Divining the Dead

18th Century Dowser

Regardless of what you call it, divining, witching, dowsing, or Rhabdomancy - there is now quite an interest in this ancient art.

Grave dowsing has caught the attention of genealogists around the world as a way to locate the unmarked graves of ancestors. It can also be utilized to help locate lost burial grounds, find pioneer cemeteries, and uncover the burial grounds of Native Americans.

Y Branch

Witching, divining or dowsing has been used for centuries to locate water, oil, caves, precious metals, artifacts and treasure.  Cave paintings depicting dowsing have been found in France, Spain and the Middle East.  

Dowsing

Pharaohs were buried with dowsing tools and etchings on how the tools were used have been found on the walls of their tombs. Dowsing is mentioned in the Old Testament.   The Greek poet Homer referred to dowsing as Rhabdomancy – meaning divining rod in Greek.  Dowsing with a pendulum was popular in ancient Greece. In the 1700 and 1800’s. Europeans used forked branches to locate water and ore deposits. The U.S. military used dowsers in the Viet Nam War to locate land mines and hidden tunnels.  The British military had dowsers on the Falkland Islands to help locate unexploded ordnances.

De Vinci

There were times in history when dowsers were considered to be witches, or evil.  The Catholic Church assisted in this rumor by declaring that the devil was involved, giving dowsers ‘special powers.’  Dowsing fell from favor and went underground during the 1500's and 1600’s.  Victorians revived an awareness of it with their interest in the mystical and spiritual.  Many well-known people were dowsers including Leonardo De Vinci, Robert Boyle, Otto Edler von Graeve and Albert Einstein.

Pendulum

There are mainly four types of dowsing items used.  There is the Y rod, usually from a peach, willow or witch hazel tree.  The L rod can be brass, copper, aluminum, even wire coat hanger, bent in the shape of an L.  The Bobber rod is a long, slender, tapered stick.  The Pendulum is not a rod but a weight with a chain or a string attached.

L Rods

The actual skill of dowsing is not hard to learn.   L rods are easy to use and to explain.  You can make your own from wire coat hangers. Simple cut off the hook and straighten out the wire.  Make a bend about 4 inches in on the wire to create an L shape.  The smaller part of the L will be the handle. Create another and you have two L rods.

L rods held out

Stand normally, hands at your side.  Raise your arms to bend naturally at your elbows, with your forearms parallel to the ground.  Hold each rod straight out.  The rods should be held lightly in your hands.  Do not place your thumbs over the bend in the rods.  Now begin walking slowly and calmly toward the area you wish to test.  When you step on a grave the rods should cross or swing apart. When you step off the grave, the rods should uncross or swing back to their former positions.  Before you attempt to go into uncharted territory to divine graves, get your feet wet.  Take your rods to a cemetery and practice the art of dowsing there.

Many dowsing books and articles mention that cemeteries in the U.S. are usually laid out with heads pointing west and feet pointing east.  Supposedly this will aid you in identifying the gender of the body.  I have been in countless cemeteries where this is not the case.  While it may have begun in that manner, through the centuries, especially in large cemeteries, the bodies have been buried with the lay of the land.  Regardless, working your way from north to south will help you create an organized search route and may be able to determine the width of the cemetery.

Counting steps to determine age

Once you get familiar with the rods, you may want to try to identify age and gender.  Age can be guessed at by the length of the body.  Count your steps lengthwise along the body.  A general rule of thumb is 1 or 2 steps for an infant, 3 or 4 steps for a child, 5, 6 or 7 steps for an adult. 

...indicates a female.

A swing to the left...

For gender, there are several methods.  An easy  one is to push one rod in the ground at the center of a grave.  Step back away from the grave and reapproach the grave with the remaining rod in one hand, out in front of you.  A swing to the left indicates a female; to the right is a male.  You can attempt to verify by approaching the grave from the other end and see if the verdict is the same.  (This is why practicing in a cemetery is useful – The stones will verify what you’ve found out.  Try different methods in order to discover what really works for you.)  Also remember, dowsing rods can also pick up on cremated bodies and animal remains

Dowsing Forms

So how does it work?  Better still, why does it work?  There are no true proven answers.  Theories abound that there may be a physical connection made between the dowser and the item sought.  It could possibly be an energy vibration that the dowser tunes into and the diving rods amplify, causing them to move.   Scientists say that the rods are not picking up on soil disturbances, metal in the ground, magnetic fields, or decay.  But as many have proven, believing in dowsing is not required for it to work.

Not everyone can dowse.  Just as we don’t know why it works, we also don’t understand why some people have the ability and some don’t.  As a water witcher, I felt compelled to try grave dousing.  I have always used peach or willow branches as Y dowsing rods, but discovered that the metal L rods work fine.  Cajoling my husband to assist me, we went to Richmond Cemetery in Richmond, Kentucky so I could see if I had, as my grandma would have said, ‘the touch.’  Grandma would be proud - I do.

Albert Einstein

Be skeptical, if you like.   After all, many consider this to be based on folklore, superstition, placing dowsers in the same category as charlatans and with doctors. Albert Einstein explained dowsing as a way of using the human senses to perceive something that is “unknown to us at this time.”     And since he had a good grasp on things being ‘relative,’ I can buy that!  ; D

To learn more about dowsing visit these web sites:

International Society of Dowsers http://www.dowsingworks.com/

American Society of Dowsers http://www.dowsers.org/

Appalachian Dowsers http://www.wncdowsers.org/      

British Dowsers http://www.britishdowsers.org/

Canadian Society of Dowsers http://www.canadiandowsers.org/

~ Joy

Funeral Transports through History

Funeral Procession on Foot

Over the centuries, numerous systems have been used to transport the dead to their final resting places. In ancient times, a procession of mourners would bear the wrapped body to the burial grounds.   Transportation of the body has continued to changed throughout time to accommodate whatever modes of transportation we have available. 

Wooden Bier

With horses and the invention of the wheel, a bier would be used.  This flat wooden frame could be used to carry the shrouded corpse to the burial location and then used to display the body.  A bier is still used today, but is now made from aluminum and is on wheels.  Known as a ‘church truck,’ it is draped with cloth to create a more dignified display, but is still easy to move.

An English Lych Way

When the population began moving into and out of the countryside, a means of transporting a body to or from the city became necessary.  Corpse roads were created and provided a sensible means by which to relocate the body from a rural community to a parish cemetery or chapel.  In Britain, these roads were also known as bier roads, coffin roads or lych ways.

Cemetery Maze

Superstitions and legends abound about these roads regarding ghosts, spirits and wraiths tormenting travelers or following mourners home.  There are old cemeteries created around mazes.  This was done as a way to confuse the dead and keep them from returning as a spirit.  In the 19^th century, the deceased was to be carried out of a house feet first to keep the spirit from looking back and beckoning others to follow.  Even today, some still consider it prudent for the funeral procession to return from the gravesite by a different route than the one taken with the deceased.

Trains were also a way to transport the deceased.  A funeral train is one that has been contracted to carry a coffin or coffins to the final location.

Necropolis Railway Train

In London, the first funeral train left the Necropolis Railway Station on November 7, 1854.  The train carried the dead and their mourners to Brookwood Cemetery.  Even the deceased’s final ride was based on their station in life.  If the deceased was traveling on a first class ticket, more attention was paid to their transport and more care taken with the body.  The train ran seven days a week from 1854 until 1900.  Trains were then scheduled on an “as needed basis.”  They continued to run until 1941 when the station was bombed during the Blitz.

Lincoln's Train

When President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Washington, D.C., in 1865, his body was carried back to Springfield, Illinois by train.  The train took almost 2 weeks to make the 1,654 mile journey, due to numerous stops to allow the public a final goodbye.  Lincoln’s train was the first time a president’s body had been borne across the country by rail.

19th Century Hearse

Hearses are what we think of when the subject of moving

a dead body comes up.  Hearses have always come in many shapes and styles.  Hearses drawn by horses were ornate, stately, and many times glass enclosed. 

1926 Buick Hearse
Photo by Nelson Brothers

When the automobile took over in the early 1900’s, hearses took on a variety of shapes that suited the vehicle’s body.

A Combo Car

Ecto 1 "Ghostbusters"
Photo by Chad Davis

Some hearses were known as combination cars – a combination of an ambulance and hearse, equipped to carry gurney or a coffin.  These were popular from the 1950’s through the 1970’s.  They were discontinued in 1980.  The Caddy used in the movie ‘Ghostbusters’ was a combo 1959 Miller Meteor coach.

Modern U.S. Hearse

In the U.S., a hearse is usually crafted from a luxury brand of auto like Cadillac or Lincoln.  The body is more of a landau style with heavy vinyl padding on the roof.  The windows are curtained.

Modern English Hearse

In England, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Rolls-Royce luxury cars are used as hearses.  The limousine style is more popular, and the windows are left uncovered.

Japanese Hearse -
Photo by Jim Epler

In Japan, a hearse may be a small ornate Buddhist temple covering the rear of the vehicle.  Nissan and Toyota are two companies that build these types of hearses.

Motorcycle Sidecar Hearse

There are also the unique hearses and burial vehicles, such as a motorcycle with a side hearse.

Space Burial

A space burial in which the ashes of the deceased are enclosed in a capsule about the size of a lipstick tube, and launched into space using a rocket.

President Kennedy's
Riderless Horse Black Jack

Then there is symbolic transport, such as the rider-less horse, usually found following the hearse, or caisson, carrying the casket.  In the U.S. this is part of military honors given to an officer with the rank of Colonel or above.  U.S. Presidents and the Secretary of Defense are also honored in this manner.  Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. President to receive such an honor. 

The Final Goodbye

You’ll notice a pair of black riding boots reversed in the stirrups.  This represents the fallen leader looking back upon his troops for a final time on that final trip to the grave.

~ Joy

Cemeteries Worth the Visit: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington Cemetery, located in Lexington, Kentucky, is the second largest cemetery in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  It is a private, non-profit cemetery, comprised of 170 acres with over 64,000 buried there.  Cemetery officials estimated that this amount of land should enable the cemetery to continue burying for at least two centuries.

It is believed that the cholera epidemic was a driving force in getting the city fathers to consider creating a cemetery away from where the main population lived.   The cemetery was incorporated in 1848.  Architect Julius Adams designed the cemetery in the Gothic Romanesque style as a ‘rural cemetery,’ with natural wooded areas and lakes in a park-like setting.

The first plot was sold in August 1849 for the interment of Lexington businessman, Robert S. Boyd who had died of cholera.  Boyd had been buried in the Episcopal Cemetery, but was moved to Lexington Cemetery on October 2, 1849 and laid to rest there, along with his infant son.  By the end of 1850, almost ninety burials had taken place, including the reinterrment of several who had been buried in other community graveyards.

Original Gateway

In 1849, bids were gathered for the construction of a central cemetery entrance gateway and buildings.  In all, almost $3,000 was spent for the three arched stone and iron gateways, which were flanked by a reception room and office.  Above the east gate, the inscription read, “Lexington Cemetery, Founded A.D. 1849.”  Over the west gate was carved, “City of the Dead.”

There are many notables buried in Lexington Cemetery. Among the numerous politicians, authors, businessmen, and sports figures, lie some of history’s famous.

  

Clay's Monument

Henry Clay

Henry Clay, known as “The Great Compromiser,” is buried here.  Clay served as a lawyer, U.S. Congressman, Senator, and U.S. Secretary of State.  He ran for President three times but was unsuccessful in his bids. Clay died June 29, 1852 in Washington, D.C.  His body was born 1,200 miles back to Lexington by train, barge and carriage.  His friends and fellow politicians worked diligently for the next five years in order to purchase, what they felt was, a suitable monument, at the cost of $43,920, to be erected for Clay.   The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1857 and the monument was completed in 1861.  Clay’s body was not moved to the new monument due to the start of the Civil War.  But three years later, both his and his wife’s bodies were interred there in 1864.  The Clay monument is the only marker in the cemetery’s Section M.

John H. Morgan

Morgan's Grave

John Hunt Morgan, well-known Confederate General of the Civil War, is also buried here.  Morgan is best remembered for Morgan’s Raid, where he led his men, on horseback, over 1,000 miles, from Tennessee, through Kentucky, into Indiana, and over into southern Ohio.  This was the farthest point north any uniformed Confederate troops ever reached during the war.  Captured and held in a federal prison in Ohio, Morgan managed to escape by tunneling out. He was shot and killed September 4, 1864 during a raid in Tennessee.

The Sweep of Cholera 

William 'King" Solomon

Although not rich with wealth, William “King” Solomon showed his mettle during the cholera outbreak. Over 500 Lexington residents died in eight weeks during the 1833 epidemic.  While the majority of the city fled, Solomon, an indentured servant, stayed of his own accord.  He dug graves for the victims for over two months, working during the day and sleeping in the cemetery at night. It is said that the following autumn, Solomon was sitting in the back of a courtroom, awaiting the proceedings, when the presiding judge stepped down from his bench and approached him.  The judge reached out and shook his hand as a manner of thanking him for his service to the city during the epidemic.  No sooner had the judge turned, than the entire room lined up to express their appreciation as well.  Solomon had been recognized for his valor in the face of death.

Confederate Soldier Monument

Lexington Cemetery is the site of two military monuments and a National Cemetery.  The Confederate Soldier Monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky.  It depicts a Confederate soldier looking off, as if in thought. The names of the Confederate dead on inscribed on the base.

Ladies Confederate Memorial

Behind this the Ladies Confederate Memorial is located.  It was erected in 1874 and also placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.  This monument touches you and seems to sum up the heartache and sorrow felt for all who died for the Confederacy during the war.  Designed by George W. Ranck, of Lexington, the monument shows a draped marble cross, surrounded by a broken sword, a broken flagstaff and lilies. It is believed that the monument was inspired by Confederate Chaplin, Father Abram Joseph Ryan who wrote this poem:

Father Abram J. Ryan

The Conquered Banner

Furl that banner, softly, slowly!

Treat it gently – it is holy –

For it droops above the dead.

Touch it not – unfold it never.

Let it droop there, furled forever,

For its people’s hope are dead!

                                    ~ Abram Joseph Ryan

A paper found in the front of one of the cemetery interment books states that between October 4, 1861 and July 26, 1865, there were 828 U.S. white volunteers, 40 U.S. colored Volunteers and 97 disloyals buried here.  Another 965 Union dead were also interred in the Union section of the cemetery. After the war, the U.S. government purchased an adjoining 16,111 feet in the Union cemetery and had the area designated as a national cemetery.  The Southern section was released to the Confederate Veterans Association in 1891.  The CVA purchased another 510 square feet of land in 1892.  Two more lots were purchased bringing the total of the Southern section to 853 square feet.  All sections in the national cemetery are now filled and no new burials are allowed here.

A Family Tree

The Lexington Cemetery offers assistance with genealogical research.  The web page has a section for researchers at http://www.lexcem.org/index.cfm/genealogy.html.   It tells how to request help and how to schedule an appointment.  Anyone with information they would like to have added to the cemetery’s genealogical files should contact them.

The Lexington Cemetery also has the designation as an arboretum with over 200 species of trees.  Self-guided tree walks can be conducted with the assistance of maps available at the cemetery office.  This is a cemetery that changes dramatically with each passing season and can be enjoyed anew every few months.

There are numerous markers and stones throughout the cemetery that will captivate you, and all have a story to tell.  Be sure to grab a map when you enter and take your time when wandering among the stones.  There are hidden jewels everywhere!  Take the opportunity to search for them.

The Lexington Cemetery is open everyday from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M.  It is located at 833 West Main Street in Lexington, Kentucky 40508.  The phone number is (859) 255-5522.  For more information, visit their web site at http://www.lexcem.org/ or visit their FaceBook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lexington-Cemetery/23514189569. For information contact them at info@lexcem.org

 

Adventure abounds in the Lexington Cemetery.  It is a perfect example of a ‘rural cemetery,’ one where nature blends seamlessly within the city.  If you plan on visiting, take the day to enjoy it.  There is so much to see and do, you’ll be glad you did!

~ Joy

Friendship Day in the Cemetery

Joyce Hall

Friendship Day is celebrated on August 7^th of this year.  Yes, there is actually a day to remember and honor your friends!  In fact, Friendship Day began in 1919 when Hallmark card founder, Joyce Hall, dedicated the first Sunday in August to honoring friends - in order to sell more cards.  The public saw through the ruse quickly and refused to take part in the commercialism gimmick.  

August 2011

In 1935, Congress declared the first Sunday of August as a day to honor friends.   The U.S. public still resisted the holiday and eventually it died out in this country.  But, as time went on, the day began to be celebrated in other countries such as Asia, India, and parts of South America.

Group Hug

Now, the Internet allows greetings to be sent, sans cards and Friendship Day is again catching on.  In 1998, United Nations General Assembly declared that July 30^th would be celebrated as International Friendship Day around the world, and Winnie-the-Pooh was named the World’s Ambassador of Friendship.  But the first Sunday in August is still the preferred date to celebrate around the world.

So, with Friendship Day fast approaching, I thought it would be fitting to explore something in the cemetery that always makes me feel like I am being welcomed by a friend; those ‘memorial benches.’  

They come in many shapes and sizes, but all offer us a place to sit and remember loved ones and friends.  Many times the bench is used as an alternative to a headstone. 

And, yes, it is actually meant to be used as a resting place to contemplate the life of someone dear, or, possibly your own.

Many provide a place for the engraving of names, dates, artwork and photos.  The bench gravestone may also be used as a cremation memorial with the urn placed in the bench leg.  Bench tombstones are usually about 48” long, 14 to 16” wide and around 18” tall.

Since cemeteries lend themselves to memories and reflection, a bench seems very appropriate as a headstone, creating a place to enjoy the peace and quiet of the cemetery, the park-like surroundings, and your memories.  

So take some time this weekend, find a nice bench somewhere and remember those you love, those who are gone, and those who have made your life richer with their friendship.

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.

Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow.

Just walk beside me and be my friend.

                                      - Albert Camus

Happy Friendship Day!

~ Joy