MarlowHistoricalSociety.org

[Loisanne Foster]

Glenn Knoblock
New Hampshire Cemeteries and Gravestones
The Marlow Historical Society
Made possible by a grant from the NH Humanities Council
Thursday, May 15 2008
7:00 pm, Jones Hall

Glenn Knoblock is an author of a number of historical Acadia books on New England illustrated with antique photographs. His contributions include books on Portsmouth, N.H. cemeteries; N.H. covered bridges, and Black military history. He researches his materials on site and illustrates his presentations with rubbings, photographs, and slides. He showed us a number of New Hampshire gravestones including some from our own town and explained how they tell long-forgotten stories of the Great Awakening, the Throat Distemper Epidemic, the American Revolution, and much more.

Knoblock emphasized the craftsmen who carved these stones and identified their personal styles, tracing the origins of the symbolism and its meanings. We learned to "read these stone pages" that he called "the vast genealogical book of New Hampshire".

Of great interest to us from Marlow in particular was his assertion that our West Yard Cemetery is "a treasure." Not only is it well-kept for a cemetery of its age, but the imagery, in keeping with new findings from our own paper chase research, the West Yard gravestones show strong influence of the Free Will Baptists. As Knoblock says, The West Yard Cemetery "has Free Will Baptist written all over it." It is exciting to discover this very concrete evidence of library research at Lyme, CT and elsewhere. Knoblock points out that this cemetery, rather than having mainly grim images such as the death's head or the unsmiling angel of judgment or later the weeping willow, has instead images of joy and hope. The rising sun, symbol of sure resurrection, smiling angels to beckon the weary home, and even a crown of glory, set among rays. These things point, even beyond the Great Awakening to the idea of universal salvation and expectation of a joyous life beyond the grave. Yes, indeed! Marlow citizens were a long way, literally and philosophically, from their Puritan forefathers and inheriting Congregationalists. The stones prove beyond a doubt the unorthodox views of Marlow's early settlers.


Knoblock conducted a visual survey of Marlow's West Yard Cemetery and
says that the oldest grave there is that of Lucy Canfield in 1779. Kent is also 1779. (We know that earlier settlers were buried in unmarked or now unidentifiable graves at the Old Settler Cemetery.) In the West Yard Cemetery, the Beckwith graves are the most prominent and the Huntley graves most numerous. The Beckwith grave of 1808 is floral, early for that motif. Rufus Way's stone shows a heart under a willow tree. Many of the graves have little decoration for around 1800. Marlow, in the hinterlands, held to the older designs, except as noted with the Free Will Baptist motifs. Freelove Miller in 1807 has an urn. Mather has willow branches springing from an urn, a sure symbol of renewed life. Elisha Huntley seems to have the strongest Free Will Baptist symbolism of them all with rays shining from a heart over an urn. And don't forget the crown with the emanating rays! How good to have Knoblock's expertise and the physical evidence he gathered support our research which places Marlow's early settlers among those who adopted unorthodox views in Lyme, Connecticut.

Knoblock showed us stones in chronological order. First he showed us Indian faces carved on round stones, no doubt meant as commemorative amulets. They looked for all the world like the round angel faces on the earlier New Hampshire stones. Then we saw examples from the New Hampshire seacoast which was settled long before Marlow. Those showed winged skulls with cross bones. The wings symbolized hope. We know that they believed that only a preordained few would gain heaven. We saw many sad stories written in stone such as the eighteen year old mother who died in Portsmouth.

We learned that the dates on early New Hampshire graves are not always reliable. For one thing, having a stone carved for a grave was so expensive that many a family couldn't arrange it until years after the death and memories might have grown dim. Also, although the old Julian calendar which began on March 1 was supposed to have been abandoned in 1690 and changed to the Gregorian calendar beginning its year on Jan. 1, many of the country folk did not abandon the old time system, so a death that occurred between Jan. 1 and March 1 might have been recorded for the wrong year.

We learned where the stones and the carvers came from. We learned that, although the red stone of Lyme, Connecticut was not transported to Marlow as grave stones, the iconography of Lyme was transferred here. We learned that the earlier gravestones of Marlow, as in the rest of new Hampshire, were carved mainly by men from Massachusetts and Vermont. We learned that many of the early carvers did not work full time at the stone cutting profession. They were mainly farmers and tradesmen who carved gravestones "on the side." That would account for the occasional amateur appearance of the early stones.

Knoblock discussed the works of many well-known carvers of New Hampshire gravestones. He noted the Foster family of Dorchester, MA and pointed out the unusual triangular design with an angel in each corner typical of them. Most of such stones were brought from Massachusetts slate quarries. Many stones were carved by Caleb Lamson of MA. Lamson is one of the few to have initialed his stones. His stones often have the skull with wings. Nathaniel Prentice was also given an hour glass. Lamson and other carvers of his family are distinguished by eyebrows which arch down to form a triangular nose. One done for a five year old John Rogers of Portsmouth shows draperies overhead, the burial shroud. Knoblock said, "It's curtains for him, the end of the act," and wondered aloud if that custom is the origin of the expression.

There is also a Merrimack Valley school of gravestone carving. Images are a bit softened and there are heart-shaped engravings. They are more folklore-like. In some cases, a woman is designated by a squiggly line above her head which represents a bonnet. Some of those more folksy stones are in Keene. By the 1750's and 1760's, the fashion of the skull with wings imagery was dying out.

Then the Classical influence began to be felt as America moved toward a Republic. Latin phrases appeared: "Memento mori." (Remember death.) "Fugit hora." (Time flies.) The willows, the classical columns, and the urns appeared. The willows denote a classical connection through the story of Niobe who turned into a willow to weep forever for her lost children. The classical columns and urns denote dignity and public life. It's odd that the urn became a symbol at a time when bodies were not cremated here.

Robert Parks, a carver from Groton, MA has many examples of his work in New Hampshire, especially among the stones of the wealthy. In his period a tall stone with classical symbolism denoted wealth and status. It was an urban style. Lettering became cursive, a hard thing to do with a hammer and chisel, the only tools they used. By 1780, bas relief half figures began to appear, especially for women, and full figures in flowing, classical robes, much like Greek and Roman statues. These were meant to be idealized portraits of the deceased. There were local styles. Acanthus leaves became popular in some areas.

Between 1770 and 1780 in the threat of war and when war was not going well, the death's heads revived. There is an example in a Hollis Churchyard of this for the wife of a captain. There are two skulls and a coffin, and the inscription, "Not delivered in childbirth." There were many homemade graves for this period too. We see a number carved with crude letters and personalized, perhaps with hearts or with national symbols.

Abel and Steven Webster, Scottish carvers, worked together. We can always tell which brothers made the stone because Stephen's angels smile and Abel's angels frown. There are hearts and Scottish thistles, and even swirls as at New Grange. Some people take these swirls to symbolize spirits, Celtic indeed!

With the 1740's came the religious revival we call the Great Awakening. Suddenly we have whole angles and cherubs. We have the last trump sounding as more and more people are influenced by the more emotional, dramatic aspect of religion. We have fancy borders. As mentioned earlier, the urn appears, reminding us of the Greek and Roman cultures, but it is also associated with Egypt at a time when interest in Egypt's past was becoming a great fad. In 1794, Billy Dodge made a gravestone for his brother with the imagery of a figure rising out of the baptismal font. In Merideth we find a crown and a garland of stars done by Alpheus Kerry of Boston. The man came from Boston, and the stone came from Boston.

Mathias, the first stone carver in Winnipesauki used urns and willows and floral borders in 1812. He used the sunburst element - the setting sun and the rising sun, an ambiguous image for death and a new day! In the same area in the 1820's names began to be arched over the top. The individual takes on primary importance.

In the Victorian era, white marble began to be used among those who could afford it, perhaps a symbol of a pure life. Cast iron grave outlines were used as borders, but most of them were taken in World Wars I and II in the war effort. Roses and a hand holding flowers began to appear. Until the 1830's burial grounds were not called cemeteries. They were called yards. Cemeteries moved from around the churches and became park-like, showing an association with spirituality and nature which grew in the Romantic Era. Also, sometimes towns migrated away from cemeteries as happened in Marlow.

"The stone pages" of West Yard Cemetery, like other cemeteries, tell stories - stories of who came here and their changing ideas through the years as fashion written in stone.

[Loisanne Foster]

For an overview of Glenn A. Knoblock's books on New Hampshire gravestones and other subjects such as Black history in New Hampshire:

http://www.squidoo.com/glenknoblockhistoriannh