The Peacock Family and Their Neighbors

animar64

Oct 26

I've been taking pictures at cemeteries for a few years now and I feature them here on my blog.

This year's collection was different- these pictures have oomph and I am excited to share them with you.

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Oakwood Cemetery.
Beaver Dam WI USA
October2023

Meet the Peacock Family: I loved their name and call it a moment of inspiration or a haunting- but as soon as I saw the Peacock's tombstones I just knew there's a story here just waiting to be told.

J.H. Peacock and Caroline Peacock's headstones were in the best shape, I'm sorry to say the other Peacock's markers were harder to read. I included them in a group portrait below:

The Family Tree- this was the second tombstone I saw like this one while I was visiting Wisconsin- the other was in Fox Lake. I captured different angles so that you could see the beautiful work that went into creating them.

Here is some information I found a out these "Tree Stones ".

Tree-stump tombstones like these can be found in graveyards across the country ( USA). They tend to surprise people who come across them, since they're not quite what we expect to see at the head of a grave. They date mostly to 1880s to 1920s, when funerary art in the United States was moving away from the grand mausoleums and obelisks found elsewhere in Green-Wood. The tree-stump stones were part of a movement to turn the focus of death back to life, and they're a unique form connected with the secret societies of the time. "They qualify as folk art," writes Susanne Ridlen, in her 1999 book Tree-Stump Tombstones.

As my Son and I were leaving Oakwood, we passed by this tombstone flanked by two trees glowing in gold and red leaves and I thought of a Christmas Tree.

I know, it's silly. After all, it's almost Halloween.

Despite my holiday snafu, it was a beautiful sight:

I have more pictures to share and I will add them to my blog here through the winter. I don't want to do a photo dump because all of my Graveyard pictures have a story to tell and I want to give them their moment to shine.

anita