Devoted Pets and the Cemeteries They Inhabit - Part 1

This past Sunday, May 1^st marked the beginning of National Pet Week.  As a pet owner and dog-lover, I am always touched by the cemeteries with pets buried near their owners.  And the stories of their devotion, even after death.  Today I’ll share two of the cemetery legends I’ve come across.

John Heinl & Stiffy Green, Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, Indiana

Highland Lawn Cemetery

Highland Lawn Cemetery, located in Terre Haute, Indiana, is known as the burial place for many famous people, including politicians Eugene Debs, Daniel Voorhees and inventor Theodore Hudnut.  But ask a local about Highland Lawn and they will tell you the story of Stiffy Green.

John Heinl

Terre Haute florist and businessman, John Gradl Heinl, and his bulldog, Stiffy Green, were well known in Terre Haute in the early part of the 20^th century.  The two would stroll around town each day, John Heinl, pipe in hand, talking to his small companion and stopping to visit with the folks they met.  Stiffy Green, so named because of his stiff walking gait and startling greenish colored eyes, was friendly but ferociously protective of Mr. Heinl and did not allow anyone to get too close to his beloved master.

When John Heinl passed away on December 31^st, 1920, Stiffy was inconsolable.  He sat by the coffin at the funeral and followed the family to the graveyard where he took up post at the mausoleum doors.  There he remained, guarding his master in death as he had guarded him in life.  Family and friends made many trips to the cemetery that winter to retrieve Stiffy and take him home, only for him to return to his master’s crypt doors. 

Heinl Mausoleum

After a few months, Stiffy refused to eat or drink.  But he continued his vigil on the mausoleum steps, regardless of the weather.  Mrs. Heinl was the one to find that Stiffy had died outside the mausoleum doors, having grieved himself to death.  In view of his unwavering love and devotion, she had him stuffed in the sitting position he had assumed for so many months on those cold mausoleum steps.   Stiffy was then placed inside the tomb, reunited at last with his master. 

Stiffy Green

But it wasn’t long before visitors began noticing that Stiffy had mysteriously moved from one side of the tomb to the other, and back.  Rumors spread that early in the morning or at twilight you could see an elderly man and his small dog walking near the Heinl crypt, the smell the rich pipe smoke in the air and a low voice talking to his devoted companion who would answer with a happy bark. 

Vigo County
Historical Society Museum

But all good things must come to an end – even in death.  Vandals would not leave the site alone, damaging doors and windows. In 1985, thugs shot out Stiffy’s right glass eye.  The family decided it was time for Stiffy to be moved and the Vigo County Historical Society Museum agreed to take him.  There, the Terre Haute Lions Club built a replica of the Heinl mausoleum. 

Today, Stiffy Green is still on guard – unless he and John are taking a pleasant evening stroll in Highland Lawn Cemetery.

Location:  Highland Lawn Cemetery, Heinl Mausoleum, Plot: Section 1, Lot 21

Vigo County Historical Society Museum – 1411 South 6^th Street, Terre Haute, IN

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John Gray and Greyfriars Bobby – Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, Scotland

Greyfriars Bobby

Bobby, a Skye terrier, was the beloved and faithful companion of policeman, John “Auld Jock” Gray.  Gray lived in Edinburgh, Scotland in the mid-1800’s.  On February 15, 1858, Gray died of tuberculosis.  He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard (church yard) in Edinburgh.  Bobby was found the next morning, guarding his master’s grave.

Greyfriars Kirkyard

According to various reports of the time, Kirkyard keeper, James Brown had to run Bobby off because the churchyard was posted “No Dogs.”    But Bobby kept coming back, night after night, to sleep on his master’s grave.  Seeing such loyalty, Brown decided to make an exception for Bobby.

Bobby

Word spread throughout the community and soon town’s folk were bringing Bobby food and water, they even built a shelter for him near the grave.  But due to the high cost of a dog license, no one would claim him and take him home.  It was finally decreed that without a license, Bobby would have to be put to death as a stray.

Sir William Chambers

It was 1867 when the town council of Edinburgh met to discuss this case.  Bobby had been sleeping at the cemetery for almost ten years and had become a beloved fixture of the town.  The presiding Lord Provost of the city, Sir William Chambers, a dog-lover, arranged to pay all license fees for Bobby, indefinitely.  Bobby was then given a new collar with a brass plate, which read: 

 Greyfriars Bobby – from the Lord Provost, 1867, licensed.

Bobby died January 14, 1872 at the age of 16.  For 14 years he had loyally guarded his friend.  Now his grave lies 75 yards from his masters, just inside the gates of Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Bobby's 2-Tier Fountain

Baroness
Burdett Coutts

A year after his death, Baroness Burdett Coutts had a statue of the little dog sitting atop a water fountain, with a top level for human drinking and a bottom level for pets, erected to commemorate Bobby’s life and his deep devotion to Gray, a friendship that surpassed death.  

Sign over Pub Door 

Bobby's Bar

The statue and fountain are located in front of “Bobby’s Bar,” a pub named after Scotland's most famous dog.

In 1981, The Duke of Gloucester unveiled a red granite headstone that had been placed on Bobby’s grave by the Dog Aid Society of Scotland. The inscription reads:

Greyfriars Bobby
Headstone

Greyfriars Bobby

Died 14^th January 1872

Aged 16 years

Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all.

Bobby truly earned the designation of  “Scotland’s Most Faithful Dog.”

Location:  Greyfriars Kirkyard, Inside main gates, Edinburgh, Scotland

Friday, we'll take another look at 'Devoted Pets and the Cemeteries They Inhabit.'

~ Joy

Arbor Day and Those Trees in the Cemetery

Military personnel plant a tree

Today is Arbor Day, a day when everyone is encouraged to appreciate and plant trees.  As a very big ‘tree person,’ I couldn’t let the day go by without taking a look at some of those strange, odd, wonderful trees you find in cemeteries.  You know the ones – twisted, towering, leaning, either over or away from a grave.  And then there are the ‘trees of the dead!’  Those that make the usual spooky Halloween trees look pretty tame.  The ‘Sleepy Hollow’ trees.  The ones that look gruesome and make you feel uncomfortable just to be near them.

Brian Neighbors

My husband, Brian, was the one who started taking, what we call, ‘those odd tree photos.’  We now have almost one-thousand shots of some very interesting trees.  All have been taken in cemeteries throughout the Midwest and Kentucky. 

Larry Caplan, is with the Purdue Extension Service of Vanderburgh County, Indiana.  He is an Extension Horticulture Educator, a Certified Arborist and an Indiana Accredited Plantsman.  He was also a founding member of the Indiana Forest Council.  Larry is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and performs over 50 magical horticultural lectures each year.  I contacted him a couple of weeks ago and he agreed to look over some photos (OK - a lot of photos) and give his input into why these trees grow or look the way they do.  What has caused these oddities?  How could it have been avoided? And what’s up with those macabre trees anyway?

Here is the interview.

Joy Neighbors:

Is there a reason that cedar and evergreens are usually found in cemeteries?

Larry Caplan:

Evergreens are frequently used in cemeteries because they remain green and living all year round.  Visitors want to feel the concept of “rebirth” or “eternal life” that evergreens represent.  In the Midwest, spruce and firs are not native, nor do they do really well, whereas pines and redcedars are much hardier and a better fit for our soils.

Joy:

Why does lightening seem to strike in cemeteries a lot?

Larry:

Lighting strikes the tallest object in the field, usually.  Most cemeteries are flat with low structures (headstones, tombs, etc.).  The trees are the tallest objects out there, and are therefore a perfect target.

 Another problem with most cemeteries is the lack of a major budget for landscape maintenance.  Lawns are mowed, and grass trimming around headstones is done, but there’s little budget for corrective pruning or other tree care.  Storm damage is cleaned up, but often, the only trimming done is to remove hazardous limbs.  Corrective pruning and other maintenance is not usually performed.

Joy:

I have several photos of cemetery trees in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.  Would you tell us what kind of tree is in each photo and something about what could have caused it’s oddity?

Larry:

This is a Scotch pine.  Older pines lose their typical “Christmas Tree” shape as they age.  Early on, it appears the growing tip was killed, and several of the side branches took over and became new leaders.  The ones on the right were removed, giving the tree the lopsided appearance.  If the landscape was being groomed, only one of the side branches should have been trained to become the new central leader.

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This is a Eastern Redcedar.  The double trunk indicates that the central growing point was probably damaged at one point; the dark areas in between the two trunks could be decayed areas from the original central trunk.  Most likely, the central trunk was lost in a storm.

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This is an Eastern Redcedar.  The part missing is apparently caused by a broken limb from a storm.

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I believe this is a maple.  I would like to get closer to examine it, but it appears that two trees were growing next to each other; perhaps the smaller one on the right could have been a watersprout or sucker.  As they aged, they merged together. They are still probably two separated trees, with a strip of bark in between them.  This could have been prevented by removing the watersprout when it was first seen.

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This is an unknown species.  The lean is caused mostly by a poor root system.  If you will notice the base of the trunk, there is no flare to root system.  A visible root flare indicates that the tree has a strong buttress root system, which will support the tree from high winds.  A trunk that enters the ground straight, like a telephone pole, indicates that the buttress system is not present.  This produces a tree that is not as stable, and is more likely to lean in a storm. 

I also notice that the base of the tree, toward the center, shows some missing bark.  This indicates that the root (and the wood above it) is dead.

The dead root and lack of flare indicates a trunk-girdling root.  This occurs when a root of the tree wraps itself around the trunk, usually about a foot or so underground.  This is often seen with improperly planted trees.  Because of the way the hole is dug (narrow, with straight sides), the roots tend to turn when they hit the side of the hole, instead of growing straight out.  The knowledge of proper tree planting 50 and more years ago was not what it is today, and this is not quite as common any more.

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This one is an Eastern Redcedar.  Often, trees planted in windy areas will twist as they grow.  In most trees, this is not readily apparent.  However, the bark and stem structure of redcedars makes this more visible.  You will sometimes see this phenomenon in urban areas:  root damage on one side of the tree produces visible symptoms (dieback) on the opposite side of the tree, instead of directly above the damaged root.

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Another Eastern Redcedar.  This is commonly known as a burl.  Often, these form at the site of an old trunk injury.  What we are seeing is the wound response wood.  For some reason still not clear, rather than just sealing off the wound, the wound response wood keeps growing.  Some arborists compare this with a cancer growth; although it does not appear to spread into the healthy wood as a human cancer would.  Wood workers prize these burls for their bowl-making because of the interesting patterns the wood forms.

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The wet spot appears to be a condition called slime flux or wetwood.  This is caused by a bacterial infection.  The bacteria usually enter from a wound, often a pruning wound.  The bacteria lives and multiplies in the sapwood beneath the bark.  As they feed, they ferment the sap and produce carbon dioxide, which forces the sap out of the wood under pressure.  This is usually more of a cosmetic problem than a true disease; most usually, it does not harm the tree at all.

In this particular situation, though, the original wound was not caused by pruning or other mechanical damage.  It appears that this tree’s co-dominant trunk (double-trunk) originates at about the same location as the sap oozes out of the trunk.  Co-dominant limbs like this appear, from the outside, to be solid wood, but in reality, it’s two separate limbs growing next to each other, but not fully merged.  There is normally a strip of bark between the two trunks.  Trees with co-dominant trunks often split in wind storms, since there is nothing to hold the two limbs together.  These two trunks will sometimes move slightly and rub against each other in the wind; this could have been the source of the wound/break in the bark that allowed the bacteria to enter the tree.

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Probably another Eastern Redcedar.  The wood is very rot-resistant, so broken branches don’t decay and fall off like other trees do.  Often, breaks remain on the tree, and the tree often tries to grow around the broken pieces, producing interesting twists and bends.

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Unknown species of tree.  This looks like a tree that may have snapped off at the trunk during a storm.  Instead of just dying, though, the stump produced several suckers, which started to grow around the stump.  Over the years, the stump rotted, leaving the openings.  There is also evidence of “mower blight” on the root on the right, from careless mowing crews.

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This is a Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)  A broadleaf evergreen tree, quite common in Kentucky and southern Indiana.

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This is a Pine tree.  Most unusual!  It appears that a side branch at the bottom became a 2^nd leader/trunk.  Later, a side branch from the main trunk grew to the side and grafted itself to the 2^nd leader. 

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Most likely, the curve of this tree was caused by shading from a larger tree to the right (not visible).  Woodland trees or overplanted trees often compete with each other for sunlight, and will follow the faintest hint of light, creating strange and elegant curves.

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The tree in the foreground appears to have a girdling root.  This is the side-ways growing root running from left to right.  Something disrupted the direction of its growth – possibly a gravestone?  If this root is allowed to remain, it will eventually choke (girdle) the trunk on that side of the tree, leading to its death. 

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This was a tree that had died or blew over, and several suckers grew up from the stump.  Had only one or two been allowed to grow, they could have been trained to be an attractive, strongly growing tree.  However, five closely-growing suckers were allowed to grow around a rotting stump, producing an unstable clump of limbs.  They will most likely fall over or tear apart in the event of an ice storm or strong wind.

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A low branch, which probably should have been removed years ago to get out of the way of lawn mowers, was allowed to grow out.  It appears to have been cut back, but not removed, and a sucker appeared at the end of the branch.  This sucker grew upright, and became the new end of the branch.

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A branch broke off at some point, and the stub was not removed cleanly.  The tree tried to grow over the stub, which eventually rotted.  There is most probably internal wood decay within the trunk.

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As mentioned before, redcedars are highly resistant to wood rot.  This tree had been hit by lightning, and probably suffered wind damage as well.  Even with all the exposed heart wood, this tree is still alive and growing.

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Trees growing in compacted soils tend to have a shallow root system, especially in restricted sites (like this corner).  As the roots add rings and enlarge, they come to the surface, where they get hit with lawn mowers.  The dense shade of the tree prevents any grass from growing underneath it, which allows soil erosion.

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Eastern Redcedar.  This is most likely a single tree that lost its top at some point in the past.  Lateral buds from right below the break sprouted, forming the multiple leaders.

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This is a honeylocust.  While there are thornless varieties of honeylocust that are commonly used for landscape plantings, the common form of this tree has three-branched thorns.  If I was being chased by a bear and my only chance of survival was to climb a honeylocust, I’d let the bear have me…it would be over quicker.

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This tree has numerous burls, as discussed above.  The hollow at the base of the tree was probably initiated by torn and/or poorly pruned branches, which allowed decay to start at the wound site and work its way into the trunk.  

( Joy - This is my favorite cemetery tree - what I refer to as the "Sleepy Hollow Tree."  I've had some strange occurrences happen here, but that's for another blog!)

    

My sincere thanks to Larry Caplan for going above and beyond the call of duty in taking the time to review the photos and answer these questions.  You, sir, are a true “Tree Person!”

Sunday, May 1^st, is the start of National Pet Week.  Next Tuesday we’ll encounter some pets that have become a part of cemetery lore because of their devotion to man - even after death.

~ Joy

 

Angels in the Cemetery

Hierarchy of Angels

Angels are considered spiritual beings that guide and protect mankind, while interceding for him in heaven and acting as the  messengers of God.  There are nine levels of angels with 3 types in each group.  The Christian hierarchy is, from lowest to highest:  Angels, Archangels and Principalities; Powers, Virtues and Dominations; Thrones, Cherubims and Seraphims. Statues of angels, archangels and cherubims (actually Putto) flourish in cemeteries around the world, watching over the graves of children and adults, alike.

Song of the Angels
by Bouguereau

The belief in angels has existed since ancient times.  Folklore and legends from around the world have numerous stories involving angel and human interaction.  Most world religions that believe in one god share a belief in angels such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism.  Most eastern religions do not.  The acceptance of angels’ existence peaked during the Middle Ages and continued until the mid-19^th century.  Renewed interest has developed in the past 30 years.  It is interesting that both religious and non-religious people believe in angels.  According to several surveys conducted in 2009, 55% of Americans reported believing in angels.  In Canada, over 67% of those polled said they believed in angels.

Cemetery angels can indicate many feelings and beliefs depending on what they are doing and how they are doing it.  Here are some examples -

An angel pointing upward is leading the soul toward heaven and it’s reward.

An angel with a trumpet represents the Archangel Gabriel who stands ready to issue the call to resurrection.

This angel holds flowers that indicate the death of a child.  The daisies specify the innocence and purity of a child; the roses are an appeal to the Virgin Mary.

Here the angel holds an extinguished torch, to indicate death.

This angel stands in prayer. The star on her crown indicates the spirit rising to heaven.  The crown represents victory over death.

Here an angel sits on the grave, grieving an untimely death.

This angel holds a rolled up scroll in her hand to show that the deceased’s life has been recorded.

Here a guardian angel is taking the child to heaven.  The baby is holding high a lit torch to signify life everlasting.  The roses in the angel’s hands indicate unfailing love.

Cherubs are used to designate the grave of a child.  Cherubs have actually been humanized and blurred with Putto, which are depicted as pudgy babies or toddlers with wings in Baroque artwork.  They are found on the gravestones of children and indicate the omnipresence of God. 

Here a cherub is sitting, grieving a child’s life cut short.

This cherub is erasing the name of the child who has passed on.

A cherub with an inverted torch indicating the death of a child.

This small, flying angel proclaims rebirth.

And this angel has fascinated me the most. The laurel leaves on her head indicate triumph over death.  But what is she dropping from her hand?  Flowers?  Also, here are two shots of the same statue, taken the same day.  The angle is not that different, but it appears she has raised her head.  

This Friday is Arbor Day.  I’ll have an interview with an international Arborist who will discuss those odd, interesting, sometimes spooky trees found in the cemetery.

Photo by Jim Champion

Now, all of these angels have put me in the mood to watch the movie ‘Michael” again…..(Remember, he’s an angel- not a saint ; )

~ Joy