In a New England Graveyard - poetry partly decoded

 

Milicent's poem in the September 1880 Californian sparked a search for its meaning.

Unless you know some backstory, it's just a moody poem.

Once you know a bit about the Shinn Family you can answer some of these questions:

1. Where was this New England Graveyard?
2. Who was buried here in 1680?
3. What is the "Memento mori" arch?
4. "Of later saints"? Who?
5. "Mart of gold" San Francisco???
6. Was there a graveyard in SF in1880 that still exists today?
7. Was there a graveyard with a stark lone cross? (is it the Dirty Harry cross?)

FIRST HALF

IN A NEW ENGLAND GRAVEYARD. 

Beside these crumbling stones-where saints of old 
Were laid to rest two hundred years ago, 
And where the quaint, still village, nestled low, 
Lives gently 'mid its elms, and seems to hold
In thought the warning o'er this archway told,
"Memento mori"-where the feet have trod

from Findagrave "Ancient Burying Ground, Old Farmington Cemetery"

Some family background

In 1880 Milicent was doing what? She graduated in 1880. She took some time off when money was tight and her sister died.

In 1878 there were two deaths in the family - Milicent's beloved older sister Annie died in January 1878 from a long illness. She was buried in the family graveyard on the Shinn Ranch. Her uncle, Dr. Joseph W. Clark, died in San Francisco later that year in December 1878. He was buried in the Lone Mountain Cemetery in San Francisco.

Uncle Dr. was the first Clark family member to come to California in 18xx. He and his partner and brother-in-law, Gill, set up a mercantile in the gold fields of Georgetown? He later settled in San Francisco and was involved in xxxx. According to his daughter, Uncle Dr. arranged for and his partners purchased the land where Lucy (Clark) and James Shinn settled in 1856 with their children Charles and Annie.

Milicent visited Connecticut in 1879, the year after her dear sister and uncle died. Why Farmington? What relatives were there? Her mother Lucy Ellen Clark, Uncle Dr. Joseph W. Clark, and their siblings grew up in Farmington Connecticut.

SECOND HALF

Of later saints, akin to these in blood-

I think of their rest by the mart of gold,

The wild-pulsed city that the sea-winds beat,

Where, on its bare, round hill uplifted high,

Far-seen from beating seas and eager street,

Watching the graves where alien thousands lie,

A stark, lone cross-the dead about its feet

Lifts its white protest to the windy sky.

Cemeteries in SF FoundSF

another?

Lone Mountain Cemetery

According to Findagrave, Joseph Washburn Clark was buried Lone Mountain Cemetery and moved to Colma. Family? is incorrect.

Some images:

Getty

Carleton Watkins

Dr. Clark

Rev. Joseph Washburn buried in 1805  in the Memento Mori Cemetery  in Farmington CT findagrave