02 February 2010

Tombstone Tuesday--Culp Cemetery

This is another of the county cemeteries I have not visited. With none of my family from the eastern part of the county, I have never visited it.
I do enjoy going through the pictures for each cemetery as I prepare these posts. Each of them have their own particular flavor. I especially like the old-fashioned wire fence surrounding Culp Cemetery. I also noticed that while the ground was well maintained, I did not see any modern granite stones. You can see that the background looks fairly empty here.
And indeed, when digging out the listings in the transcript book we show only 3 surnames in this cemetery--Culp, Daggett, and Rice. The most recent listed is 1875. I venture to guess that not all the stones are still readable or even visible.
Below you can see the condition of some of the stones. They are also visible in the picture above.
The darker set of stones appear to be for at least two different people. Maybe even three, as the stone still standing appears to wide to match the two pieces leaning and lying down. All the pieces are too dark and too weather weary to make out the inscription. The nearly buried stone may read Mary E, but not sure. The lighter stone, when I view a larger view of the stone, appears to have a picture of a lamb on the top, but the names are still illegible.
This broken stone appears to be made of cement. Unadorned except for the name inscribed it has been carefully laid on another piece of cement. I cannot match the letters I can read with any of the names in the transcript. This is one of the ones that lead me to believe not all of the names are listed. Notice that the ends of the stone above do not appear to match the broken section of the cement slab below it. Is that another tombstone?
As is so often the case, in the same cemetery here is this stone, barely touched by the elements. The name of William Erastus. son of William and Catherine Rice is clearly visible. Even the script at the very bottom appear to be still clean and crisp. Interestingly, the graves of William and Catherine do not appear anywhere in the cemetery transcript.
Overall as I look at the pictures we have of Culp Cemetery, the feeling I get is sadness. So many broken and possibly missing stones. The sight of the marble slabs laying flat on the ground is somewhat depressing.
I close with this stone that typifies Culp Cemetery. The name is only partially readable. I think it belongs to one of the Culp family members, possibly the Christopher listed in the transcript. The picture of the clasped hands, collecting sand as the stone lies quietly. The missing wedge from the side and next to it, the curved top of another stone.Somehow, I think that the rest for those in this cemetery was not peaceful. May they have it now.

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