Today Geoff and I took a trip to South Weymouth, MA to visit Mount Hope Cemetery where his Civil War ancestor, Moses Beaulieu, is buried. Geoff has done a lot of research into Moses Beaulieu and recently discovered a photo of his headstone and rough location in the particular cemetery in South Weymouth.
It took a while to find the headstone even though we knew what it looked like because the paths in the cemetery had no signs or markers. In the process of searching I did get a chance to snap some photos of some very interesting old stones, some of their engravings, and some interesting features of the landscape.
This was a headstone for a soldier in the 12th MA from the Civil War. The star on the left is a marker for the GAR.
These were from a time when metal memorials were a fad. These panels are cast metal and bolted together. All the better to keep the zombie seeds in place I suspect.
Nice acanthus leaf detail on this marker. The lichens on the stone were a common theme in the cemetery.
The detail on the side of this memorial is really lovely.
A very deco looking stone. This one was very cool and in great shape.
“Mother” has seen better days. Apparently the tree grew into and around the headstone and then at some point fell over. They cut away the tree and as much of the stump as possible but it still looks like something from a front yard Halloween decoration. Or possibly from the set of Supernatural.
This is the memorial we were looking for. Geoff is standing next to the side with Moses’s name. He’s going to look into the other names and find out how they’re related. Those names were a new discovery and completely unknown prior to our visit today.
This is a detail from the carved granite band at the top.
At the top of these two photos, which are side by side stones, is a lovely engraving. The bottom photo is what happens to some of these stones over time.
The engravings above in slate are lovely. Slate doesn’t tend to hold up too well over the years, but these were still visible, even with the lichen.
This is what they’re gonna put on my headstone.
19th century headstone, 21st century emoji. My favorite find of the day.
~Kelly
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