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A Trip To Lakeside Cemetery Canon City Colorado

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 00:32:00 +0000

I love going for walks in cemeteries. And have all my life. For some that makes me creepy. To sister and brother taphophiles, a walk through a cemetery is as normal as a walk around the neighborhood. The residents of this graveyard community have stories to tell. And mysteries to share – the mystery that surrounds the dash between their birth year and their death year. Who were they in life? What were their hopes and dreams? What adventures did they have? What tragic circumstances surrounded those that died prematurely? Sometimes those puzzles are resolved by considering the tombstones that share a last name and death date. A mother who died in childbirth? Possibly – especially during the early centuries of our country. The epidemics that swept through communities besieged by poor water supplies and lack of nutritious food? Some ambiguities will never be unraveled.

Recently I had a few extra minutes in my day and decided to visit Lakeside Cemetery in Canon City. Lakeside is one of three cemeteries in this small Colorado town known as “The Corrections Capitol of the World (nine state and four federal prisons, including Supermax, are situated in and around Canon City.) At first just wandering among the headstones, watching the deer graze, enjoying the peace that cemeteries hold and beholding the various grave markers. Large, ornate monuments of prominent and wealthy citizens of the community. The easily recognizable white marble headstone of a deceased veteran of the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines or Coast Guard. Some headstones emblazoned with the deceased’s fraternal organization such as the Masons, Order of Eastern Star or the Woodmen of the World.

I was getting back in my vehicle, ready to head to my meeting when I happened to glance down and found a plaque next to a headstone.

WOW! Joseph B Smith was a veteran of the US Civil War! I don’t know what I found it surprising that veterans of the US Civil War would be buried in CO but I did. Not only had Mr. Smith served during the Civil War but he was OLD even by today’s average. If you don’t do math, he was 102 years old when he left this realm. At the time of Mr. Smith’s death not only was he the last remaining Civil War veteran in the county he was one of the three oldest people in Colorado. His life spanned too many wars (Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI, and WWII) and several major historic events (the sinking of the Titanic, The Great Depression, The San Francisco earthquake, and the advent of cars and planes)

The dash

So, who was Mr. Smith in life? He was born November 25, 1842, in New York. At 19 he enlisted on June 10, 1862, with Company C, of the 5th New York Artillery. His unit had 12 pieces in place at Gettysburg during Pickett’s Famous charge. In November, he was a guard only a few yards away from the platform where President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. Mr. Smith is quoted in the Canon City Daily Record saying “My recollection of President Lincoln is his extreme height and his gangling arms that seem to almost reach his knees. It seems to me that he walked with a slight limp.” Mr. Smith spent the last part of the war in Libby Prison. He remembered conditions in the prison were horrible. Week after week prisoners would only get a four-square-inch piece of corn bread each day. The South didn’t have food for their Confederate soldiers let alone the Union prisoners. Joseph was released April 1, 1865, 8 days before General Lee surrendered. Mr. Smith saw General Lee on the day he was taken prisoner stating “He was the finest looking man I ever saw. The union forces had great respect for General Lee and he was a fine soldier as well as a gentleman”. During World War II it was said that Mr. Smith would walk unassisted to purchase War bonds.

You never know who you will meet in the cemetery. Or what you’ll learn.

Meet the Author: Susan Coffey

I'm a Colorado native with a passion for history. Honored to be working in the sacred domain of deathcare, supporting families caring for their loved ones, educating folks on their choices and helping folks put a plan in place for after they die (a truly loving gift for those left behind).

Visit Susan's Page: Biz: going-myway.biz.

One Simple Step to Integrating Loss in Your life

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 23:54:00 +0000

One Simple Step to Integrating Loss, Endings, or Death into Your Life Right Now

Life, it could be argued, is loss made manifest. From the moment a child is born, there are moments of loss – loss of who they were as a baby, a toddler, a young teenager. It continues into older age, with loss of interest in what fascinated us when younger, loss of energy for some, loss of physical capacity for others.

Not to mention the myriad other losses of material things as we change and grow.

So it makes sense to come to terms with loss. Because when you find it difficult to accept a loss, it means you are attached to whatever has been lost, and when that happens, you are unable to fully live in the moment, let alone have a future.

Death is the biggie, of course. When someone or something dies, there will always be loss. How could there not be? It’s easy to see the presence of loss when a person dies, but perhaps not so easy to see when it is the death of something else.

Less apparently severe things like a project that didn’t work out, a dream that became impossible, a change in circumstance that involved giving up on a desire – these are examples of loss that are not always easily integrated into our lives by any means.

Here’s a list of different kinds of losses or deaths; see which ones have impacted your life:

Death of a loved one (person or pet)
Loved one has illness/diagnosis
Kids leaving home (empty nest)
Forced to move house
Losing a business partner
Career change causing confusion
Divorce and/or separation
Ending of a relationship in whatever manner
Failure of any kind
Loss of fertility
Loss of innocence
Loss of a country
Loss of family members
Developing a disability or ill health
Loss of an older person to dementia or Alzheimer’s
Loss of belongings (as in a disaster of some kind)
Loss of vitality (as in getting older)
Loss of potential
Loss of mobility (as in having to give up driving license)

Think about this as widely as possible; when I started to do this, I was amazed at the amount of losses in my life that had actually shaped how I have lived.

I invite you to create a timeline of your life and chart the losses on it, to see how that looks. Then consider how well you have coped with these endings. This simple step will help you begin to integrate them all into your life today.

When you do that, you’re coming to terms with loss in it’s greatest sense, and seeing how you manage with the little losses. That makes it much easier to cope better with the bigger ones – like death of a loved one.

If you’re concerned at all about how you manage endings, deaths, losses – whatever you want to call them – reach out and join my Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/beforeIgo/ where there’s an opportunity to talk with others about all kinds of things to do with end of life matters. For instance, when your pets die – we recently had a fascinating thread about that; currently there’s another conversation happening about people’s stories re an afterlife. I look forward to meeting you there!

Jane Duncan Rogers runs http://www.giftedbygrief.com, where she helps people prepare well for a good end of life, encouraging them to get their end of life and after life wishes taken care of by completing her workbook Before I Go: Practical Questions to Ask and Answer Before You Die.

POW! Cemetery Guns!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:27:00 +0000

We posted a short post regarding the cemetery gun and other devices invented to stop attempts at grave robbing. Found a very interesting blog with an image of an actual device.

Cemetery Guns! Who Would Have Thought!!!

Dialaog of Death

noreply@blogger.com (Graveyard Gazette) — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 03:12:00 +0000

When did we stop talking about death? When did we stop accepting it as a fact of life? Instead we speak of it in hushed voices or avoid the subject all together. It is as if somehow we can make it go away, until we find ourselves disconnected from the entire processing of death and dying.

We need to take a page from the lives of our grandparents and great grandparents. Our ancestors held the title of best in show for their practices of death and mourning during the Victorian period. Maybe it was due to following the fashion of the reigning royal of Europe, Queen Victorian, who was in and out of perpetual mourning from 1861 until her death in 1901.

Adhering to the correct practices in observing the passing of a loved one, was so important, chapters in etiquette books were dedicated to this very subject, from the fashions worn, to the décor of the home. As with most things during the Victorian period, opulence and going over the top were the rules more than the exception and that applied to death and everything associated with it.

Today when a love one dies, many find it difficult to take time off of work to plan and attend the funeral, little along processing through the mourning period.

In the Victorian age, there were prescribed times of mourning-for women- 2 years and a day. As psychologists examine this today, two years are equal to what most look at as the time to process the death of a loved from. From denial to anger to acceptance. Today everything is so rushed and quickly to be done with, so the person can move on and get on with their lives.

During the Victorian era, death was very much a part of everyone’s lives. From incurable diseases for to the high rate of child and infant mortality, death could easily be a daily occurrence if not in your immediately family then with your friends and neighbors. Families took care of their own dead, from preparing the body, to even making the coffin.Funerals were often held in front parlors of homes. Family members would sit with the dead, day and night until the funeral.

Today those tasks once the responsibility of the families have since been placed in the hands of strangers at local funeral homes.

It is not morbid to think of death, plan for death of yourself or a loved on. On the contrary it demonstrates how important they are to you, by taking the time to plan their wishes, not what you are able to afford, or are manipulated into due to guilt.

Death like birth is a part of life. But so many people don’t want to discuss it, as if it is almost taboo. To plan for your death is considered morbid. This is a topic that we have discussed over and over, how to begin the dialog of planning for death.

Its time we honor those who are our mothers, fathers, grand parents and children It is time for us to educated ourselves in the care of our own dead.

Explosive ways to prevent premature disinterment

noreply@blogger.com (Art) — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 04:02:00 +0000

Cemetery Guns and Grave Torpedoes

To prevent scavenging by man or beast explosive booby traps were used and could be triggered with tripwire or by wrenching open the coffin. The practice was banned in the 1820s in Britain, afterwards the less lethal mortsafes were turned to to keep the freshly departed safe in their tombs.

http://www.guns.com/2012/08/06/cemetery-guns-grave-torpedoes/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortsafe

What Is Liquid Cremation and Why Is It Illegal?

noreply@blogger.com (Art) — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 23:34:00 +0000

Kaline hydrolysis, also known as liquid cremation or water cremation or bio-cremation—is currently legal in only 8 U.S. states. Despite being one of the cheapest and most environmentally-friendly forms of dealing with a cadaver, it is not an option for most of us.

http://gizmodo.com/what-is-liquid-cremation-and-why-is-it-illegal-1696897615

Be careful out there

noreply@blogger.com (Graveyard Gazette) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 16:30:00 +0000

While decorating their family plot for Easter, a Pennsylvania man was killed by a falling tombstone. Be aware of potential hazards while enjoying the cemetery.

MSN News

Whose Responsbility Is It Anyway?

noreply@blogger.com (Graveyard Gazette) — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:58:00 +0000

There is small cemetery in Ocala, FL, that is dieing a slow death. The cause of death is contributed to decay and vandalism, but worse than that, the cause of death is due to apathy. This beautiful cemetery is filled with the history of the area, soldiers who stepped up to fight for their beliefs during the Civil War, a time when are our country was more divided than it is today, as well as young children and citizens of the area.

Fingers are pointed at city officials, whose responsibity it is to care for the cemetery. The History Ocala Presevation Society did step up to arrange for volunteers but that was over 10 years ago. So who is responsible now?

When a city cemetery does not receive the care it deserves from the city whose job it is to care for the that cemetery, is it not the responsibility of its citizens to step up and fill that void? Or will this cemetery and its history disappear because those who could make a difference pointed the finger and said it was some one else's job. But isn't preserving our local cemetery and in essence the history of our communities all of our responsibility?

Step of citiziens of Ocala and do the right thing---Good luck!!

You can read more about this Ocala Fl cemetery at the following link

http://www.ocalapost.com/city-ocala-allowed-historical-cemetery-destroyed/

Daniel Maxwell Holden - Colorado Pioneer

noreply@blogger.com (Ron West) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 03:51:00 +0000

From: Portrait and Biographical Record of the State of Colorado, 1899

DANIEL MAXWELL HOLDEN, a pioneer of 1859, now deceased, was born near Antwerp, N. Y., August 10, 1833. His father, Zophar Holden, a native of Vermont and a descendant of Scotch ancestry, settled near Antwerp, Jefferson County, N.Y., where he engaged in farming until his death. He married Jerusha Harrison, who was born in Vermont and died in Warrensburg, Mo. They became the parents of eleven children, but all of these are now deceased. One of the sons, Maj. Nathaniel Holden, was receiver of the United States land office in Warsaw, Mo., and owned large tracts of land occupied by the present town of Holden, which was named in his honor. During the war he was a member of a Missouri regiment and was assassinated by guerillas at his sister's home near Lee Summit. Another son, Lieut. -Gov. William Holden, who went to California in the days of the gold excitement, became a prominent politician and served as lieutenant-governor and for a short time as governor; also as state senator and a member of the legislature; his death occurred in California.

Another son, Stephen, came to Colorado in early days and was engaged in the sheep business in Bijou Basin until his death.

At sixteen years of age the subject of this memoir went to Missouri, joining his older brother, Major Holden. Afterward he attended the academy at Warrensburg and was employed in the United States land office, under his brother. In 1859, buying up a herd of cattle and horses, he came to Colorado, via the Arkansas route, and located on Cherry Creek, now within the city limits of Denver. Arriving there on the 1 3th of July he at once embarked in the dairy business, and later located a ranch in Bijou Basin El Paso County, on the Elbert County line, near what is now Peyton. It was his custom for several years to return to Missouri every fall and buy cattle and horses, which he would drive to Colorado. Several times Indians threatened to attack him on his ranch, but he never had an encounter with them. His ranch comprised about fifteen hundred acres and had many springs, besides the additional advantage which irrigation gives. A natural shelter for the stock was afforded by the bluffs and pine trees found in abundance on the place. He made a specialty of raising graded Shorthorns, in which he met with success.

In 1872 Mr. Holden brought his family to Colorado Springs. Here he assisted in the organization of the Exchange National Bank, of which he served as a director from its establishment, and was president during the last six years of his life. He was also a stockholder in the El Paso Electric Company, owned considerable property in Colorado Springs, and had mining interests in Cripple Creek, Aspen and Silverton. He was an active member of the Colorado Cattle Growers' Association. In the Society of Colorado Pioneers and the El Paso County Pioneers' Society he was a prominent member. Fraternally he was identified with the Odd Fellows and politically was a Democrat.

At Franktown, Douglas County, Colo., November 9, 1864, Mr. Holden married Miss Isabel Hayden, who was born in Elkhart, Ind. Her father, Lewis Hayden, a native of Indiana and a descendant of an Ohio family, removed to Iowa and settled at Hardin, where he built a flour mill and a lumber mill on the Iowa River. In 1863 he brought his family, by wagon, to Colorado, via the Platte route; spending three months in making the journey to Denver. He settled on Plum Creek, sixteen miles south of Denver, in Douglas County. After a year he moved to Bijou Basin, where he took up land and engaged in stock-raising. Later, however, he removed to Pleasant Valley. He died near Coaldale, in the Wet Mountain Valley, at sixty- five years of age. His wife, who was Margaret Williams, a native of Indiana, is still living near Coaldale, and is now seventy-nine years of age. Of their eight children six are living, Mrs. Holden being next to the youngest. Her brother, Frank, is ranching in Lake County, Colo.; Lyman lives in Pleasant Valley; Chauncey resides at Coaldale; Mabel is the wife of William Champ and lives at Poncha Springs; and Hulda, Mrs. Robert Curran, lives at Coaldale. Mrs. Holden was sixteen years of age when the family came to Colorado, and since then she has made this state her home. She is identified with Rebekah Lodge, I. O. O. F., and is much esteemed by her acquaintances. She owns the ranch which was improved by Mr. Holden, and is also still interested in the bank of which he was president. Her family consists of six children, namely: Lawrence, a stockman in Elbert County, near Ramah; Zophar, who is engaged in the stock business in Elbert County near Calhan; Mrs. Edna Mathis, of Monument; Mrs. Olive Jennings, of Manhattan, Kan.; Erma, educated in the schools of Colorado Springs, and J. D., who are with their mother.

Mr. Holden died August 12, 1896, after a brief illness. He was buried from the Presbyterian Church, in which denomination he had been interested. In his death the city lost one of its respected pioneer citizens, a man who had been associated with the history of the state from the earliest days, and one who had many friends in every locality where he had resided. Kind and generous in his intercourse with others, liberal in his benefactions, public- spirited and progressive, his citizenship was of the highest type, and conduced to the advancement of Colorado Springs along the lines of commerce, finance, education and morality.

The Graves of the Real Boardwalk Empire Gangsters

noreply@blogger.com (Graveyard Gazette) — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 02:43:00 +0000

Five years ago we were introduced to Nucky Thompson as well as other notorious gangsters of the Prohibition Era with HBO's Boardwalk Empire. We said our final farewells this last Sunday. Since most of the main characters met their demise this season, it would be interesting to go on a tour of where they are buried.

Enoch Lewis Johnson

Click Here To Visit Nucky's Gravesite

Arnold Rothstein

Visit Arnold's Grave

Al Capone

Visit Al Capone's Grave

Salvatore "Lucky" Lucania

Meyer Lansky

Visit Meyer Lansky

Bugsy Siegel

Young Benny is played by Michael Zegen on the show. Real-life Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was well known as a handsome gangster, gambler and bootlegger, who was behind the development of the Las Vegas strip. Interesting if you watch the series how interested he was in Nucky's place and is wonderful song he sang! Won't post as it is inappropriate for sensitive ears.

Visit Benny Bugsy Siegel

Blanche Burton-Colorado Madam

noreply@blogger.com (Graveyard Gazette) — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 14:29:00 +0000

Prostitutes were usually laid to rest far away from the towns proper citizens. As in life, they were shunned. But for one Colorado Cemetery, prostitutes, madams in particular our found amongst the doctors, lawyers and founding fathers. Here is the story of Blanche Burton, Colorado Madam.

Born in Ireland in 1859, Blanche, like so many from the Emerald Isle, flooded to America in hopes of a better life.

Settling in the East, it appeared as if Blanche would live happily ever after, with her husband and two beautiful children.

Unfortunately, Blanche's life would be filled with tragedy. Blanche and her husband divorced in the 1880s. Shortly afterwards, her son was killed in an explosion. Blanche did the only thing she thought she could do with her young daughter. She placed the girl in the protective care of nuns at a convent and headed West. One must remember, there were few options open to women at the time, especially, for a divorced Irish woman with a small child.

Blanche arrived in Colorado City, Colorado, around 1889. Established in 1859,Colorado City, served as a supply town for the gold/silver mines in the South Park Mining District. As most supply towns at the time, Colorado City, had its fair share of saloons and brothels. Colorado Springs, established in 1872, and located a few miles to the East, was dry, so any and all came to Colorado City for entertainment and refreshment.

It didn't take long for Blanche to show up in the newspaper. Unfortunately it was in the police records, having been arrested for running a house of ill repute. Blanche, ever crafty, found a loop hole, releasing her of the charges. Afterall, how could she be running a house of ill repute when she was working out of a tent?

Shortly after, news of a gold strike west of Colorado City, was causing great excitement. The world's richest gold camp, Cripple Creek, Colorado, was turning carpenters into millionaires over night.

Blanche decided it was time to pack up her tent and head up Ute Pass to the gold fields of Cripple Creek.

When Blanche arrived in Cripple Creek, she met Bob Womack, who had discovered gold.Bob suggested she set up her tent in what was known as Poverty Gulch, which really is no indication of the wealth in the area. Although Bob discovered gold, he did not reap the benefits, dieing penniless, in his sister's boarding house.

Business was good with all of those hard working miners. Business was so good in fact, Blanche moved down onto the main part of town and opened her own brothel above one of the saloons on Bennet Avenue. Blanche became the first madam of Cripple Creek!

As with any gold town in its infancy, there were very few laws and the need to enforce them. As proper women moved into the camps, they pushed for laws to keep the working girls off of the streets. In time it was decreed that all of the "girls" would be moved one block South to Myers Avenue. Blanche at this time was 30 and considered well seasoned for her profession. She decided it was time to retire and move back to Colorado City.

She moved into a small house along the avenue and listed herself in the city directory as a dress maker.

Blanche became well known for her generous heart. Although her finances were slim, she always found extra to help out the less fortunate. She accumulated a varied assortment of pets, as she was always taking in strays and abused animals.

Forces dedicated in saving the masses from themselves, and the methods they used reached epic proportions. In 1909, the entire red light district went up in flames. Although, many of the more prosperous establishments rebuilt, this forced many others out of business or to move away.

Although Blanche was retired and worked to help others, she still experienced the wrath of the righteous. Shortly before the fire in the red light district, she experienced a fire herself, which consumed her barn. She lost her prized driving horse as well as her pet dog, and narrowly escaped herself.

A few months later, Blanche was at home, sitting at her desk next to an open window, when suddenly and unexpectedly, her oil lamp was knocked over, the oil spilling onto her dress and exploding into flames. Blanche ran out into the street, her screams of agony bringing two constables who were patrolling the area to her side. They used the snow from the ground where she was laying to put on the fire. They then carefully carried her back to her home. As news of the incident spread, Mamie Rodgers, the Queen of the Red Light District, ran to Blanche's side. In her dying breath, Blanche asked Maime to contact her daughter in Illinois. Blanche died before she was able to tell exactly where her daughter lived. There was no money for a funeral, because just the evening before, Blanche purchased a ton of coal for a destitute family.

Blanche was laid to rest three days before Christmas on December 22, 1909. Maime Rodgers paid for her funeral.

Blanche remained unmarked until 1989 when Charles Henderson, former mayor of Colorado Springs took a fancy to those ladies. Thanks to the assistance of the Rotary club, Blanche was finally given a gravestone 80 years after her death.

Pioneer Madam

Blanche Burton

1859-1909

The sins of the living are not of the dead

The quote is from another well known Colorado madam's stone, Mollie May of Leadville, Colorado.

Frank Maynard - Cowboy Poet and Author

noreply@blogger.com (Ron West) — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 04:48:00 +0000

Francis Henry Maynard, known as Frank Maynard was an old-time cowboy of the American West who claimed authorship of the revised version of the well-known ballad, "The Streets of Laredo". After a decade of roaming the West, Maynard settled down in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Yet, his interest remained in reminiscences of his time as a cowboy and the desire to tell his special story for posterity.

Maynard was born in Iowa City in Johnson County in eastern Iowa, the second of five children of Horace Maynard and Georgiana Maynard. At the age of sixteen, Maynard left home to look for adventure, first along the Platte River. He lived for a time in Towanda in Butler County, Kansas. The other Maynard family members soon moved to Butler County, and for a time young Maynard and his father hauled freight from Emporia to Wichita, Kansas. In 1870, Maynard went on his first buffalo hunt in Kingman County, Kansas.

In the spring of 1872 at the age of eighteen, Maynard was "officially" a cowboy, a livelihood that he maintained until his marriage in 1881. In the spring and summer of 1872, he helped to drive a herd of horses, which had been wintered in Kansas to Jacksboro in Jack County in north central Texas. On the return to Kansas, he joined other drovers on a cattle drive.

After nine years as a cowboy, Maynard married and began work as a carpenter. He joined the Pikes Peak Chapter of the Modern Woodmen of America and was the treasurer of the organization by 1890. He became a partner in a speculative venture, the Buckeye Gold Mining and Milling Company located near Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Maynard began writing articles and poems about his western experience, particularly by 1911. He put new words to what became "Cowboy's Lament" as early as 1876. Maynard sang one of his poems over the grave of his friend, Ed Masterson, Marshal of Dodge City and brother of Bat Masterson. Marshal Ed Masterson was killed in a gunfight on April 9, 1878, in Dodge City, Kansas. Maynard wrote the author Jack London, who urged him to write short articles for magazines before trying to produce a book-length manuscript of Maynard's days in the Old West. In 1911, Maynard produced Rhymes of the Range and Trail, copyrighted and self-published, probably in few copies.

Maynard left a memoir that was discovered, edited, and published in 2010 under the title Cowboy's Lament: A Life on the Open Range, by Jim Hoy. In his memoir, Maynard relates about many events of the West, including stampedes, grasshopper pestilences, how to kill buffalo with a single shot, white outlaws posing as Indians, instances of genuine friendship on the plains, mistaken hangings, and his acquaintance with prominent western figures, such as Bill Tilghman, Wyatt Earp, and Buffalo Bill Cody.

Maynard was ill for much of the last year of his life, apparently a victim of cardiovascular disease and other ailments. The Maynard's are interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs.

Daniel T Griffin - First American Casualty of WWII

noreply@blogger.com (Ron West) — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 04:37:00 +0000

Daniel T Griffin headstone front

Daniel Griffin was born on March 25, 1911 in Allendale, IL to the Reverend Pearl D. Griffin and his wife Pernia. Pearl was a traveling minister so Daniel spent many of his early years moving from town to town. Finally the family settled in Colorado Springs. Before enlisting in the US Navy he was employed at the Gazette & Telegraph Co. in Colorado Springs.

Daniel enlisted in the United States Navy on October 6, 1930. After basic training he went on to serve aboard the battleships USS California BB-44, USS Tennessee BB-43, and the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga CV-3. At a point during his career he decided that he wanted to become a pilot and in 1938 Daniel graduated flight school as an Aviation Machinist Mate Second Class (AMM2) Naval Aviation Pilot. Daniel was then sent to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to fly patrol missions aboard PBY (flying boat) aircraft. In March of 1941 he transferred to Kaneohe Bay with Patrol Squadron 12. In October 1941 Daniel re-enlisted.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Daniel was standing routine watch at Kaneohe Naval Air Station. His PBY was at the ready; sitting in the bay with two of the four crew members already on board. When Daniel saw the Japanese planes approaching the base, he realized that they were not from the United States military. Daniel called out to the crew members on board the plane to start the engines as he began to swim out to the PBY. Daniel settled into the pilot's seat and began to taxi the plane for takeoff. Daniel’s PBY was hit by Japanese gunfire just as he became airborne. It caught fire and sank in Kaneohe Bay where, according to the University of Hawaii and East Carolina University, it still rests today. Daniel was badly burned but managed to escape the plane and attempt to swim back to shore. The Japanese planes continued strafing the Kaneohe Bay waters with machine gunfire. Daniel sustained a bullet wound to the head, killing him instantly. It is believed that Daniel was the first serviceman to die at Kaneohe Bay that day.

Daniel T Griffin headstone rear

On December 12, the Kaneohe police called the base to report that a body had washed ashore. Daniel T. Griffin was identified and pronounced dead. Daniel was buried in a temporary grave on the north shore of Kaneohe Island with several other servicemen who perished during the attack. His body was later exhumed and reinterred at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs, CO.

His commission to ensign arrived at the base two weeks after his death.

On February 5, 1943, Daniel’s widow Lucille had the honor of christening the destroyer escort USS Daniel T. Griffin (DE-54).

Per his father's obituary, Daniel T. Griffin is believed to have been the first American casualty of WWII.

Daniel is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

noreply@blogger.com (Graveyard Gazette) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 02:15:00 +0000

The Victorian Era was named in honor of Queen Victorian who reigned for over sixty-four years, from 1837 until her death in 1901. Victorian society was known for its strict code of society proprieties. This was evident in every aspect of Victorian life, from birth, unto death.

After the death of her beloved Albert, in 1861, Queen Victoria at the young age of forty-two went into lifelong mourning. Then as now, Americans, used English customs to set the standards for our own social proprieties. 1861 saw the beginning of our own Civil War, a war that lasted only four short years, from 1861 to 1865. Those four short years, witnessed the loss of husbands, brothers, fathers and friends in epic proportions.

Rules of mourning were stricter for women than for men. The length of a woman’s time of mourning was dictated by the relationship of the deceased. The time of mourning could last anywhere from two years to six months.

For the lost of a husband, a women’s mourning period lasted no less than two years. The first year and a day, the woman found herself in deep mourning. She was not allowed to wear anything but black and must be made of a non-reflective/shiny material. During the Civil War, especially in the South, large washing tubs saw the emersion of every item a woman wore, into a tub filled with a black die, often made from the boiling of walnut husks. This created a caustic aroma that could be smelled for miles. Often times women’ immersed their entire wardrobe into the vats.

During the deepest mourning period, also known as 1st mourning, women had to wear black crape veils whenever they left the home. The crape on these veils had a crinkled effect. This effect was created by the use of shellac. This chemical oftentimes caused even more health and vision problems for the mourning widow. In the later period of mourning, jewelry was allowed to be worn. However, only specific materials were deemed proper. Queen Victorian, during her life long mourning, decreed that jet would be the only jewelry worn at court. Needless to say, a great demand for jet developed. Jet is created from compressed remains of ancestors of the monkey-puzzle tree. Harvested from the cliffs above Whitby England, this beautiful shiny material was able to be carved into exquisite pieces of jewelry as well as supplied ornament trim to dresses and gowns.

Men at this period had a prescribed mourning period of six months to a year. After all, a gentleman would need to marry to have some one to care for the children, who were left behind