The Grove Cemetery at New Haven was a few centuries walk through a who's who at Yale. It had quite a few interesting monuments, but mostly lots and lots of WORDS every where. You didn't see too many "Beloved Mother" sentiments. There was bunches of Joe Blow, Reverend, Teacher, Lawyer, Statesmen, Yale Graduate 1809. Discovered how Air Tasted, Known as the Best Cloud Lover in Thirty States, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and even as fab as he was he died in 1869.
The Grove in New Haven was among the first 'designed' cemeteries. Prior to the Grove (1797 - first burial), you died, you got planted, and the next guy who died got planted next to you. The Grove started the idea of 'family plots', and they pre-sold those plots prior to death. This new cemetery came into being because of yellow fever epidemics that killed 5000 people quickly and filled up the burial space on the "Common" - the green space at the center of town. This new fangled idea of having a planned place waiting for you when you died caught on, and the most cosmopolitan towns like New York City and Baltimore and Philadelphia quickly developed their own planned cemeteries.
Just fifteen short years later, the first of the Richmond Confederate soldiers came home to the graveyard. Eventually there would be 18,000 of them, and a large pyramid like monument was raised in 1869 to honor them. It was made from Richmond cut granite and stacked up without mortar. The crane was too short to place the capstone. Placing it by 'hand' was deemed to be a 50/50 risk of death for the person who attempted it. A prisoner volunteered. If he succeeded, he got out of jail. A tough way to win his freedom, but he won his bet. The monument is about 80 feet high and sits on Confederate Hill. Directly surrounding the granite pyramid are the soldiers who fell in battle. This part of Hollywood Cemetery is a grave yard of teenagers and twenty somethings.
Two famous Confederates are buried here: Major George E. Pickett, the leader of the infamous "Picket's Charge" at Gettysburg in which more than three brigades were shot to doll rags by Union crossfire. As the remnants of survivors retreated, eye witnesses said that Pickett wept. When Lee asked Pickett to assemble his brigade, Pickett supposedly replied, General Lee, I have no brigade. Pickett survived the war and died in 1875; he is buried under this elaborate monument. There's an equally elaborate monument next to his erected by the survivors of the charge at Gettysburg in remembrance of their fallen comrades.
The other famous Confederate is J.E.B. Stuart. Stuart graduated from West Point in 1854, and resigned his US Army military commission returning to Virginia and Lee at the start of the War. By all accounts, Lee considered Stuart an adopted son. This famous cavalry officer died at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864 in an offensive led by another famous Union officer, Phil Sheridan. Sheridan was specifically to ordered to find and eliminate Stuart who the Union generals considered to be the most able Confederate commander after Lee. Stuart was only 34 years old when he was killed, but his widow Flora lived until 1923, never remarried and only wore black from the day Stuart was killed until she died. That level of devotion to the Lost Cause was displayed by many, many Southern women of the upper class. They preserved numerous historical sites as well as significant artifacts in the decades following the Civil War.
Hollywood is also the resting place of two United States Presidents: James Monroe and John Tyler. They are interred in the "Presidents' Circle" and surrounded by the 19th century movers and shakers of Richmond and Virginia society. There are several Virginia Governors buried in this area. Ironically, this cemetery has beautiful waterfront views of the James River, but all of the graves in that section of the Presidents' Circle face toward the Circle and away from the river view. Monroe's tomb is a showcase for the ironwork this cemetery is famous for.
Tyler's tomb is topped with an obelisk, and the obelisk is topped with an American Eagle.
Jefferson Davis has his OWN circle and he's got a bigger than life sized bronze statue of himself. Varina, his wife, has a seated angel over hers
The Atkinson family didn't want to leave any doubt as to their religious affiliation - not only a life sized praying angel but a larger than life sized cross.
My favorite statue of the entire cemetery was this one. She kneels on the grave of a 19 year old boy. I immediately thought, "that's his mother" the instant I saw it.
I'm sure this won't be the last graveyard I visit. What's fascinating about 18th, 19th and early 20th century graves are the variety of the monuments. Post 1950, the monuments are all rectangular slabs of granite. There are no angels, lambs, dogs, fancy fences, crosses, mythological creatures, or fanciful miniature buildings. Post 1970 there aren't even that many granite rectangles. Instead, there are flat plaques even with the ground. Ease of mowing has replaced expressions of grief. I think the faceless perpetual care of contemporary cemeteries coupled with the movement for better land use and the not inconsequential cost of burial is making places like the Hollywood Cemetery relics of the past.
The rest of the pix show other interesting features of this cemetery.
