Wreath and Rose

Sometimes it's an historic name or other story associated with a headstone that gets my attention.  Sometimes, though, I just want to sit back and appreciate a lovely little detail such as this beautiful marble rose within a wreath. 

Theodore Freylinghausen Wyckoff

This simple stone stands on the edge of Moordanaers Kill across the Pumpelly vault and just up the path from the massive granite monument of William Appleton.  It's one that I passed many times, yet never noticed until one day the sunlight fell across it at just the right angle and the carving caught my eye.  It's one of the most beautifully carved roses I've seen in Albany Rural. 

A close-up of the rose from my Instagram page.  The pale green lichen highlights the delicate petals.

This lovely monument marks the graves of Theodore Freylinghausen Wyckoff, a Dutch Reformed minister who was born in Catskill, New York in 1820 and died in the West Indies at the age of thirty-five.  The McClintock Bible Encyclopedia gives a short profile of him:

He graduated at Rutgers College in 1839, and at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1841; was pastor of the Second Reformed Church of Ghent, N.Y., from the 1843 to 1844; of the South Reformed Church, West Troy, from 1845 to 1854, and ministered at St. Thomas, W.I., in 1854-55.  He died of yellow fever, Jan. 19 of the latter year, only a few weeks after his arrival in St. Thomas.  He was a young man of cultivated mind and manners, a careful student, scholarly in his tastes and refined in accomplishments; he wrote much and well for the periodical press.  His sermons were ornate in style, evangelical in matter and spirit, and full of promise.

The Lockwood Family

This beautiful marble with a carved pall draped over its top and three delicate roses marks the graves of the Lockwood family of Albany.

Alvah M. Lockwood, a founding member of Albany's Burgesses Corps, died at the age of twenty-four on February 10, 1835 and was buried in the Dutch Reformed lot at the State Street Burying Grounds.  He was survived by his wife, Sarah, and young daughter, Alvah Ann.

Early on the morning of September 5, 1852, the boiler on the steam boat Reindeer caught fire and exploded near Saugerties.  Three dozen passengers were killed, either instantly or later from severe burns or other related injuries.  Among the passengers were Sarah Lockwood who the same day at the age of forty and Alvah Ann who died of her injuries on September 11.  A John Lockwood of Albany, most likely the brother of the late Alvah M., was also aboard the steam boat, but survived the disaster. 

The bodies of the two women were returned to Albany and interred in the Albany Rural Cemetery along with Alvah M. Lockwood whose remains were transferred from the State Street Burying Grounds to this North Ridge hilltop.

The inscription on the monument mentions the Reindeer tragedy and, near the bottom, it reads They sleep, but I do not forget them.

The Lockwood graves are located near the Strain family plot.

Thomas and Elizabeth Beckett

The western edge of the North Ridge contains many graves privately transferred to the Rural Cemetery from the State Burying Grounds prior to the closure and mass removal of graves by the Albany Common Council in the late 1860s (see also the David Fonda stone).

This white marble headstone marks the relocated graves of Thomas and Elizabeth Beckett which were moved here from the Dutch Reformed Church's lot at the old Burying Grounds.

Elizabeth Beckett died in  1854 at the age of forty.  Thomas died in 1862 at the age of forty-eight.  According to the city directory, he was a grocer with an establishment on at the corner of Lumber Street (now Livingston Avenue) and Lark Street.  Their home was a few blocks away at 104 Clinton Avenue.

The Beckett headstone is a simple rectangle of white marble which features some of the loveliest carved roses in the Cemetery.  The flowers and leaves are very details with two open blooms and one rose hip berry.  The style is not too unlike the roses carved on the broken stone of Elizabeth Ann in the nearby Church Grounds and may even be the work of the same stone-cutter.

Elizabeth Ann's Roses

In recent months, I've been attempting to document gravestones in the Church Grounds section of the Rural Cemetery. There are some, unfortunately, that are very difficult to identify due to badly eroded inscriptions or serious breakage to the stone.

The lower half of this headstone is broken and missing. The stone seen in the lower half of the photo is part of a completely different monument. All that is legible is part of the name Elizabeth Ann.

The Common Council's 1868 inventory of graves to be transferred from the old State Street Burying Grounds to the Albany Rural Cemetery lists dozens of Elizabeths and many with the middle initial A, but so far, I have not been able to match any of them with this stone.

Still, this sadly damaged bit of marble holds my attention, perhaps because of the beautifully carved roses in the tympanum.

Celtic Cross With Roses

Exceptionally pretty roses cover this Celtic-style cross on the Middle Ridge overlooking the Cemetery's chapel.