Historic, Patriotic Cemeteries

New England, hence Connecticut, is filled with historic Cemeteries.  Each pat of the country lays claim to it's own history, but Connecticut played a major roll in the Revolutionary War as well as the Civil War.  Few actual battles were fought in Connecticut but Connecticut people participated significantly.  The City of Meriden, CT goes back to the 1600's as a settled area.  It became an organized City in the early 1800's, but residents o the area were active in the life of Connecticut. 
The sign below gives a brief summary, and is locate at one corner of an old cemetery off Broad Street in Meriden.

 

Below see some vistas of the cemetary, which is on a low hill just off the street.

Patriots from the Revolutionary War are buried here and there is a Bronze placard indicating this.

Finding the particular stones for these individuals would have been too time-consuming so I just photographed some of the more interesting stones.

Aside from having the name Yale on this stone it is interesting in that it is one of several stones that have been coated with a preserving surface. If you click on the picture to make it larger you can see the texture of the coating.

The stone above is another preserved stone.  What I find interesting is that the Anchor and the word Hope are featured.  I grew up in Rhode Island and know that the Anchor and Hope are the seal of Rhode Island.  There may be no connection, but it is interesting.

What follows are some rather distinctive stones from the 1700's.  The first name is Ives and I do know that the Ives family was prominent in Meriden and Wallingford.

Gideon Ives, 1777

Samuel Hall, 1795

Captain Divan Berry, 1783

I usually point out Obelisks when I find them there were a number of smaller obelisks and they follow.

There are two here!

This last one is the tallest of the bunch.  Many of the stones are of a red kind of stone.  It has lasted since the 1700's but weathering is obvious.  Many of the stones here were damaged by the weather and I suppose that lead to the attempt to preserve some of them.

Ethnic Cemeteries - A Visit to Ireland?

Tired of flowers?  I promise there are no flowers featured in this post.  Some cemeteries are definitely religiously oriented and the one in this post is a Roman Catholic Cemetery.  This one also seems to me to be predominately an Irish cemetery.  I say this for two reasons; there are a large number of Celtic Crosses and most, but not all, of the family names are Irish.  I come from a Danish-Irish background myself.  My mothers grandparents came to this country from various parts of Ireland.

St. Joseph Cemetery is located in Waterbury, Connecticut and I have often passed by it.  I live in this community.  This was a beautiful Spring day and the cemetery was a quite refuge from the busy streets beyond.

There were several stones similarly designed here.  This was one of the nicest. The image was nicely carved and the engraving on the base stone was exquisite.

This statue rests on a pedestal that indicates that this is the marker for the Parish Priests.  I think that this is a nice way to do this.  I have seen many individual markers for Clergy, but this one is a nice way to remember the Parish Clergy as a whole.

These  are two of the many cross monuments.  They are among the smaller of the crosses, but they are nice in their own way.

 This large monument was a part of what appears to be a family cluster of monuments.  This is the largest of the cluster and some of the smaller ones can be seen to the right.

Perspective can make a great difference.  This is the same monument from above, but from the end.  Notice the nice straight lines of the other stones.

Remember I mentioned Celtic Crosses?  There are three here.

There are several more here.

I especially love the carving work on this final Celtic Cross.  You can click on the picture to see a larger version.  These are very traditional Irish and Celtic designs.  The IHS comes from somewhere else ( it is a monogram for the Greek name of Jesus ( I H C O Y C).  The C is a sigma, so IHS or IHC is the first three letters in the Greek name for JESUS.  If you pronounce the J as a Y then you will pronounce the name as the Greeks did.  This use of the monogram for Jesus is common in Celtic crosses.  Let me point out there are other explanations for the IHS. The other designs on the cross predate Christianity.

Spring is Here!

Spring is here and Easter has already come and gone.  The trees are budding and once again I am venturing out to shoot pictures of the area's Cemeteries.  I found yesterday to be an excellent day weatherwise and managed to cover two cemeteries.  One of them is in m home-town of Waterbury and the other is a historic Cemetery in the city of Meriden.  These of course are all in the State of Connecticut.  I will feature each of the Cemeteries in future posts, but this time I am going to feature some of the flowers I saw.  Often flowers in a cemetery are in some sort of pot, but these are growing in the ground.  Some of them have been specifically planted, but some are volunteer plants.  Now to the flowers.

This is a Tulip that has been planted by the stone.  Tulips are beautiful, but the flower lass only a short time.

Daffodils are like Tulips, they are beautiful but are short-lived.  I actually cropped out some of the withered flowers.

The Bluish flower is a Hyacinth. I don't know what the red flower is.  the Hyacinth is one of the first bubs to bloom and these are well past their prime.  The red flowers are beautiful.

I am not sure what this plant is.  It is very small and delicate and I believe a derivative of something that was once planted.  They were all around this stone.  This is a closeup view.

These delicate little bluish flowers  were found all over a certain area of the cemetery.  I know them as May Pink.  They are a wild flower and appear to be a kid of pansy, but I am not sure.  Why are they called May Pink?  I have no idea they are a purplish blue color.  They tend to grow until someone mows the lawn.

Dandelions are often thought of as weeds, but this one set near the blue flowers is quite pretty.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Peace!

The Hope

Looking to Spring and Easter

For all too long this has been the look out in the Cemeteries this year.  In fact, this picture is from last winter.  This winter was far too nasty for me to be out and taking pictures in Cemeteries.  I am not twenty any longer!  I thought that it would be nice to do a Blog Post of some of the flowers from last year in anticipation of this Spring and Easter.  These are not new photos, but I have in most cases cropped them to show mostly the flowers.

These are very much Easter flowers.  There is a palm cross with lilies in the center.  In many ways this is quite traditional.

Again this is quite traditional.  Tulips are very much Spring and these are quite nice.

This is very beautiful, but not place here by someone.  These are wild flowers.  I have heard them called May Pink.  I am not great at flower naming, but I will a times make an attempt.

I don’t know what these are, but I like them.  This little cluster was off to the edge of the cemetery and these didn’t get mowed.

These were on the side of the same cemetery as were the following two.  The last one is a bush and is quite bright.

I will now post some without need for comment.

In the end the following are not the most beautiful, but they may be the most meaningful.  These are a form of Lilly.  Lilies are symbolic of the resurrection.  Christians will find this  important as the message of Easter and ultimate hope from God.

Egyptian, symbols and Patriotic

Occasionally I encounter a Cemetery that has so much of interest that I think I won't have enough room for the interesting pictures.  This was one of the places.  I was driving with a friend along the Naugituck river in Connecticut and I noticed this Cemetery and just had to stop.  I used my older purse camera.

Many of our monuments take their inspiration from  Ancient Egypt.  The stone below is obvious. The design is a kind of Spynx.

I have featured obelisks before, but this one is very tall and beautiful.

The Egyptian symbolism is found almost everywhere.  There is also other kinds of symbols.  The stone below has a Masonic theme.

And another Masonic stone with a Husband and Wife, the husband in the Masons and the wife in the Eastern Star.  Though I was never in the Eastern Star, both my mother and aunt were and my grandfather was a Mason.

The next stone was just unusual.  I like the unusual stones and this one is really a stone.

We now go for the rather unusual or I might better say the out of ordinary.  This stone has colored engraving.

And this one is engraved with what I  believe is Japanese, but I am not positive.

I just like the shape of this one.

And this one.

I think that this is a family cluster of stones around a Cross.

And finally, This row of stones is rather special.  They represent men who died in foreign lands and who's bodies were interred in those foreign lands.  It is a reminder of the dedication of the young people who go off to protect our country.

Some of them never return!