted by our members to
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Unusual surname!
How often have you heard the term "Kaput" when something is all gone, disappeared, completely damaged, etc.? Here is the stone of a couple of people named Kaput! Thanks to Jim Cochran in Santa Rosa, CA for sharing with us. We don't know where this stone is located. In this case, the Kaputs buried here are Kaput!

John & Jacoba KAPUT

Beautiful stone in Lewiston Township, Columbia County, Wisconsin - Tom Nelson
The beautiful piece of art, with links below, is the tombstone of Nels Nelson and his wife Anna Halverson. Nels was born October 15, 1818 in Norway. A farmer in Lewiston Township, Columbia County, Wisconsin, he died there November 7, 1890 and is buried in the Cummings Cemetery

His wife, Anna Halverson, was also born in Norway on August 29, 1831. She died August 16, 1886.

White Bronze Headstones - Peri Muhich
I'm doing some research on "White Bronze" headstones. These headstones look like they are made of stone but if you were to knock on them you would find that they are hollow. Linked below are two photos of one of these unusual stones.

If anyone knows of one of these stones in a cemetery I would appreciate it if they would contact me at 360-210-4172, with the information about where it can be found.

E-mail to:

pmuhich@yahoo.com

The Story of a Rock - Beth Hancock Cross
Click below to see a beautiful cemetery in Holton, Jackson County, Kansas. You will see the large rock (above) in the lower left side of picture.
 
According to her sister, 'Teddy' once saw a big rock out in the orchard where her father was employed and said it would make a nice tombstone.
 
When she was killed in a car accident at the age of 14, her father remembered what she said about the rock and brought it home. He supposedly hand-chiseled her name and the dates on the stone that became her gravemarker.

The Story of the Cross Brothers - Beth Hancock Cross
Ferdinand O. Cross, born in NY, was a sculpter of limestone in Indiana. His brother, Henry H. Cross, was a painter. He, too, came to Indiana
 
From Cross Cave (article written abt 1957)-
  'The story of French Lick would be incomplete without some reference to Cross' Cave. In 1886, Ferdinand Cross, the son of John Cross, a stone-carver of Binghamton, New York, came to Orange County prospecting among the hills that surround French Lick Springs. He came upon a natural amphitheater, a sheltered ravine hemmed in on three sides by great over-hanging cliffs, coot and moss-covered in the shade of mighty forest trees. With a clear, cold spring trickling from a small cave that was thenceforth to bear the Cross name. Here, he built a house, with a studio nearby, where at last he could indulge his fancy with the tools of his beloved trade. And before long, thanks to a capable wife, Cross' Cave became a popular chicken dinner place for hundreds of French Lick hotel guests, who came to partake of the excellent cuisine and explore the small cave.

It was then that wonderful carvings began to appear on the hillside, were once shapeless blocks of limestone had been. among them, was a life-sized group of cattle standing by an old well. There was a pair of turtles, too, bearing their young on their backs. with owls, monkeys, lizards, eagles, snakes and all manner of wild things. There was the thorn crowned head of the Man of Galilee, and an inscription in stone, "He was wounded for our transgressions."

  Then came the younger brother, Henry Cross, to work beside him with his brush and palette.

Today only the crumbling foundation of the old house where they spent so many happy hours remains. And all that is left of the carvings is a part of the group of cattle by the old well, with here and there a broken fragment of some lesser evidence of the stone carver's skill.

The end of the trail! A sheltered spot in the beautiful southern Indiana hills, which must have been a source of great inspiration to these two lovers of the beautiful, on the many occasions when they worked side by side, Henry with his brush and palette and Ferdinand with his chisel and mallet.'
 
This picture is of Ferdinand's gravemarker. Notice the small block at the base of the monument. This is a marker for Henry Cross. He died in Illinois but requested his ashes be brought to Indiana and buried beside his brother.

From The Meadowlark Gallery, Inc. 118 North 29th Street Billings, Montana 59101-

Henry H. Cross was born in Flemingville, Tioga County, New York in 1837 and died in Chicago, Illinois in 1918. Cross was a painter of Indian portraits, genre, and racehorses. Henry twice ran away from home to join the circus before he was the age of fifteen. He studied animal painting with Rosa Bonheur in Paris when he was sixteen. On his return to the United States, he again traveled with a circus headed west, painting animals on the wagon sides. In 1860, he opened his studio in Chicago, but in 1862 he left for southwestern Minnesota during the Sioux uprising there. He painted all of the Sioux sentenced to death by President Lincoln because of their massacre of white settlers. Afterward he traveled with P. T. Barnum's circus again as a wagon and sign painter. He also made trips into the Indian country on his own, sketching and painting Indian and animal life as well as cavalrymen and scouts. After 1900, he returned to Chicago, executing commissioned paintings, particularly Indian portraits. His noted sitters included King Edward VII, President Grant and King Kalakana of Hawaii. A plump, bespectacled man with a walrus mustache, he spoke Sioux fluently and painted his Indians "in a stern faced pose with their backs to a stormy sky." Buffalo Bill Cody called Cross the "greatest painter of Indian portraiture of all times." Cross's portrait of the Sioux chief Red Cloud was one of his best known works.His painting, "Camp of Sitting Bull in the Big Horn Mountains 1873" was the cover illustration for the Vestal biography of Sitting Bull.
 

Family Burial Ground - Beth Hancock Cross
This family burial ground can be found in Taney Co., MO. The husband, Anderson Floyd, died in 1891. According to story passed down through the generations, his wife built the stone wall around the grave. She, Elizabeth Floyd, died in 1900 and is buried to the left of her husband. No one knows if there are others buried there.
 
This picture was taken Nov 2004 by Carol Thompson of Arkansas.

My Great Grandfather's Sisters - Beth Hancock Cross

These gravestones were markers for my great-grandfather's sisters. They were buried on the farm near Bills Creek, Barbour Co., West Virginia. I'm not sure when these pictures were taken. Since that time, cattle were allowed to roam on land where the sisters are buried. Consequently, their gravemarkers have now been trampled into unreadable pieces.
 
The inscriptions on the stones are:
Rachel Tennessee Carter
We loved our tender little one
and would have wished her stay.
But let our father's will be done,
She shines in endless day.
(Rachel was two weeks old when she died in 1869.)
 
Martha Ellen Carter
She was lovely, she was fun
And for awhile was queen.
An angel came and claimed his own
and bore her home to heaven.
(Martha was 1 yr, 9 mo, 7da when she died in 1874)

The story of the Weeping Angel - Patricia McKee Bauer

In an area near the Cestius Pyramid and some crumbling remnants of the Aurelian wall in the middle of Rome, Italy, is a protestant cemetery. One of the most beautiful stones in the cemetery is that of Emelyn Story, a woman who died in 1895 in Rome. It is a grieving marble angel that was carved by the hand of her husband, American sculptor William W. Story, whose own grave lies next to hers, and that of their young son, Joseph. This beautiful sculpture rivals the works of the famous old masters. I saw this sculpture in 1980 when I traveled to Rome and spent over two weeks traveling around the city with my husband's sister, a resident of Rome at that time.

Some facts about the Story family:
Emelyn Story Born: 0/10/1820 at Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Died: 1/ 7/1895 aged 74 at Rome Italy

This monument is the last work of William W. Story. It was executed in memory of his beloved wife in Rome, 1895. William Wetmore Story died 7/10/1895 aged 78 at Vallombrosa, Italy

Joseph Story, the only child of William W. and Emelyn Story was born May 3, 1847 at Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He died November 23, 1853 at Rome, Italy.

Click on the links below to see various pictures of this beautiful sculpture..

The Story of the Broken Tombstone - Patricia McKee Bauer

I finally found the obituary for the very old Elizabeth House who was buried in the Kirkville, Iowa cemetery. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't find any stone for my ggg grandfather, George Washington House.

His wife Elizabeth (my ggg grandmother) was there and the stone states she was the Wife of G. House. She died Oct. 5, 1863 at the age of 78 years. The stone for the other Elizabeth was to the right side of my Elizabeth. This story explains the whole thing and I had to laugh when I found it because the second Elizabeth had a sex change from George to Elizabeth because of a broken tombstone. Poor old George will be forever known as Elizabeth in that cemetery. I sent information to the Wapello County Historical Society to notify them of the information I had found.


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OTTUMWA WEEKLY COURIER
OTTUMWA, IOWA
January 15, 1879

DEAD - AGED 120 YEARS
George House, of Cedar Township, Mahaska county, died at the residence of his son, A.J. House, near Kirkville, on Friday, the 10th inst. and was buried on Sunday at the Westview Cemetery in Kirkville, Iowa.

     Mr. House was a very old man, and for 14 years has been able merely to be about, not being capable of doing any work. His sons have no record of his age, the family record having been lost or destroyed. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and 1814 and drew a pension as such. As near as can be ascertained he was born at Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, March 25th, 1758, eight months before it was captured by General Forbes, on the 25th of November, in the same year.

The old gentleman always claimed that it was called "Redstone Old Fort," though the history of Pittsburgh, Fort Duquesne and subsequently Fort Pitt, gives no account of it. Pittsburgh, at the time he was born, Mr. House claimed, was not in existence or even thought of. He lived for 24 years in Cedar township, Mahaska county, adjoining the Wapello county line. His wife, Elizabeth, died 15 years ago, and was 74 years old when she died.

     If Mr. House's statements are correct, at the time of his death he was 120 years, 10 months and 18 days old. He retained his mental faculties until a period of three weeks before his death, at which time he had a stroke of paralysis and after that he rapidly declined until the day of his death.

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FURTHER INFORMATION:
     The records I have show George Washington House drawing a pension from the War of 1812. It also states the following: "In 1871 of Cedar Twp., Mahaska County, Iowa, and wife Elizabeth had died. George was 88 years old in 1871." This would mean he was born in 1783 which is logical since his parents, Andrew House and Hannah Snapp, were supposedly married about 1782 at Westmoreland, PA. George was born at Redstone Twp, Fayette County, PA.

     The picture of the tombstone shows "Elizabeth" House although it's partly broken and apparently it orignally said "George House, husband of Elizabeth House. Wouldn't old George have a fit if he thought he was buried forever under a gravestone that says he's a woman! He is buried beside his wife Elizabeth and their son Andrew J. is buried on the other side of Elizabeth. Their son Andrew J. House died 14 Aug 1899 at the age of 84 years.

     I feel so fortunate to have found the gravestones of my ggg grandparents when we made a trip through Iowa in May of 1996. With no listing to tell us where the graves were located, we had to walk row after row and find them. We knew the death dates so only had to look for very old stones. After searching through about 15 to 20 rows in this large cemetery we located them. We looked for very old stones since we knew he had died in the 1870s. Now maybe we can find those of his parents, Andrew and Hannah (Snapp) House, in Kentucky some day, too.

Last modified on Monday, August 13, 2007