Lizzie Borden Society Forum

For years I had pictured Emma and Lizzie in the carriage on the day of the funeral out on the road near the graves of Abraham and his family. Now I have rolled about on the grass, examining the contours of the plot, I believe the carriage may have been on the private back access road. What do you think Harry? At one time a person could have driven a carriage all around the plot.

The mysterious disappearing granite step

The steep incline in front of Emma and Lizzie's graves

The once-controversial path

Another granite footing

From the street- the granite footing for the steps looks the same as the back footing. Almy graves in top center.

Abraham and family headstones with heads on the other side of the stone!

Almy plot in foreground

Shelley @ Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:31 pm wrote:For years I had pictured Emma and Lizzie in the carriage on the day of the funeral out on the road near the graves of Abraham and his family. Now I have rolled about on the grass, examining the contours of the plot, I believe the carriage may have been on the private back access road. What do you think Harry? At one time a person could have driven a carriage all around the plot.

It's so hard to say as we don't have photos of the contour of the plot back in 1927, just that lone photograph. That side-by-side comparison you did of the 1927 photo and a current photo is excellent.

Many more trees and the ground appears to be more level. I can imagine in 1895, the year the stone was installed, there were even more.

That tree just behind Lizzie's grave is gone. How near it actually was may be distorted though.

August afternoon

The shadows have fallen

Looking through the iron grill at the site of the second autopsy

The holding tomb -Abby and Andrew waiting to rest in peace

Watching for Dr. Wood's exit

The Ladies'Waitingroom

Genevra and William Almy

Nice photos Shelly. I love Oak Grove. I could walk around there for hours.

Thanks!

Well, I wish you were out there last Sunday morning. I milled around for hours shooting these and trying to locate Grace Hartley Howe. The cop who parks in the back was beginning to eye me suspiciously! If you're not busy Sunday morning, as soon as I get everyone checked out, I'll meet you at Oak Grove for some stone hunting, then more painted ladies. I am just a real taphophile, but especially old Victorian cemeteries. I love the symbolism in the stones.

My wife thinks that I'm weird when I say that the cemetery is so peaceful. I just start reading the inscriptions and wonder who this person was or what kind of life that person lived. There is so much history there. and it's all free!
I read a great book by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack called: Your Guide to Cemetery Research. Boy did i learn a lot from that book like what different symbols mean on a stone and how to do grave rubbings. What a great book. And she even mentions our own Lizzie and her stone in it.

Yes, the symbolism is what intrigues me- Victorians were so full of it. I first got interested in it in England at Highgate- you cannot even go in there without a guide. It is so overgrown people go in and do not come out! I also do rubbings with heelball and rice paper for framing. Connecticut has a nice cemetery monument lovers group called Graven Images which gives fabulous tours of historic cemeteries in October.

A taphophile is simply someone who likes cemetery monuments. Two of my favorite sites are http://www.taphophilia.com/ (which also has some odd funeral stories)
and City of the Silent

http://www.alsirat.com/city.html
For a comprehensive glossary of what stone symbols mean, this is a superb site

http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-tl/pages ... bolism.htm

My favorite in Oak Grove are two huge sheaves of wheat, symbolizing the harvest has been reaped. I also like Mr. Stafford's mill- but you can't take it with you!

I really enjoyed the recent FRHS's famous people walking tour in Oak Grove. This year Abby Borden made an appearance. Three years ago, along with the Little Theatre, they did a similar thing called History Underfoot which was sold out. That was my last year doing Lizzie for the city. Pulling off 32 at age 52 was getting tough. I have now aged into Abby roles, which I can manage for another 9 years!
I have been mapping out a walking tour of Borden case notables for the Second Street house for the past year in spare time.

Mark A. @ Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:35 pm wrote:My wife thinks that I'm weird when I say that the cemetery is so peaceful. I just start reading the inscriptions and wonder who this person was or what kind of life that person lived. There is so much history there. and it's all free!
I read a great book by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack called: Your Guide to Cemetery Research. Boy did i learn a lot from that book like what different symbols mean on a stone and how to do grave rubbings. What a great book. And she even mentions our own Lizzie and her stone in it.

I do to. It's very peaceful to walk through and see the head stones and what was said about them.

It was an especially beautiful morning in Oak Grove today. I saw a student sketching a scene, hikers, an elderly couple, one pushing the other in a wheelchair, joggers, all taking in the crisp autum air and blue skies.

Looks like Lizzie had a visitor last night who left some Budweiser cans! The mums were in bloom and it was a great day to sit under the tree, with some Portuguese sweetbread which is sold at Walgreens in small buns, and cocoa and to shoot some of the really interesting grave symbols.

I have amassed enough stone shots for a power point presentation I think- those Victorians sure loved their symbols on everything from diningroom furniture to their final "furniture" in the cemetery. The draped urn is very popular and there are many of them in Oak Grove. Mostly, this one shot is to show what a beautiful day it was. Every one I saw walking around, I wondered if it was one of the Forum folks.

When we were there a car drove up and a young *Elvira Mistress Of The Dark* woman stopped me to ask a question. She was gorgeous and had that fake black smooth shiny hair with bangs.

She wanted to know where the Borden plot was. Stef walked up just then. We gave her directions- as simply as we could- which was to go back to the gate and start over, following the arrows. She thanked us. Then I chatted a bit with her about how she always takes this shortcut thru the cemetery to where she lives -saying she does that now that she is in therapy for a brain tumor!
She had just come from a doctor visit.

She said she felt comfortable in the place- like she belonged there.

OMG I was finally struck dumb.

Shelley @ Sun Sep 03, 2006 7:31 pm wrote:For years I had pictured Emma and Lizzie in the carriage on the day of the funeral out on the road near the graves of Abraham and his family. Now I have rolled about on the grass, examining the contours of the plot, I believe the carriage may have been on the private back access road. What do you think Harry? At one time a person could have driven a carriage all around the plot.

Hi Shelley,
I think I was at the graves when these pics were taken. I met you that day. I was wondering about Lurana's grave. That on her stone semms to indicate she died very young, but I thought she lived to marry
Hiram Harrington. I may be wrong, but I thought I read she died young
JEFF

Hi Jeff- yes I remember you that day! Yes, there are people here who know the family tree better than I do, I was thinking the second Lurana- the one who lived to marry Harrington, was named after the little Lurana who died. Mrs. Lurana Harrington should be buried next to Hiram Harrington.

Hi Shelley,
I might be up at Oak Grove on Friday @ 2-2:30. I am going to do some hunting looking for graves of Mrs. Churchill, Marshal Fleet and others related to the case. I hope to see you there.

JEFF

Sorry not to be up there until Saturday this week. I spend last weekend finding some of those folks you mentioned. The office is open Friday and can help with a lot map.

Hi Shelley,
I may end up at Oak Grove Saturday if I can't make it Friday.
I enjoyed your website. I also am interested in the Titanic.

Thanks Jeff. I know there is a thread on Lizzie and the Titanic here on the forum. There were no people from Fall River, but many from Newport (the ultra rich) and some from Providence. I looked at the names carefully but could not see how any would have crossed Lizzie's path. It would make a great novel though- Lizzie on the Titanic! (with Jack the Ripper thrown in for good measure)- and maybe Sherlock Holmes too.

There were the Higgenbothams on the Lusitania from Fall River. Who knows?

Hi Shelley,
Happy Birthday ! Sorry I missed you at Oak Grove. I was there for an hour @ 10:30-11-30 this AM. I started my search there
for other people related to the case. I think I found Lizzie's attorney
Andrew J. Jennings. If he is the one that was married to Marion Saunders
then I think I found him. He is near the back of the lot. I will have to go back to find some more. I couldn't find Mrs. Churchill or Marshall Fleet.
It is cool that you birthday is 4 days after Andrew's and 2 days before
Sarah's and mine is 2 days after Lizzie's
Hope to talk to you soon,
Jeff

Yes they did like their symbols. They were also very religous too.

To what do you refer, Snokkums?

The Borden lot red oak after the gale. Nearly half of the Oak Grove roads were impassable due to fallen trees and branches. The diseased old oak near Mr. Terry's stone snapped off at the top and is sadder than ever-I hope they take it down. 55-60mph winds today which finally blew me into the path of Forum Lizzie friend Richard and his friend Lib from Pennsylvania- good to meet you at last!

I made it to Oak Grove today despite the horrible winds and aftermath of yesterday's storm. Just around the bend from the Borden plot was a large tree fallen across the road and on top of several of the stones. It seems very likely there was damage to some of the stones. I was going to take a picture of it, but my car got stuck on a path and I was trying to make a K-turn without running my wheel into a downslope or hitting one of the posts.

I did get to meet Shelley however. She was waiting for me at the plot when I showed up with my travelling buddy Liberty. Shelley, I'm so sorry we didn't get to chat for more than a few minutes, but we had a 7 hour drive ahead of us (I had to get Libby all the way back to Pennsylvania!) But I'll come back soon!!

Just for good measure, here's a picture of me. Forgive the creative hair styling. There was still a mighty wind a-blowin'!

Here's a detail of the grave of A.J.Borden's business partner I took today, Oct 29, 2006.

Under Almy's dates, it reads:

He is risen, he is not here
Behold the place where they laid him

I suppose these are relatives (sons and their wives) of William H. Almy. These are right in front of the Borden plot.