Some unusual epitaphs and tombstones from the U.S. and Europe, sent in by our crew of wandering BRI tombstonologists.
In Arizona:
Ezikel Height
Here lies young Ezikel Height
Died from jumping Jim Smith’s claim;
Didn’t happen at the mining site,
The claim he jumped, was Jim Smith’s dame.
In England:
Mike O’Day
This is the grave of Mike O’Day
Who died maintaining his right of way.
His right was clear, his will was strong.
But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.
In Guilford, Vermont:
Henry Clay Barney
My life’s been hard
And all things show it;
I always thought so
And now I know it.
In Georgia:
Anonymous
Due to lack of ground in this cemetery,
Two bodies are buried in this one plot.
One of them was a politician,
The other was an honest man.
In England:
Emily White
Here lies the body of Emily White,
She signalled left, and then turned right.
In Vermont:
John Barnes
Sacred to the memory of my husband John Barnes
Who died January 3, 1803
His comely young widow, aged 23,
Has many qualifications of a good wife,
And yearns to be comforted.
In England:
Anonymous
It is so soon that I am done for,
I wonder what I was begun for.
In England:
Anonymous
Stop stranger as you pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so will you be
So be prepared to follow me.
In Vermont:
Anonymous
Here lies our darling baby boy
He never cries nor hollers.
He lived for one and twenty days
And cost us forty dollars.
In Pawtucket, Rhode Island (on a boulder):
William P. Rothwell
This is on me.
Among the artifacts Columbus brought back from his second voyage: a swordfish sword.