Sunday, June 20, 2010
Mysteries Embury Methodist Church's Odd Gravestones
Posted by Vance Lauderdale on Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 11:49 PM
Because I get so many queries about long-lost diners and restaurants, you see, and also about odd and unusual tombstones.
My good friend Andrew Northern, who has amassed a fine collection of interesting Memphis images, seems to share my hard-to-explain fascination with old graveyards, and recently sent me two photographs of rather cryptic tombstones he recently discovered in the cemetery of Embury Methodist Church, on Woodstock-Cuba Road several miles north of Memphis.
First of all, it's always sad when someone is buried without anyone knowing who they are, and in this case, a simple tombstone marks the last resting place of someone whose identity remains unknown. But it's even sadder when the tombstone carvers can't even spell UNKNOWN correctly! And good grief, would it have really been that much trouble to at least put a DATE on this stone? This is just ... bizarre. Though I DO like the "In Spirit" floating above the cross. That's a nice touch.
But what's with the cross? If the person buried here is completely uknown — uh, I mean unknown — then how do we know he (or she) wasn't Jewish or Buddhist or Hindu or — for that matter — a fearsome Thuggee (look it up — it's not what you think).
The other stone that caught Andrew's eye marks the grave (maybe) of James E. Rowe, who embellished his tombstone with the sort-of-witty inscription THE END. But is it, really? You'll note that the stone carries only the date of Mr. Rowe's birth, not his death. It's late and I'm tired, so I haven't been able to determine if Mr. Rowe is even buried here. Yet.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANDREW NORTHERN
Comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
A search on whitepages.com returns 11 results for the surname Uknown in the the US. But if it is a last name, I wonder if it is pronounced Uk-noun or You-known?
like
dislike
Melanie, believe it or not, I actually considered the possibility that "Uknown" WAS somebody's real name. But there is no such name listed on the "Death Records Index" of the Shelby County Register of Deeds website, and if this was a person's last name, it seems the tombstone would also have their first name, as well as the dates of their birth and certainly their death.
You want sad, how about the Loveless Cemetery, Hohenwald, Tennessee, Hwy 412, I believe.
My husband is the pastor at Embury. He's going to check into it. And the church is located on Locke Cuba Rd. (check your address). We live next door to creepy/odd cemetery.
my favorite in Elmwood is a quite large block memorial for a young man "Killed in a Columbia University Laboratory explosion due to the carelessness of others" ....talk about bitter! If only Cory B had been around in those days I am sure there would have been a huge lawsuit
Thank You Vance! I have now wasted a good chunk of productive time on Wiki reading about the Thuggee cult. Not only did I get a little world history, I got a little religion and a nice little etymology lesson all in one. It is so nice to have an author who challenges his readers instead of trying to dumb it down for us.
