Yesterday Dave and I spent much of the day travelling from cemetery to cemetery in Wayne County; six cemeteries in all.
We came across the gravestone for several members of the Thomas Richardson family at Richardson Chapel Cemetery. For Mary, his wife [Apr 3, 1810 to Jun 13, 1890], we found a long, barely legible inscription. As we were trying to decipher it, a light bulb flashed in my mind; type the first few words that we could read into my smart phone to see if anything came up. The results:
The first four lines were one verse from “Resignation” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882:
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There is no Death! What seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call Death.
The next four lines were the first verse of “There is no Death” by John Luckey McCreery, 1835-1906
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There is no death! The stars go down
To rise upon some other shore,
And bright in heaven’s jeweled crown
They shine forevermore.
The inscription included verses from two poets.
Technology is wonderful!
I loved this post. Until I started doing family history, I never knew how comfortable I would feel wandering through cemeteries, learning new things. I love that you found a way to decipher the inscription. Enjoying your blog … found it while looking for Iowa genealogy bloggers.