Category: Hollywood Cemetery

A Gracious Lady In The Thick Of The Fray

11/21/2020

I know it's a bit strange, but I love to visit old cemeteries. Just yesterday, I visited on of my favorites, Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. I published pictures and information from the trip HERE.

While there, I came across this tombstone:

MARY ELIZABEETH FRAYSER
1869 - 1968

PIONEER LEADER AMONG
TEACHERS, SOCIAL WORKERS,
AND ORGANIZERS OF
RURAL LIBRARIES IN
THE SOUTH

When I returned home, I ran a Google-search on Ms. Frayser, and WOW -- what an incredible woman. Here is some of what is found out:

"Over her long life, Mary Frayser was an advocate for a wide range of social issues ranging from women’s rights, racial inequality, care for the mentally ill, children’s health, civic improvement, workplace representation, and public library services. She was a staunch backer of voting rights for women, first in Virginia and later in South Carolina, at a time when there was little support for the cause in the South. She was also was a champion for poverty-stricken textile mill workers and rural tenant farmers. She worked tirelessly to improve their living conditions, health, education and recreation opportunities, often by securing the respect and cooperation of the mill owners. Mary’s advocacy for African American citizens shocked her friends and associates. She became a leader of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, which actively worked to stop lynchings and advocated for improved education." The site with this information is HERE.

I found the timeline below -- along with much more information -- HERE (a download from this site, HERE).

1868 Born in Richmond, Virginia.

1903-1908 Taught in Richmond, Virginia public schools
1911 B.S. Columbia University

1911-1912 Head of Home Economics Department, Bessie Tift College in Forsyth, Georgia

1912-1917 State Agent for Rural and Mill Village Community Extension Work, Winthrop College.

1917-1918 Assistant Inspector, Child Labor Enforcement, Federal Children's Bureau for the state of Georgia

1918 Emergency Urban Agent, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Richmond, Virginia.

1919-1920 Field Director, Virginia Tuberculosis Association.

1921-1926 (Summers) Instructor of Sociology, Winthrop College.

1922-1926 Director of Community Activities in Cotton Mill Villages, Rock Hill and Chester, SC

1926-1946 Home Economist, Clemson and Winthrop Colleges, co-operating research in Home Economics.

1968 Died

Above: Mary Elizabeth Frayser

What an incredible person. I'll be reading up on more of the information on Ms. Frayser in the coming days.

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Grave Digger

11/21/2020

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I love old signs, abandoned buildings, and old cemeteries. Does that make me weird?

I have an Instagram account where I follow others who post pics of vintage signs, and I post pics too when I'm on the road -- check out @sign_on_the_dotted_line on Instagram.

I've published several posts about abandoned places here on my plog (poetry blog) -- HERE -- so many, in fact, that when you scroll down to the bottom of the linked page, click on "previous" to see more.

I've also published various posts about old cemeteries (for example, HERE -- and two cemeteries are included in my page about our trip to Savannah, HERE). Several times I've posted pictures from my favorite old, gothic cemetery, Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia (click HERE and scroll down).

I even have a beautiful coffee-table book about the history of Hollywood Cemetery by John O. Peters. (I ask again, does this make me weird?)

Here's a little bit of the cemetery's history from their website; "Established in 1847, Hollywood Cemetery is a fully operational cemetery located in Richmond, Virginia. Designed in 1847 by noted architect John Notman of Philadelphia, Hollywood Cemetery is known as a garden cemetery, a landscape style that became popular in the 19th century. Located on the banks of the James River in the state capital of Virginia, the cemetery spans 135 acres of valleys, hills, and stately trees. Its natural and architecutral beauty sets it apart from the grid-like layout of modern cemeteries and its natural beauty has earned its recognition as a registered arboretum." More information is HERE.

By Emily Dickinson:

As by the dead we love to sit,
Become so wondrous dear --
As for the lost we grapple
Tho' all the rest are here --

In broken mathematics
We estimate our prize
Vast — in its fading ration
To our penurious eyes!

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, so my wife and I drove to Richmond to walk through the cemetery again. Below are pics of some of the grave sites we strolled past. Click the images to enlarge.

At the left: The grave site of Sarah Winston includes the oldest angel in the cemetery.

At the right: In his book Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery, historian John O. Peters stated that the burial site of Evaline Nace includes the "most noteworthy gothic revival monument"

At the right: The grave site of Henry A Wise, a governor of Virginia and later a a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the Civil War.

From Encyclopedia Virginia: "Perhaps best known for being governor when Brown attempted to spark a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Wise had the authority to commute Brown's death sentence. Instead, he allowed the execution to take place, making possible the radical abolitionist's ascension to martyrdom." More info is HERE.

At the left: The grave site of Matthew Fontaine Maury, an American astronomer and naval officer, He was nicknamed "Pathfinder of the Seas" and "Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology"

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Maury resigned his commission as a US Navy commander and joined the Confederacy.

At the left and right: John Garland Pollard was the 51st Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Among other accomplishments, Pollard was most proud of establishing the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the first state art museum in the United States.

At the left: The burial site of Captain Barrett Price who served in the American Revolutionary War and died in 1794.
Information is HERE.

At the right: The burial site of Joseph Reid Anderson, an American civil engineer, industrialist, politician and soldier. During the American Civil War he served as a Confederate general, and his Tredegar Iron Company was a major source of munitions and ordnance for the CSA.

Below: A few miscellaneous shots from around the cemetery. Click the images to enlarge.

By Emily Dickinson:

I see thee clearer for the Grave
That took thy face between
No Mirror could illumine thee
Like that impassive stone –

I know thee better for the Act
That made thee first unknown
The stature of the empty nest
Attests the Bird that's gone.

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Memorial Day 2020 -- Part 2

5/26/2020

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From our 19th century historian, Eudora Dickinson:

I visited Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond yesterday. It is a historic and beautiful place, designed also to serve as a city park in the 1800s, albeit a tranquil and solemn place for reflection and remembrance.

After the Civil War, it became a cemetery for confederate soldiers and officers (more CSA generals are buried there than any other confederate cemetery, plus it is the final resting place of CSA president Jefferson Davis), but it is much more than that. It is also the burial site of US Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler, six Virginia governors and many other notable individuals -- check out the information HERE.

I've posted pictures from Hollywood Cemetery and poetry before -- HERE.

Below are pictures from my trip yesterday.

By Emily Dickinson:

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –
Untouched by Morning –
and untouched by noon –
Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection,
Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone –

Grand go the Years,
In the Crescent above them –
Worlds scoop their Arcs –
and Firmaments – row –
Diadems – drop –
And Doges surrender –
Soundless as Dots,
On a Disk of Snow.

By Emily Dickinson:

A Coffin – is a small Domain,
Yet able to contain
A Citizen of Paradise
In it diminished Plane.

A Grave – is a restricted Breadth –
Yet ampler than the Sun –
And all the Seas He populates
And Lands He looks upon

To Him who on its small Repose
Bestows a single Friend –
Circumference without Relief –
Or Estimate – or End –

Below: Every time I saw a tombstone from 1918, I wondered if they were victims of the Spanish flu pandemic.

Below: The tomb and the marker are from women who were born in 1794.

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Heavenly Hosts

10/11/2018

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From our 19th century historian, Eudora Dickinson:

Just yesterday I published a plog (poetry blog) post about Dickinson family members buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. That post -- with lots of pictures -- is HERE.

Below are some random shots of just a few of the angels around the cemetery.

By Emily Dickinson:

She died – this was the way she died.
And when her breath was done
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.
Her little figure at the gate
The Angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.

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Relatively Speaking

10/10/2018

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From our 19th Century historian, Eudora Dickinson:

Members of the Dickinson Organization of Poetry Enthusiasts gathered in Richmond, Virginia, this past weekend for a special tour of the Hollywood Cemetery with the cemetery's caretaker, Mortimer Titian. Many relatives of the families of both Emmett Lee Dickinson and Emily Dickinson are buried there.

Named for its numerous holly trees and characterized by rolling hills and winding paths overlooking the James River, Hollywood Cemetery is a large, sprawling cemetery located near the downtown area of the state's capital.

Top left & right: The grave marker for Hiram Dickinson, his wife Mary Bell Dickinson, and their son, Hiram Dickinson Jr.

Right: The grave of Elizabeth Dickinson Smith, the daughter of Hiram and Mary Dickinson.

Below left to right: Hiram and Mary Bell Dickinson; their son Hiram Dickinson, Jr.; their daughter Elizabeth Dickinson Smith.

Hiram Dickinson, a first cousin to Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) was a potato badger in Ireland. A badger was a middleman who would buy produce from farmers and then up-sell it to customers at the farmers' market. Hiram immigrated to America during Ireland's potato blight and settled in Richmond, Virginia; however, potato farming was almost non-existent in Virginia's capital city, so he found work on a beet farm in what is now Chesterfield County. Dickinson boxed beets for a living for many years, and he is credited as being the first beet boxer in the country.

Mary Bell Dickinson, Hiram's wife, was a batt maker, a person who made wadding for quilts and mattresses. She pioneered the technology of adding different amounts of batt in mattresses for married couples so that each could obtain his or her ideal level of firmness. This advancement in mattress making led to the modern-day Sleep-Number Mattress.

Hiram Jr., Hiram and Mary's son, was a duffer, a peddler of cheap goods, and he sold his wares from a donkey-cart in the Fan District of Richmond. Dickinson was known for his oysters, hot-eels, pea soup, fried fish, pies and puddings, sheep’s trotters, pickled whelks, gingerbread, baked potatoes, and crumpets.

Below left: Enders Dickinson and his wife Eoline Lucy Dickinson. Below right: The resting place for Enders and Eoline.

Hiram Dickinson's other son, Enders Dickinson, made his living as a sugar boiler. However, he also operated cooking equipment such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers. Ender's wife Eoline was a fripperer, a buyer & seller of old clothes. Her work in peddling old clothes is credited with setting the stage for eBay and other modern-day e-commerce corporations.

Below: Miscellaneous shots taken around Hollywood Cemetery.

Above: The grave sites for Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler are located in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.

Below: The grave site for Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, is also located there. The small stone on the left -- located at Davis' burial site -- reads, "Erected by the little boys and girls of the Southern Capital."

Below: The tomb of Lewis Ginter is located in the ceremony. Ginter (1824 – 1897) was a prominent businessman, military officer, real estate developer, and philanthropist from Richmond. At one time, he was Richmond's wealthiest citizen. If you look inside his tomb, you can see that there are stained glass windows – and we suspect that they are Tiffany windows.

Below: A tomb near the grave site of Jefferson Davis -- that reads "BOXER" at the top -- also had a stained glass window. From the back, the window is not protected like the window's in Ginter's tomb. As a result (and it's difficult to see in the picture), there is some damage to the window where someone has thrown a rock which has shattered a portion of the glass.

For more information about other Dickinson's "in the grave," click HERE.

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A Gracious Lady In The Thick Of The Fray

Grave Digger

Memorial Day 2020 -- Part 2

Heavenly Hosts

Relatively Speaking

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