Spend a lot of time wandering around cemeteries?
Hey, we don’t judge you. David Watters hangs out in graveyards, too, and we think he’s pretty cool.
We recently attended Watters’s talk “New Hampshire Gravestones” at the Pierce Manse.
The free event, sponsored by the New Hampshire Humanities Council, was part of The Brigade Lecture series (a year-long series focused on New Hampshire history and culture).
Equipped with multiple slides and a wicked sense of humor, Watters explored New England’s oldest burying grounds and cemeteries. Here are some things from his talk that we found interesting:
– The oldest still-standing stone in New Hampshire dates back to the 1670s. Before then, wood marked the spot.
– During the 1600s the most common cause of death for women was childbirth. The average lifespan for men was 42 years old, for women 38.
– The epitaph “I told you I was sick” can be found in two New Hampshire cemeteries – one in Derry, the other in Tilton.
– Tombstone etchings have changed quite a bit over the years. In the 1600s and 1700s, sinister pictures depicting death were all the rage, as well as religious imagery. The trend changed to urns and Classical Greek and Roman symbols during the Revolutionary War. Today, stones are a lot more personal to honor the deceased’s life.
For example, an outdoorsman can be remembered with an etching of mountain scenery or an Insider fanatic could – oh, we don’t know – get the Insider logo printed on his or her stone.
– During the mid-1800s the garden cemetery movement became popular. This effort made cemeteries more park-like with landscaping, benches, ponds and more. Blossom Hill Cemetery is an example of this type of burial ground.
For more information about upcoming programs at the Pierce Manse, visit piecemanse.org or call 225-4555.
