Jewell & Willie

Here's another that makes you wonder...

Jewell & Willie were buried in the same place and share a headstone. What is not known is if they were brother and sister or a married couple. The shape of the stone suggests they were children. I've seen several other graves belonging to young people with a similar design.

Most of the information engraved on this stone is illegible. Jewell's date of death is now partially buried.

Mary Facing East

I noticed this statue of Mary while taking pictures at Pecan Grove. It wasn't near any graves so I'm not sure if was placed as a marker or purposely placed to face in the direction where someone is buried (which happened to be east). In any case, I thought it was interesting because it looked so old.

A Bad Week for the Davidsons

Mr. and Mrs. Lou Davidson's infant son unfortunately died at birth on October 9th, 1873.

Then on October 15, Mr. Davidson himself passed away at age 23.

There's a story here...wish I knew what it was.

Below you can see the infant's stone (on the left) and Lou Davidson's stone not far away. Again I have to wonder about the wording. "Sacred to the memory of.." almost sounds like the stone was put there as a memorial, not necessarily as a grave marker.

Galen McKinney

All we can tell about Galen McKinney is that he departed this life on September 5th. The headstone was split right over the year so we don't know when. I also couldn't locate the bottom of the headstone which is probably still in the ground somewhere near the tree this part was propped up against.

I thought it was also interesting that the headstone reads "in memory of..." Maybe they didn't have a body to bury?

Infant Son

Another child...this one was a boy who only lived 20 days and was never given a proper name. Son of J.P. and Mattie M. Nenny, 1871.

Obviously after the headstone broke, someone propped it up on the piece that was still in the ground.

Although no one is posting comments, I've been getting an earful about the toppled headstones...

"..very sad."
"...that's terrible"
"..eerie"
"....why would you take pictures of that??"

To me, walking through a cemetery is like walking through an art museum. Once you get past the whole "final resting place" idea, you can spot art everywhere you look. To some, the headstones that have fallen over seem to conjure up images of the forgotten. But just because a headstone over 100 years old has fallen over doesn't mean that person is forgotten or nobody cares. Nothing lasts forever...not even grave markers.

So, is it not art because they mark where dead people are buried? It's not the actual dead person, after all. It's just a slab of cement that marks where they are buried. Some were created to be works of art to be looked at. Let enough time pass and eventually the Earth reclaims them.

Willie E. Bailey

This one is from Pecan Grove Cemetary, also in McKinney. This is also another young child who died about 2 weeks before his 8th birthday.

It appears that the stone wasn't mounted to the base that well and eventually became detached.

James H. Huey

I started a new project recently photographing toppled or broken headstones. Originally I intended to photograph grave plots decorated with the American flag on the 4th of July, but I didn't see that many. I did see many old, toppled headstones and thought they were more interesting.

By "toppled" I really mean they've fallen over or have broken due to age. Several were forced up by the roots of a nearby tree and eventually fell over. All of them are old, and you have to wonder about the history of these plots and the people buried there.

This one is from Williams Cemetery in McKinney. This grave belongs to a young boy who died less than a week before his 5th birthday, probably due to disease or an illness which was usually the case in 1887.