Cemeteries Worth the Visit - Bardstown Cemetery, Bardstown, Kentucky

Location in Kentucky

Bardstown Cemetery

Bardstown City Cemetery in Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky was established in 1852 with land purchased from Joseph Hart and James Doom.  The current City Cemetery is comprised of 15.5 acres and located in the northern section of town.  Over 3,100 people are interred here.

Bardstown Cemetery

Fenced Plot

Bardstown City Cemetery has many interesting and detailed stones.  Although few are ‘famous,’ you will find many that catch your eye.

James B. Beam

James Beam's Marker

One very famous interment is for Colonel James (Jim) Beauregard Beam, grandson of the man who developed a style of whisky known as Bourbon. Beam was born in 1864 in Kentucky and took over the family business from his father, David Beam.   Despite 13 years of Prohibition in this country, Beam kept the business profitable, turning it into a legendary American company. He was integral in the rebuilding of the distillery in 1933 in Clermont, Kentucky near Bardstown. In 1935 the bourbon was renamed Jim Beam Bourbon in J.B. Beam’s honor.  He died in Kentucky in 1947.

White Bronze Confederate Soldier

Dedication

Bardstown Cemetery is also known for the white bronze Confederate Soldiers Statue.  The memorial is cast from zinc, standing on a limestone base.  The four side panels show the image of General Robert E. Lee, cannons and other war artillery.  The statue cost $900 when it was erected in 1903.  It stands among the sixty-seven Confederate graves of soldiers who died during area Civil War battles. Sixty-six of the soldiers died in 1862, including those at the Battle of Bardstown. Seventeen soldiers are unknown.

Battle of Bardstown

Unknown Soldier

The Battle of Bardstown occurred on October 4, 1862 between the towns of Bardstown and Nazareth, on what is now Highway 31 East. Confederate troops had marched into Bardstown before four Union regiments encircled them.  During this battle the Confederates broke free and withdrew to Perryville.  

8th Texas Cavalry

Confederate Graves

During this battle, the Eighth Texas Cavalry and its leader, Colonel John Wharton, were stationed at the Fairgrounds, ready to intercept the Union Army.  But the Rangers found themselves confronted by far superior numbers of the First and Fourth Kentucky, the Fourth Ohio and the Third Indiana Cavalry regiments.  The Texas Calvary fought hard and won.  It would be called the unit’s finest hour.  The battle is still reenacted each August in Bardstown.

Confederate Marker

Confederate Soldier

In May 2000, the Confederate Soldiers Statue was damaged when a tree fell on it during a storm.  The pieces were shipped to New York and the statue was restored by the Conservation and Sculpture Company.  Restoration cost was around $50,000 and over 90% of the monument was reconstructed from original pieces.  Two years later the statue returned to its place of honor in the cemetery.   It was listed on the National Registry of Historic Markers in 1997.  

Ben Johnson

Bardstown & St Joseph Cemeteries

St Josephs’ Cemetery is adjacent to the Bardstown City Cemetery.  It has over 4,500 interments, including U.S. Congressman Ben Johnson.  Johnson was born in Bardstown on March 19, 1858 and died there on June 4, 1950.  Johnson began as an attorney in 1882, and then was appointed as a member of the State House of Representatives in 1885.  He served as Speaker of the House in 1887, and was appointed as a collector of the Internal Revenue in 1893, a position he held for four years. He served as a U.S. Congressman from 1907 until 1927.

St Michael Defeating the Devil

Close Up of Statue Base

Another monument of interest in St Joseph's, is the statue of St Michael defeating the devil.  The details and the red coloring of the statue draws your attention from throughout the cemetery.

Bardstown Cemetery

Statue Descending Steps

Bardstown City Cemetery is located in the 800 block of North Third Street.  Contact Cemetery Sexton Bobbe Blincoe at (877) 348-5947 for hours and genealogy information.  The cemetery does not have a web site.

~ Joy

Waymarking (and such) in the Cemetery

 

GPS Device

A waymark is a location or a specific symbol found at a specified location or route.  Waymarking identifies specific points of interest. You mark these locations when you visit them by their GPS coordinates - latitude and longitude, so that others can find them.  On http://www.waymarking.com you then post the information in the correct category with a description and photo to share with others on the site.

WOW Waymarks

Currently, Waymarking lists over 408,000 waymarks worldwide.  The Waymarking web site has over 1,000 categories listed.  Fifty are in the cemetery category and include worldwide cemeteries, veteran cemeteries, churchyard cemeteries, abandoned cemeteries, Woodmen of the World grave markers, mausoleums and many more.

Waymarking Groups

Out Of Place Cemetery Stone

Waymarking also consists of groups.  A group can be formed when 2 or more people volunteer to work together to manage the category they’ve selected. These group leaders will review the submitted information; making sure the GPS coordinates and information are correct.  There are almost 1,800 groups currently on Waymarking, of these twenty-four groups exist under the search for cemeteries.

Scavenger Hunt Symbol

You can even do scavenger hunts with Waymarking.  A scavenger hunt is a personal or shared challenge (game.)  Scavenger hunts use a set of waymarks  randomly selected for you, based on the criteria you enter.  The goal is to visit each waymark, take a photo of yourself at the location, then log onto http://www.waymarking.com and post the pictures to get credit for each location visited. Credit consists of your success being logged on your Waymarking profile.  A scavenger hunt can include a simple search that covers a few miles near you, to over 200,000 square miles.  You set the criteria you want to follow.

Geocaching Container

Geocaching Symbol

Geocaching www.geocaching.com/ is more about the hunt for ‘treasure,’ a physical container located at the given GPS coordinates. The container usually holds a logbook.  The geocacher enters the date the cache was discovered and signs the book with their code name.  Sometimes toys or trinkets are also included in the cache as a bonus ‘find’.  Geocaching has been described as a “high tech game of hide and seek.” Geocaching has been an outdoor sport since May3rd, 2000, the date it officially started. There are over 5 million people who take part worldwide, and over 1.7 million active geocaches currently in existence.

Letterbox Container

Letterbox Symbol

Geocaching is very similar to Letterboxing, http://www.letterboxing.org/.  Letterboxing can be traced to Dartmoor, England in 1854 when National Park Guide William Crossing placed a bottle for visiting cards from hikers and adventurers at Cranmere Pool.  Letterboxers carry a personal journal of their finds, and mark it with the custom ink stamp found in the letterboxes. Letterboxing is still practiced, having spread from England throughout the world. Letterboxing began in North American in 1998.  There are over 20,000 letterboxes hidden throughout the country.  Clues may be found at the Letterboxing website.

FaceBook Groups

Cemetery Crosses

I personally enjoy scouting cemeteries on my own terms, posting photos and taking part in the cemetery group discussions on Facebook.  But waymarking, geocaching and letterboxing are also other options available where you can share your love of cemeteries and photos with fellow tombstone tourists.

~ Joy

Accordions in the Cemetery

 June is National Accordion Month.  While at first this doesn’t appear to be a topic for a cemetery blog – it is.  It seems that accordions do have their place in the cemetery.

Accordion

The accordion, also called the squeezebox is a bellows-driven musical instrument with keys that control the reeds inside the box.  An accordion can be played solo and is usually considered a one-man-band instrument.

In View of the Lincoln Tomb

In Springfield, Illinois the grave of “Mr. Accordion” holds a prominent spot in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Roy Bertelli has a small plot within sight (and hearing distance) of Abraham Lincoln’s Tomb.

Mr Accordion

Bertelli called himself “Mr. Accordion” and had a lifelong love affair with the instrument.  He wanted to be remembered for what had given him his greatest joy in life.

Entrance to Oak Ridge Cemetery

Bertelli, a Springfield resident, also wanted to be buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery.  He approached the cemetery years ago to see if there were any plots available in the area he was interested in.  Cemetery personnal said that the tiny triangle of land near Lincoln’s tomb could be purchased.  Bertelli was said to have bought it on the spot.

Oak Ridge Cemetery Office

But a few weeks later he received a letter from the cemetery telling him that the plot was sold to him by mistake.  According to friends of Bertelli, he would have returned the plot to Oak Ridge – but then a second letter came from an attorney representing the cemetery making the usual threats if he did not comply with the return.

Lifetime Dedication & WW II Vet

Roy Bertelli & His Accordions

Bertelli decided to fight.  He not only refused to return the plot, he placed a two thousand pound above ground granite crypt with the image of an accordion carved on it and the words “Lifetime Dedication to the Accordion.” It is said that he paid $30,000 for the marker.  Bertelli enjoyed showing up, standing on his crypt and playing the accordion for cemetery visitors, waiting to tour Lincoln’s Tomb, (Oak Ridge Cemetery has over 375,000 visitors each year,) much to the embarrassment of the cemetery officials and the City of Springfield.

Camp Butler Cemetery

Roy Bertelli

When Roy Bertelli died in 2003 at the age of 92, he succeeded in having the last laugh.  It seems that Bertelli was not buried in his accordion crypt as planned, but was interred at Camp Butler National Cemetery east of Springfield since he was a veteran of WW II.  Rumor has it that his beloved accordions now reside inside the crypt.

Green-Wood Cemetery Entrance

Another episode of cemeteries and accordions had to do with a site specific performance –walking tour.  The performance group Angels and Accordions began to present shows set to accordion music in 2004.  The Dance Theatre Etcetera and the Green-Wood Historic Fund for the Green-Wood Cemetery, located in Brooklyn, New York, produced the programs.  

Angels in White, Musicians in Black

A cast of thirty angels, dressed in white, ten accordions and an ensemble of classical music performers dressed in black,  guided visitors through the cemetery to the sounds of original music composed for the event. 

Angels at Tombstone

In the Catacombs

Instead of the usual polka type music expected from accordions these musicians played more somber and deeper music.  Singers and performers could be found interacting at gravesites, with statuary and monuments, among the trees, even in the cemetery’s catacombs - all performing to the melancholy music of accordions and classical instruments.  Accordions were chosen as the lead instruments because of their portability.

An Angel in the Cemetery

The idea of the show was to involve the public with the artistic works and music of the cemetery.  It was a way to get people to see cemeteries not as repositories of death but also as beautiful places that can show us the complexities and richness of life.

Angels Among the Monuments

The performances were delightful and exciting, but as cemeteries teach us, all things must pass.  It was decided in 2010 that Angels and Accordions had ran it’s course and the final program was presented on October 9, 2010. 

Accordion Keyboard

Although accordions are viewed more as a folk music instrument, they are gaining popularity in classical music, and as we’ve seen, they are also taking their place in cemetery lore.

~ Joy