Tombstone Tuesday and the Presidential Seal

The quality of this photo is not my best, but I had to share it anyway. On my trip to the east cost in October, we had the chance to visit Mount Vernon, it was so beautiful. We did not have a lot of spare time to see the sites and what we did see was very rushed. 

While visiting Mount Vernon, we paid for the National Treasure: Book of Secrets tour. I love these movies and was intrigued to see this historical sight from the movies perspective. 

Our tour was no more then 20 people, large enough for group participation in questions asked and small enough to be able to get individual attention by our tour guide. 99% of the tour was the outside grounds of Mount Vernon, the only thing inside that we saw was the basement. We entered the basement through the outside doors and went down a few steep steps, our purpose there was to view the cornerstone. The original cornerstone had been removed an

d placed upstairs in the house. But we got to view the one they replaced it with, our purpose there was to see how the movies changed things around.

Our tour guide took us to all the important places on the grounds that was used in the National Treasure movie and explained how they changed things to make the movie more "Hollywood". The tour was wonderful and I wished we had more time to wander the grounds and see inside of the house. 

When the tour was over we took a few spare minutes to visit the tomb where the Washington family is buried. In his will, President (General) W

ashington had decided where a new tomb would be built to replace the family vault that was deteriorating. In 1831 the tomb was completed and  the Washington family, including Martha and the General and other family members. 

According to the woman that I spoke with there is about 30+ people buried in this tomb. She could not tell me exactly who they all were. 

When the remains were moved to the new tomb, The General and Mrs. Washington were moved to a sarcophagus, which was to large to fit into the tomb that had been built. Originally, all of the family were to be onside the tomb, nothing was to be viewable by the public. Since the sarcophagus was too large, a exterior room was built around them and wrought iron fence was placed in front of it. Behind the fence, you can make out the Seal of the President.  Mrs. Washington is on the left of the General and the family is sealed in behind them. 

There are a few stones around the outside of the tomb, I will try to get some of those up on another day. 

What I did not know while we were visiting is that there is a wooded hill which is a slave burial ground that is marked by a memorial to honor all African-American slaves who worked at Mount Vernon. I wish I had done just a little bit of reading before we made this trip so that I could have paid my respects there as well. 

If you ever have a chance to make it to the East Coast, I definitely recommend a visit to Mount Vernon.

Tombstone Tuesday

I realize that everyone is waiting for my post on the Catholic cemetery I finally had a chance to visit but I'm holding off pending further information. So here I bring you the weird dog we saw at Stockton Rural Cemetery the other day. It appeared to be a stray since we could not verify that anyone else was actually in the cemetery at the time. It just made us wonder why the dog chose that particular grave since the people buried there died a long time before the dog was even born. We left the window rolled up and the doors locked. I'm not sure at all why I locked the door because to my knowledge dogs don't know how to open a car door. I guess I watched Cujo too much as a kid.

Tombstone Tuesday

From what I understand. This picture was taken roughly6 or 7 years ago at a Jewish cemetery in Colma California. I'm not sure exactly what the light streaks are in the picture. It just seems awfully spooky that they'd show up in a picture taken in a graveyard. The girl in the picture is my girlfriend and this is back when she just hung out in graveyards for the fun of it. She really wasn't doing any exploration. More likely it was just a nice quiet time. In any event this picture has fascinated me since the first time she showed me. The scanned image doesn't really do it justice but it's the only thing I can show to the masses. I can't logically explain what this could be. The strange thing to me is that it has depth. It seems to come from the back where she's sitting toward the front where the camera is. I guess we'll never know for sure what it was but it's definitely an interesting picture...

Tombstone Tuesday - Unknown Mausoleum

This picture was taken at St. John's Cemetery in San Mateo California. Upon entering the cemetery it was the first thing that caught my eye. How could you miss it? It looked like something you'd see if you were to visit ancient Rome. The strange thing is there were no markings on it at all. Nothing saying who was buried inside and the door seemed to be made of iron. Nobody on the internet can tell me who is buried here. I guess I could call the cemetery and see if they'll tell me but what would be the fun in that?

Above you see the original picture as it came out of my camera. Here you see a color version I edited using Photoshop. You can see I've changed a few things. I love this picture and will probaby order it on canvas when i get a chance.







This is another edited version of the same picture done in an antique style. Both pictures came out great and I'm happy with the results. I just wish I knew who was buried here. I'm not sure why they chose to not mark it with something. The graves in front of it are not part of this beautiful monument. Although this wasn't a terribly huge cemetery it just goes to show you that every cemetery has a hidden gem. The cemetery was also in an odd place. Nestled in between a residential neighborhood surrounded by houses. If it weren't for GPS I would have probably never known it was there. It was beautiful for a smaller cemetery and definitely worth a visit...

Tombstone Tuesday

My Mom recently came home to Chicago for  a short visit. We had to take a road trip to Ohio for a family funeral, so she flew here and we drove to Ohio. While in town for such a short visit, we went to Rosehill Cemetery to visit her father and other relatives. 

When my Grandfather passed in 2000, Mom purchased her plot. She had it set that she would be buried at the feet of her parents. There was some screw up at the cemetery and the sold her plot to another family.  They compensated this mistake by giving her a marker, which has been placed on her plot since. The photo to the right is of Mom, at her plot, with her headstone. They do not make things funnier then this. I tried getting her to lie down on her plot and cross her arms like she was dead, though we all got a good laugh out of the idea. She told me I was morbid, I had to settle for this photo. She would kill me if she saw that I put this out there, but home many times do we go to the cemetery and cry over the deaths of our loved ones? We had a good laugh here, and I will remember this for a long time. 

Tombstone Tuesday - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis

1929 - 1994

Taken on our recent trip to Arlington National Cemetery, October 2009.

Tombstone Tuesday

(Please Click for Larger Picture)
Ok so this is a picture I took at nearby Holy Cross Cemetery in Antioch, CA. We had been receiving a fair amount of rain at the time. There was a rare break in the rain so we decided to go look at the cemetery. At first I was angry the cemetery was so muddy. I just started taking random shots of the water puddles because I liked the reflections here and there. This was the only usable pic of the reflection. It has been enhanced for color and clarity.

Tombstone Tuesday

I had the opportunity to visit the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery yesterday during my lunch break. Do you ever get that sense of excitement when you pull up to a cemetery and know instantly that you're going to find something interesting? There were so many things to look at and my time was limited so I began following my 6th cemetery sense allowing it to lead me this way and that. During my search I encountered a lot of material. One of the things I came across was this marker you see pictured (click picture for larger photo as always). At first I didn't find anything special until I looked at the name. James Morrison. Of course it's not the real Jim Morrison I know. Well he is technically the real Jim Morrison but not the one we all know and love. The lead singer of The Doors. Anyone that knows me or has become my friend through Facebook knows that I'm a Doors fan and have even done some artwork with Jim Morrison as the focus.

Tombstone Tuesday

This was taken at Oakview Memorial Park in Antioch, CA. I have seen tombstones with rocks or pebbles left on them presumably by family members to signify a visit to a loved ones grave. The thing I found most interesting was the huge boulder someone has placed on this one. I'm not sure if this is customary or if it was left by a giant. Interesting nevertheless...

Tombstone Tuesday - Alexander Hamilton

In November 2005, I had the opportunity to travel to NYC with my daughter for her college theater auditions. I was excited and nervous to go. I had never been to NYC before! Though I grew up in the big city of Chicago, the stories of NYC had me scared to even go.

While planning our trip the first thing I wanted to do was go to a few of the older cemeteries. Of course, I figured my daughter and her friend would never want to go with me. 

When we arrived, our hotel room in Battery Park was not ready. We took that opportunity to walk all of lower Manhattan. During our walk we happened upon a few of the cemeteries I wanted to see.  Luckily, the girls had no problem walking through and looking at the history that was around them. The first church we walked into was Trinity Church. It was absolutely beautiful! Above is the grave of Alexander Hamilton, signer of the Declaration of Independance.

Inscription reads:

Alexander Hamilton

The Corporation of Trinity Church has erected this

Monument

In testimony of their respect

for

The PATRIOT of incurrupable INTEGRITY

The SOLDIER of approved VALOUR

The STATESMAN of consummate WISDOM

Whos TALENTS and VIRTUES will be admired

Grateful posterily

Long after this MARBLE shall have moldered into

DUST

He died July 12 1804, aged 47

Tombstone Tuesday in the Wild West

Martha Jane Burke

Calamity Jane

Tombstone Tuesday

A beloved husband and father

Dennis R Drinkwater

May 20, 1943 - Sept --, 1972

This photo was taken at Memory Gardens and Monuments in Arlington Heights, IL.

I found the name Drinkwater to be very unusual. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any information on Mr. Drinkwater to add into this post.

Tombstone Tuesday

This was a really cool marker for John W. Rock. Unfortunately I could not find any info as to who he was or what he did to be able to afford such a beautiful piece. Either way I thought it was worthy of being posted.

Tombstone Tuesday

Henry S. Crocker 1832-1904
Clara E. Crocker 1845-1910

In 1856 Henry founded the H.S. Crocker Company Printers. Promising to deliver the best printing services the West Coast had to offer. Over 150 years later H.S. Crocker Co. is still in business.

It took me 3 trips to Mountain View Memorial in Oakland, CA to get a decent picture of this memorial. I kept getting too close and cutting off part of the feet or the sun wasn't right. It was always something. This has always been one of my favorite statues. Up close she is so lifelike and the detail on the robe is phenomenal.

Tombstone Tuesday

This picture was taken at Oakview Memorial in Antioch, CA. I found it interesting that it looked more like the stump of a petrified tree than anything else. Even more strange was that somebody had been there to place the flowers. Upon closer inspection the stump in the back was a tree of some kind that was pretty flaky. The whole thing was very puzzling. I looked around and the tree seemed to be the only marker. I had to come back and edit this post because I don't remember seeing that thing on the bottom right of the stump. I have no idea what it is. I took another picture of the backside which I'll include as well...any ideas?

Tombstone Tuesday

This picture was taken at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa, CA. The name read Easterby and it was in a sort of open space under this huge tree. The stone itself was pretty raw. Almost as if someone just found a rock and carved the name in it. I need to go back to Tulocay because I had three bored little kids with me that day and it kind of ruined the experience...

Tombstone Tuesday/Hillcrest Cemetery Mendocino, CA

Today I would like to honor a hero. I'm not sure if he was successful in saving the lives of 5 drowning people. But dying in the attempt I think qualifies him as a hero in my book. The incscription reads:

Manuel Jose Trugueiro
"A native of Flores of the western Islands"
Died February 1, 1871
In the Christian and heroic attempt to save 5 drowning men.

I call that a hero in my book. This picture was taken at Hillcrest Cemetery in Mendocino, CA. I was there doing some work and low and behold a cemetery right next door. I couldn't pass it up. So here are my observations on the cemetery itself. First of all I couldn't find any information about the cemetery itself on the internet so everything that I'm going to write about it today is pure observation. What would you expect from a town with only 1000 residents?

I was in the area to inspect an upcoming job for my company at one of the MacCallum house properties called Reed Manor and like I said this cemetery was located right next door. It seemed to be in a weird spot for a cemetery especially being located right next to a bed and breakfast. The sign listed a Chinese section and I don't recall seeing any Chinese buried there. However this cemetery seemed to have a mostly hispanic population. Zenith Hill does exist however. It is a small section of land next to Reed Manor which was donated by Jean MacCallum in memory of the veterans of the Mendocino Coast.

Pictured here you see the grave marker of William and Eliza Kelley. William and his brother James set out for California from Prince Edward Island in search of gold in 1850. On their way they stopped in Panama and set up a store on the Chagres River. James subsequently died in Panama of Cholera while William continued on to California where he found work as a ship builder in the city of Benecia. In 1852 he boarded a ship and set sail for the Mendocino coast. In 1855 he traveled back to his home in Prince Edward Island where he married and returned with his wife Eliza. Eliza became a prominent member of the Mendocino community and aside from raising their 4 children she spent a lot of her time working with the Mendocino Baptist Church which was built by her husband William who is also credited as one of the founding fathers of the city of Mendocino. In 1972 the Kelley House was turned into a museum where it still stands today. The house was built in 1861 and has since been host to a number of silent and feature films. So overall I can't say to make a special trip to Mendocino to visit this cemetery but I can say that Mendocino is a beautiful getaway right on the ocean with a fair amount of history for such a small town.

*Correction - For those of you that read I went to Hill House Inn my address was incorrect. My address information was incorrect when I looked it up and it was actually Reed Manor that I visited. This property was purchased by MacCallum Properties in 2004. Thank you Charles for pointing out my error.

Tombstone Tuesday

Little Charlie lies inside the Alhambra Pioneer cemetery in Martinez, CA (see previous post). There is nothing really significant about his tombstone. It did remind me of a video I recently saw on youtube. After seeing this video I couldn't stop repeating the "Ow Charlie that really hurt" Charlie's death is in no way funny but this video sure was. For some reason it's one of those things that I can't help laughing at every time I see it.

Tombstone Tuesday

This picture was taken at Mission San Francisco De Asis. Obviously it is of Don Francisco De Haro who was the first alcalde of San Francisco. Wiki has an excellent article on the alcalde. There is not much left as far as burial and I can only assume that buildings surrounding the mission have covered much of the graveyard. I can say that within the walls is a beautiful church and of course a ton of history. It was founded in 1772 by Father Francisco Palou and is located at 3321 16th Street San Francisco, CA 94114. Click for directions

Tombstone Tuesday

Ok so it's not really a tombstone but it is a rather large family plot located in Pleasant Hill, CA. We were just driving through to see if we thought anything was interesting as this is a mostly flat cemetery. When up on the hill we came across this family plot. As far as I can tell there is only a gold urn that sits inside and nobody else has been laid to rest as of yet. I felt it would be disrespectful to climb the observation deck so I just snapped a few shots and left. I have no idea who the owners are but this was beautiful. It probably costs as much as a house.