Bloom City TALES THE TOMBSTONES TELL

Tales the Tombstones Tell - Republican Observer November 10, 1955

          About Cemeteries Here and There
            Bloom City

    A well kept cemetery is the one at Bloom City and it contains the remains of many of the old timers who made this county what it is today. It took rugged work to hew the fine farms from heavily timbered tracts and the town of Bloom furnished many of these sturdy citizens. We noted many familiar names upon the stones, one of these whom we heard about was Isaac McMahan, who became noted far and wide through an apple tree developed upon his farm which later on was one of the standard varieties. It was developed as a seedling, excellent for eating or cooking. It was an early variety and was known throughout the land as the McMahan apple. The older portion of the Bloom City cemetery contains many stones which have become so weather beaten that only the deeper cut letters can be made out.

    A marker for Almira Peckman, who died January 14, 1872, at the age of five years reads: Though so still her dimpled hands, Dimpled cheeks so pale, Though our bud of promise proved For the earth too frail; Near her grave no chilling breath Whispers to our hearts of death.

    On another stone is this line: "Our days on this earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."

    And there you have a brief visit to a number of cemeteries. When the shadows begin to lengthen for you be of good cheer and keep in mind that simple but true inscription on a stone in the Rockbridge cemetery:

"Dying in but going home."

S. F.

Tales The Tombstones Tell - Republican Observer - February 7, 1957

               Epitaphs
    Epitaphs upon tombstones appear to be things of the past. They are infrequent now-a-day on the newer monuments but the old time markers are engraved with verses. Some of these epitaphs on older stones have so faded away, worn by rains and winds that they can no longer be read. These appear upon the marble stones and no doubt that in another ten years most of the remaining stones will be so weather worn that they will be more difficult to make out.

    Here are some epitaphs taken at random here and there from tombstones in various burying grounds about the county.

    In the Bloom City cemetery a marker for Alice Hall, who died on April 1, 1873, at the age of 34, read:
        "Why lament the Christian dying,
        Why indulge in tears or gloom,
        Calmly on the Lord relying
        She can greet the open tomb.
        What if death with icy fingers
            all the font of life congeals,
        'Tis not there thy life lingers
        'Tis not death her spirit feels."

S.F.

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