Cemetery Discovers Forgotten Soul

+ Enlarge

The grave markers in the historic section of Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery stand in uneven rows, unlike the orderly headstones in the plats where more recent burials have taken place. Still, the weathered monuments are well-tended, the weeds kept trimmed at their bases.

It was through this care that cemetery workers discovered a unique gravestone. At first all they could see was a stone medallion engraved with “Here rests a woodman of the world” and the Latin inscription “Dum Taget Clamat” (Though silent, he speaks). The medallion is illustrated with a dove and an ax in a log.

John Curtice, the cemetery’s director, researched the inscription and found it is the motto of a fraternal order, Woodmen of the World. He also found several other graves with the same medallion, as well as one marked with the insignia from Women of Woodcraft, the female auxiliary. That is the grave of Agnes King, who died Sept. 28, 1913 at the age of 51.

As cemetery workers uncovered the first gravestone, they found that, rather than the vase they first assumed it to be, it was actually a full headstone that had toppled. Buried there was John James Carney, who was born May 22, 1856 and died February 4, 1911. According to the cemetery record, he died at Holy Cross Hospital. The listed cause of death was “exhaustion from infections.”

Curtice estimates that the cemetery’s historical sections contains more than 600 graves that are either unmarked or poorly marked. He looked into using ground-penetrating radar to locate them, but learned the technology costs about $250 an hour. Still, he hopes to find a way to pay for it so that “we can then memorialize these forgotten souls,” he said.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic.