The Battalion
LIFESTYLES
Thursday, February 1,1990
‘Gone
but not
forgotten’
In essence, cemeteries are for the living, not
the dead. Mourning families invest great
amounts of caring, time, and often, money in
the creation of memorials to their lost loved
ones.
The result is a collection of works of en
during beauty. Detailed sculptures, intricate
engravings and lyrical poetry can be found
even in the most remote rural cemeteries —
such remembrances are not bound by location,
income or social class.
Affluent families may erect elaborate mau
soleums or pillars in their cemetery plots, but
just as meaningful are the simple hand-carved
wooden or stone markers.
The photographs on these pages were
taken at the Boonville Cemetery on Boonville
Road in Bryan. Most of the gravestones date
from the mid- to late 19th century. The verses
quoted are epitaphs from several of the Boon
ville stones.
“Thou star of hope, my beaute’us light.
Gives promice (sic) of some shore all bright
With joy and love, where all are blest.
Be thou our guide to realms of rest
Or shall we meet on some bright shore
Where grief nor death shall come no more
And join the loved ones gone before,
To live and love forever more”
—from the Mitchell family tomb
“Two precious voices from us have gone.
The voices we loved are stilled,
Those places vacant in our home.
And never can be filled.”
— from the gravestone of M.C. Steed (d.
1912) and L.E. Steed (d. 1934)