Gift of Quiet

I was reading a blog this morning, a knitters blog. I knit among other hobbies that I am desperately trying to whittle down to manageable numbers. There are just not enough hours in the day... I do not have time for a full time job! And so on. But this blog post was about the quiet. It comes after yesterday, being Sunday, and my day filled with Walmart, Gamestop, the grocery store and the laundromat and a couple of computers running, a Wii game and and and and.... no quiet. And even a loud cat!

This is why I like cemeteries so much I think. In them I respect the resting place of the departed. This is their place, not mine and so I am quiet. What do I get as a reward for respectful behavior? Well, I get quiet. The perfect gift. Within this gift is a so much. Within the quiet is time to think and time to hear yourself think. Decisions come much easier without ten other things that you are trying to multi-task with. The hectic life is outside the walls or fence of the cemetery and all I have with me is being one with time and place. I slow down and I don't feel I have to rush.

When I was in Glenwood Cemetery a week and a half ago I did that sudden, "What am I missing out there!?" but then I had to remind myself that it did not matter, this was time for me, a time for quiet and so I let it go and found myself so refreshed by putting all the noise and keeping watch of time out and away from me and outside of that cemetery. The only thing that needed to tell me anything was my body when it got too cold, at least that was sensible. A cemetery puts me in a different time as well. What were the days like for the people I visit. Granted their lives were hectic but in such a different way. Did they find time to sit on the front porch and enjoy the breeze? I can not even remember the last time I did that..

Of late I am on this mission to simplify my life.. I need this badly and I don't know why. Perhaps it is the current state of the economy and my economy. I have so much "stuff".. so many hobbies and everything that goes with it. I personally need to downsize. I want to be fantastic at a couple of things, not so so at too many things. All of this was decided in the quiet of a cemetery on a winter day and I am much happier for it and do not feel so stressed. I am boldly culling through my collection of things. If my ancestors could do without, why can't I? And really, getting rid of one half of what I own? I won't be doing without.

And so.. more head stones from where I go for my personal mental health days. *smile*

From the Washington Street Cemetery, Geneva, New York:

Geneva, New York – Washington Street Cemetery

The one thing I can say, my sciatic nerve does not like cemetery excursions. It has already been bothersome for a while now and x-rays cleared me of any wrong bone doing and now I have to go for physical therapy which I have not done yet. I do not know if it is being in the cold for so long or if the uneven terrain kicks it off at its worst.

The second cemetery I visited in my Geneva outing was the Washington Street Cemetery and I gave a description in my last post. I like it so much. I didn't see any current stones but I didn't go very far off the main road that is down the middle. It is no larger than a village Square really. A couple of names I saw in both cemeteries so already have the idea of some of the more prominent names of Geneva.

In my last post I talked about Sarah Ketchum and how I found her stone and right next to her was this fenced in family plot and I saw the symbol on the back side of a monument where I was standing so went to investigate the front of the monument.

Once around to the front, I saw this…

ELIAKIM SHERRILL
COL 126 REGT. INFANTRY N.Y. STATE VOLS.
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS 1847-8
STATE SENATOR 1854-5
BORN AT GREENVILLE N.Y.
FEB. 16, 1813,
FELL MORTALLY WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF
GETTYSBURG, PA. JULY 3, 1863
COMMANDING THE 3RD BRIGADE 3RD DIVISION
2ND CORPS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
DIED AT GETTYSBURG
JULY 4, 1863
---------------
IN PRIVATE LIFE
SIMPLE IN MANNERS; STRONG IN INTELLECT
IN CHARACTER BENEVOLENT; IN RELIGION SINCERE
HIS PUBLIC LIFE
WAS MARKED BY HIGH TRUSTS FAITHFULLY
PERFORMED. THE MEMORY OF HIS SERVICES
IS HALLOWED BY THE CROWN OF MARTYRDOM
IN HIS COUNTRY'S CAUSE.

Within this plot is his wife, assumed since they were both born within a year of each other and then the man she married after the loss of Eliakim.

EMILY ELDRIDGE
SHERRILL
WIDOW OF
SIMEON M GALLUP
DEC 25, 1814
JAN 13, 1894

SIMEON M GALLUP
BORN
SCHOHARIE, N.Y.
SEPT 3O, 1816.
DIED
EAST ORANGE, N.J.
APRIL 14, 1883

This stone is situated in between Emily and Simeon. In the picture above, Emily is the front stone on the right side, then this stone, then Simeon in the back corner.

Geneva, New York – Glenwood Cemetery and Washington Street Cemetery

Today I headed for Geneva, New York. It is about 17 miles east from Canandaigua and in the heart of wine country of the Finger Lakes Region of NY. This is a beautiful and old town once you get passed the retail mile. I was enjoying a nice drive through farm land, there are a lot of cabbage farms this way, open space, lots of fields.. So peaceful.. and then suddenly I was smacked by BJ's Wholesaler, Walmart and so on.. I kind of went into shock for a moment but once through the retail area and into the heart of Geneva you simply fall in love.. The homes are beautiful and old and some of those older homes along the Seneca Lake shore you can almost see how it might have been there in earlier times. There was one house I passed that had a construction a bit different than the rest in close proximity and I could just see a family having a party there during the roaring '20's, having friends in to enjoy the lake. I feel oddly intuitive today; I have another story to share further in this post.

Two cemeteries were on my radar, I had figured out where they might be and had my maps and made my way. I found the first one, Glenwood Cemetery. Long ago there was a cemetery on Pulteney Street and the inhabitants were exhumed to a section of Glenwood Cemetery to build a school. The second cemetery on my list was the Washington Street Cemetery which I fell in love with!

So finding Glenwood Cemetery wasn't so hard, it is on Route 14 but the first drive you come to for it is like the back end entry I guess I will call it. I went that way thinking it was the main entrance and followed the road up to a small group of sections and drove around but nothing stuck out as being the "Pulteney-in-Glenwood" section. So turning the car around to go back, there had to be more, I saw passed a line of trees the rest of the cemetery but could not figure out how to get "over there." I should say that everything is messy right now. We had way too much snow in January and early February, to a huge thaw the last five days to a freeze yesterday and an inch of new snow overnight so I was not sure what I was driving on for roads really and a few times backed up thinking I might get stuck. But then! I found a rough road that cut over to the other section. I looked, then got out of the car and really looked… would you take your car down there? Though look! We had blue skies!!

So I followed some foot prints down the right side of the picture thinking that person was wise because under that snow is ice. And I see that my camera thinks it is yesterday. This adventure was really 2/13/2009. So I followed the footprints and suddenly they went off to the right. I wonder where that person went.

So I walked up into the other side of the cemetery and walked, then walked and once I was to the furthest point from my car I found the Pulteney-in-Glenwood section.

Note.. In the above picture, my camera now seems to know the date.. The power of battery changes *nod*

There are many stones laying flat on the ground, some broken. They all lean in a forward pitch as the back of the stones get the wind. I am so glad they were placed back to the west to preserve the stone face. As you can see standing water was an issue and I could hear the ground working on sucking up the melt off.

And a few stones from this cemetery..

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
MRS. JANET, WIFE OF
GEN. WALTER GRIEVE
NATIVE OF DUMFRIES
SHIRE SCOTLAND
WHO DIED SEPT. 18, 1825.
AGED 48 YEARS (?)

Note: I thought I saw her age as 48 years, then 78 years then again 48 years. Also, her husband, General Walter Grieves was a Revolutionary War Soldier and buried in this cemetery was well but I could not find his stone. Maybe something happened to it and he is next to her. I hope he is, I would have hated to see them separated when their graves were moved. -editors note: I am a hopeless romantic.

CAPT JOHN
SHETHAR
DIED JUNE 19
1835
IN HIS 84TH YEAR

(Capt Shethar was a Revolutionary War Soldier)

And sadness..

IN MEMORY OF JACOB LARZELERE(?) WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JULY 3, 1821 AGED 1 YEAR 7 MONTHS & 4 DAYS

IN MEMORY OF MARY CAROLINE WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE MARCH 28, 1826 AGED 1 YEAR 11 MONTHS & 7 DAYS

IN MEMORY OF ELIAS HARVEY WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JULY 18, 1827 AGED 1 YEAR AND 27 DAYS

CHILDREN OF ELIAS & LUCINDA BEACH

Then one story from the second cemetery visit, Washington Street Cemetery and I will wrap up this post. I have a lot of headstones to post from these two cemeteries in the weeks to come and barely scratched the surface of Washington Street Cemetery.

Washington Street Cemetery is in the middle of Geneva. It is a square and lives in a residential neighborhood and it is an old cemetery. Had a couple very nice finds in here so far but I was getting too cold where a 5 minute break in the warm car was not doing a thing anymore and I gave in before my last set of batteries gave out (see battery story at end).

The cemetery has one grass road that goes down the middle of it and I parked my car and walked in unsure of the driving conditions with the messy weather. I was headed to the south west corner because I felt that was the way I wanted to go but then all of a sudden I was off to the south east, basically I took a sharp left when I was heading a gentle right. I just walked way off my intended path to come upon a stone and I stopped right there and gazed at this white stone. Just a weird little thing, I had no intentions of coming to this side of the cemetery, but there I was so I said to the stone, "Either you wanted me to come here or I watch way too much Ghosthunters." Then proceed to take a snap shot of her grave. She died very young and I did notice she was alone and that her husband's grave never ended up next to her, so I asked, "So, where is the Mister?" To which I got no reply. Perhaps I will find him on my next trip to this cemetery. Right next to her was a family plot which I found interesting. A NY Senator and died at Gettysburg, he will be in the next post. So when I was done in this fenced in plot I ended up back to my new friend. So.. Was it just that it is Friday the 13th? Do I indeed watch Ghosthunters a little bit too much? Or.. Did someone reach out to find a new friend today? Whatever it was, it was nice and she has been heavy on my mind since I saw her stone and perhaps someday I will poke around and find out what happened to her.

SARAH.
WIFE OF
J. B. KETCHUM.
DIED
OCT. 3. 1813.
AGED 26 YEARS.
9 MONTHS.

JESUS CAN MAKE THE DYING BED
FEEL SOFT AS DOWNY PILLOW ARE

WHILE ON HIS BREAST I LAID MY HEAD
AND BREATH MY LIFE OUT SWEETLY THERE

Editor's note: RIP, Sarah Ketchum.

An excerpt from a conversation with myself this morning since my daughter wasn't with me to complain to….

"Ugh, the batteries died" (fishes the extra set from her pocket), "Ugh! Again, guess that makes me done for the day and I will never remember to get this other stone to match this one" (insert grunt here) "What is it with all these batteries dying so fast?" (Checks settings on camera but her daughter is the tech savvy child). "Wait! Look in your purse, you might have an extra pair there.." (Tromps back to car, that is another story of why it is so far away.) "Yay! I did have an extra set and now that I see where I should have been driving in, lets do that now." (Drives over to the correct part of the cemetery. Takes maybe 4 pictures.) "Damit!!!! They are dead already? Maybe these were old batteries that died last time, heh, got extra pics from them anyway!" (keeps thinking she is done for the day!) "Wait.. Didn't I see batteries at the bottom of my purse?" (Back to car but it is very close this time! Scrounges up two batteries and grin, there are four down there but! Has to say to herself…) "Sharon, why do you carry so much crap in this purse!" (No lie, it is big and has to much… "stuff" in it..but hey!! It has batteries! Burns through those 4 happily!! And just when she found a fabulous grave marker…) "UGH!!!! Now I am really done for the day.. And cold too. But wait! I kind of remember putting a pair of batteries in the zipper compartment??????" (Huzzah!! And there they were!!! Back to picture taking!!)

But then… the cold just got too cold, I wore out before the 6th set of batteries!!!

Today's very busy Rabbit wishing you all a very pleasant evening!