Solsberry Cemetery

This is the sign on the road that leads to the Philpot Cemetery just down the way from us.   I laugh every time I see it, and I've been saving this pic for today.  

Happy Halloween! 

To celebrate this day of the dead, we went to another local cemetery, Solsberry Cemetery, just off Highway 43, north of Solsberry, Indiana.     It's a wonderful old cemetery, still in use, with graves dating from the mid 1800s.   

Pretty, isn't it!

The vast majority of the old gravestones here have been carved out of limestone.  Many of them are signed by the carver, T H Sudbury, Bloomington.     This is the grave of Lizzie E. Thompson, wife of William E. Thompson.  She was 21 years, 5 months and 22 days old when she died on January 19, 1880.    It must have been cold when they dug her grave and buried her.   I wonder what she died of.

Click the pic and check the bottom right of the stone for Mr. Sudbury's signature. 

We found more interesting carving on the gravestone of John Cox.   He was born January 3, 1821 and he died April 17, 1891.   What changes he must have seen all around him during his life.   He lived through the Civil War.  


I love his epitaph, way down at the bottom:  Farewell my wife and children all, from you a father Christ doth call.

I also love this gravestone because of the carving in the center.   It's faint, but still visible.  

Here was another gravestone that I loved.   This is on the grave of 3 year old Nellie Torrence.  She was  born July 3, 1884 and she died August 2, 1887.   Her epitaph is:   Buried on earth to bloom in heaven.  

So sweet.    She is buried next to her sister Ruth, who died at 2 yrs old. 

The most interesting stones we found were a couple of stones shaped and carved by hand out of the local creek rock.   It's a miracle they've lasted all these years.   

Here is the stone for L M Newton.  No other information.    What did L M die of?   Who carved the stone?    Were they too poor for a limestone marker?     These graves are mixed in with the others, and not separated in another section as if they were in the pauper's part of the cemetery.

This is the gravestone of Hannah May.   Her name is misspelled on the stone:  Hannh May.    She was born Jan 25, 1817.  She died Sept 6, 1855.   

We love our local cemeteries.  They are so peaceful and they tell such interesting stories.   Check out my post from last year to see Philpot Cemetery.