THE GRIM REAPER visits BODIE!
Death Visits Parker Home.
~~The “Grim Reaper” visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Parker on Monday morning at 2 o’clock, and took away their little girl, Christene, aged 2 yrs and 5 months.
~~Her death was caused by Cholera Infantum, from which Christine had suffered for about a week. Previous to that she had always been in good health.
~~The Funeral was held from the Parker family residence Tuesday P.M. Services were held in the M.E. Church, Rev. Darling officiating.
~~The Parkers have the sympathy of the entire community in the loss of their first born. Christine “had reached the age when children become interesting, and a sunshine in the home, and her loss at this time is a sad blow.”
Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, August 9, 1905 (Saturday)
Family Plot in the Bodie Cemetery
~~~GEORGE CONWAY-(d. 20May 1901)—- Age 1 Year, 2 Months. 28 days—-died in a Scarlet Fever Epidemic.
~~~Although Telegraph and Stagecoach, had made the route more secure, a “common ailment or insect bite” on the journey could produce disaster.
~~~Dysentery, which affected almost everyone at some time on or other on the Overland the Journey, could cause of death. This was particularity true, especially among infants. The prospect of having to leave a “ new-born-baby” in an unmarked grave along the roadside, was intolerable. Leaving a “infants tiny body” among the sands of the Wilderness, surrounded by Indians and wolves, was the most painful burden the Emigrants had to bear.
Ones natural instinct was to mark a gravesite, so as to find the “final resting place of a loved one” again. But no, possible or adequate grave could be dug on the Overland Trail.
~~~The sun had baked and hardened ground. Digging was like breaking through solid-rock. Next, the rains would come, and wash away the shallow graves.
~~~No matter what grave-marker one might devise- —a pile of rocks, a piece of wood, a shred of cloth- no emblem—- would survive the harsh Winter snows and blizzards, or simple daily passage of time.
~~~There was also the urgent need to “obliterate a grave.” The Indians made a common practice of “digging up the dead” for clothing. This practice also, spread Cholera among themselves —even as they gathered up the treasures.
~~~Even if a grave escaped the notice, it was not likely to escape the prowling wolves and coyotes. Graves were obliterated by the small animal, leaving no trace to be found of a grave even if it had been Properly Marked. The emigrants came to believe, that the greatest service they could do for the deceased, was to “hide the gravesite.” Some Wagon-trail Companies dug beneath the road itself, so “the ox teams would trample over the evidence of a grave.”
The infant and children’s graves in the Bodie Cemetery express the grief and sorrow their parents. The expense to bury a infant, and to mark the grave properly with marble headstone required a “Family Plot” in the Bodie Cemetery. The “family plot” had a different meaning to the Miners themselves, their wives and children, and especially to all the other women, who lived in Bodie.
ECLECTIC MONUMENT
ECLECTIC MONUMENT- James B. Perry (d. 9 June 1896) Bodie Cemetery
~~~Eclectic Monuments tend to be LARGE, and to “incorporate two or three styles in one headstone .”Usually a large, rugged stone, with a “Scroll for the Inscription.”
~~~All have symbolism in the Christian tradition. The “ROCK” is the most common metaphor for “reliability.” It is often equated with the “living force of God.”
~~~ The Rock represents Jesus, the “Rock of Ages” as the Source, or Eternal Life. The Scroll is an “Emblem of Ancient Wisdom, Prophecy” or Cannon Law (Religious Law). The symbolic reference is to “Divine Law”.
~~~I.O.O.F. Symbol- Internal Order of Odd Fellows emblem of the the ODD FELLOWS LODGE— represent FRIENDSHIP, LOVE and TRUTH.
How President Garfield Monument became in the Bodie Cemetery!
The “1881 proposed William Bodey grave-marker,” got changed from a simple “cast iron marker” to a “9-foot Granate Stone Monolith.”
~~~~Time passed, and the Bodie-town-folk forgot all about the idea of “the grave marker for Bodey.”
~~(Bodey’s remains were in an unknown, unmarked, unkept location in one of the three areas of the cemetery. Forgotten by all, “who had raised funds” for the grave and Monolith marker.)
~~~With President Garfields long lingering, suffering from an assassins bullet, and then his death on September 1881. The citizens of Bodie got swept up in the “national- mourning of the Garfields death.” The citizens sentiment changed and it was decided to “Dedicate the Monument" to the 20th President instead of the Mining districts founder William Bodey.
~~William Bodey’s grave is still unknown and “unmarked,” and its “location is lost to history.”