...The harvest and enjoying ourselves OUR way...

The colors of the Canna are very fall.

This is the season to consider the harvest. The garden is still very much behaving like it is summer although I am presenting that the fall colors are not tropical plants. It has been a good garden season and I actually plan to go out to my back porch and do some reading for this week’s classes.

Pumpkin People!

Thinking of my own personal harvest, this week I completed my last read-through of my book, Women Writers Buried in Virginia that comes out on November 15, 2021. This is my last chance to change any content. After this, I can only fix typos. It’s stressful because I want to get everything as right as possible. I don’t want to misrepresent anyone or any place. It’s scary and exciting. Overall, I’m very proud of being able to share these women’s stories. I’m also proud of myself for focusing on the kind of scholarship that I have wanted to focus on for some time now.

Giant pumpkin vine without any pumpkins

It should be easy—cemeteries are an important part of our history; yet, people still put them in the spooky Halloween season, which perpetuates the myth that they’re scary places to frequent. They’re not and discussing them should not have one’s colleagues questioning one’s research interests… but that actually happened last week. After a conversation, a colleague actually told me that they now saw me as someone with more depth than just cemeteries, spooky things, and goth. I can roll my eyes and go on with my work-life because I have the privilege of being tenured and a full professor but it is still incredibly annoying. I am held to the same standards of teaching, scholarship, and service as my peers. Why can’t I just be myself and enjoy who I am without the passive aggressive criticism?

Black Coral Elephant Ears

One of the woman writers featured in my forthcoming book, Julia Magruder, who was a novelist who wrote for popular magazines such as Lippincott’s Magazine and the Ladies' Home Journal, wrote essays that addressed serious social issues, such as child labor laws and the changing roles of women. In 1907, she also became the first American woman to be awarded the “Order of the Palms” by the French Academie, conferred on those distinguished in the literary world.

She said, “Most of us are so afraid to enjoy ourselves in our way” (The Star Press Muncie, Indiana, Jun 24, 1907, 2). Ain’t that the truth!

 

...cemetery pipe fences...

Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery, part of the Historic Cemeteries of Alexandria, VA

When I’m walking through a cemetery, I’m attracted to picturesque scenes, those landscapes that resemble a gorgeous painting or some captivating image. While the artwork of gravestones tends to be my main focus along with the natural landscape, I am captivated by ironwork and cemetery fencing and frequently find myself attempting to read the maker’s mark and the inscriptions.

As long as I can recall, I have adored wrought iron and cast iron fencing. Rather hammered or poured into a mold, the designs catch my eye and draw me in. As a kid, I used to love going into the city and seeing the picket and scalloped picket points of the fencing. Forty years later, I haven’t changed much.

 Today when I walk through cemeteries, I admire what’s left of the ironwork. As changing attitudes about what was or was not aesthetically pleasing, many of the old cemetery fences were removed when they were no longer maintained.

Altoona Tribune (May 11, 1922 p. 12)

While we typically think of wrought iron and cast iron when we think of cemetery fencing, I rather enjoy finding intricately designed pipe fences, or gas pipe fences or pipe rail fences. These pipe fences can still be found throughout our local Virginia cemeteries and some of theme can be quite attractive while many are plain pipes with the purpose of signifying the space. 

I always think of pipe fencing as just the right height to trip you if you’re not paying attention. They are nice reminders to stay off the grass and the flowers.

drawing from Chicora Foundation website.

Depending on the style of the pipe fence, there may be double piping such as the example in the historic drawing from the Chicora Foundation or single piping as shown in the example of the family plot in Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.

I have included some photos of other intricately designed cast iron posts that are part of pipe fences.

Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond, VA

Mount Zion Cemetery Washington D.C.

 

Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery, part of the Historic Cemeteries of Alexandria, VA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not quite a decade ago, I became the owner of a piece of 1870s cast iron pipe fencing with an angel when a very rusted and broken pipe fence needed to be removed from a family plot for safety reasons. The family had the option of repairing the fencing, which would have been expensive and nearly impossible since so little of the original fence remained or they could remove the fence and sell the old rusty bits for scraps or through a local antique dealer who could reach out to suckers like me who love rusty pieces of history. With the amount of rust I have inside my house and out in the garden as "yard art," I keep up with my tetanus shots.  

Ethically sourced pipe-rail angel. The other side is completely rusted out.

Just as a reminder, if you purchase anything that is coming from a cemetery, look for reputable antique dealers and talk to the original sellers if possible. Cemetery-related paraphernalia is frequently stolen and sold. A few months ago, I had someone reach out on social media about a gorgeous fence gate with connections to Richmond but the story did not add up and when I pushed in my questioning, they blocked my account from reaching out any further or reporting them. 

Artifacts from historical grave sites, and any grave-related items cannot be sold on eBay. Any government or military medallions or plaques should not be sold or purchased, and such activity should be reported. 

The grave of Narcissa Owen- memoirist, artist, and "Indian Princess"

On the Spring Hill Cemetery website under “Notables,” Narcissa C. Owen (183l-1911) is listed as "’The Indian Princess’ who lived at Point of Honor during the Civil War.” She is also listed as an “artist and the daughter of Thomas Chisholm, the last hereditary Chief of the Western Cherokees [as well as the] wife of Robert Latham Owen, Sr.”  After visiting her grave, I did some research and learned that she wrote Memoirs of Narcissa Owen, 1831-1907, published in 1907.[1] She also was a prominent voice in woman suffrage and the rights of Cherokee people. [2]

While she was a memoirist, she identified as a portrait artist and her most notable works include a notable a self-portrait, and Thomas Jefferson and His Descendants.[3] Her interest in Jefferson was an association with her father, Thomas Chisholm, who received the silver Peace and Friendship medal in recognition of being the last hereditary war chief of the Cherokees from Jefferson in 1808.[4]

Graves of husband and her son.

Born on October 3, 1831 to Thomas Chisholm and Malinda Wharton, Narcissa was the youngest of four children. She was the direct descent of Queen Quatisis, “the lineal successor of the seven original chiefs of Cherokee blood.”^[5]

Young Narcissa did not have the easiest upbringing. Her father died in 1834 and her mother was unable to care for all four children so her siblings were sent away to school. She remained with her mother for two years before she was also sent away.[6] When she was nearly 11 years old, she moved in with her older sister. She would go on to a women’s college in Indiana and then attend Miss Sawyer’s Female Seminary in Fayetteville, Arkansas.[7]

The Caney News, (Caney, Kansas: July 21, 1911).

She married her husband Robert Latham Owen, a descendant of George Washington on October 4, 1853, a day after her nineteenth birthday.[8] And since it sometimes feels like all roads lead to Richmond, Charles Dimmock, the architect who designed Hollywood Cemetery’s 90-foot pyramid that was erected in December 1868, was one of the groomsmen at their wedding.[9] This is a complete aside but while researching Narcissa Owen and then falling down a rabbit hole about Charles Dimmock, I learned that the Hollywood Memorial Association sent him to monitor the exhumation of the Southern remains in the Gettysburg battlefield. It was his report about the horrid conditions and desecration of the graves by farmers that recommended that the bodies be moved to Hollywood.[10]  

By the Civil War, Narcissa Owen and her family were living in Lynchburg. Along with five hundred other Lynchburg ladies, she helped provide young recruits with uniforms and hospital supplies. When there weren’t jobs enough jobs for sewing and earning an income, Narcissa Owen collected money from wealthier families to provide for the wives and children of Lynchburg’s soldiers.[11]

In June 1873, her husband passed away. Her son, Robert Latham Owen, Jr. and she moved to the Cherokee Nation. She was offered a position to teach in the Cherokee Female Seminary in 1880 and continued in the position until 1884.

Memoirs of Narcissa Owen, 1907

Although she was always interested in art, she began to focus on learning perspective and oil colors after she left her teaching position.

In 1907, she published her memoirs and then passed away a few years later on July 11, 1911. She was 80 years old.[12]

 

Epitaph of her son

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[1] Narcissa Owen, Memoirs of Narcissa Owen, 1831-1907, 1907, The place of publication is not identified. Amherst College Digital Collections, Archives & Special Collections, https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:788769/asc:788826

[2] “Mrs. Owen Was Indian Princess,” The Poteau News, (Poteau, Oklahoma: July 20, 1911)2.

[3] Stacie Boston, “Owen's Life Consisted of Love for Art, Music and Her People.” Cherokee Phoenix, March 4, 2021. https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/culture/owen-s-life-consisted-of-love-for-art-music-and-her-people/article_caaf7e08-7cf9-11eb-8e2e-fff0b25be0df.html.

[4] Janet Shaffer. "Narcissa and Robert Owen: The Point of Honor Years." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 89, no. 2 (1981): 166.

[5] The Caney News, (Caney, Kansas: July 21, 1911).

[6] Shaffer, 155.

[7] Shaffer, 156.

[8] Shaffer, 157.

[9] Shaffer, 156.

[10] Adrienne E. Robertson,"Charles Henry Dimmock (1831–1873)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia, published 2015.

[11] Shaffer, 159.

[12] Shaffer, 167.