A Mystery Solved

Laurie found this amazing photo of St. Mark's Church at the historical society today. It shows a lot more detail, particularly the patterns in the windows, and will be very helpful in helping us to determine where the church was and how it appeared in the nineteenth century. It may help us understand some of the artifacts that we are unearthing in the old dry well, as well as the spatial relationship between the dry well and the church.

One of the first things I noticed about this photo was the presence of a certain gravestone that I had never seen before (actually, I had seen it in this photo, but I didn't notice it because it was so small in the image). This gravestone is not in the cemetery today.

In the photo below (taken winter 2012-2013), I have circled the place where this gravestone should be. The Philip and Nancy Sarles stone, with its distinctive Gothic peak, is visible in both the old and the new photographs - to the right of the church in the old photograph, and identified by the arrow in the new.

Now here is a close-up of the stone in question, with the contrast and definition of the image altered to make the inscription more legible. The dates are difficult to read, but the names appear to be Lyman W. Searles and Lydia A. Searles.

Once I had identified the names on the gravestone, I went directly to William Eaderley and Robert Miller's transcription of the cemetery, which was created in two stages - first in 1905 and second in 1909. Lydia and Lyman are not included, which suggests that their stone had probably already left the cemetery in May 1905. I say probably because Eaderley's 1905 transcription was not complete. The stone was certainly gone by 1909, when Miller created the complete transcription.

So where did the stone go? A search of Find A Grave revealed that Oakwood Cemetery contains two gravestones commemorating Lyman and Lydia Searles. Oakwood is mentioned in the foreword to Eaderley and Miller's transcription: "The [St. Mark's] cemetery is still used, and contains 425 stones; 1773 per 1906; only six bodies buried between 1905 and 1909, as most are now buried in the new Oakwood cemetery not far away."

As you can see in the old photo, Lyman did not have a death date under his name. Although Lydia's death date is not visible in the photo, the word "died" is visible, suggesting that the death date was there. So it's fair to guess that Lydia died first, and that the photo must postdate her death.

As it turns out, Lydia and Lyman's gravestones in Oakwood Cemetery are not the same as the stone in the photo; it is unclear what happened to the original stone. You can see the Oakwood stones, marked "Mother" and "Father," below.

(Source)

According to the inscriptions on these stones, Lyman, who was born January 23, 1826 (matching the date on the original stone) died in September 1905 (I can't make out the exact date). Lydia, who was born October 12, 1832 (again matching the original stone) died in November 24, 1893.

So what conclusions can we draw from all of this?

Well, to begin with, the photograph must have been taken after November 24, 1893 (Lydia's death), and was probably taken before May 1905 (Eaderley's transcription).

Lyman and Lydia's stone was likely removed from St. Mark's Cemetery before May 1905, and thus before Lyman's death. Therefore, Lyman was probably never buried in St. Mark's Cemetery, despite having had a stone with his name on it there. He was probably buried in Oakwood Cemetery, while his wife was buried in St. Mark's Cemetery and then moved to Oakwood before May 1905. Perhaps Lyman himself oversaw the relocation of his wife's body.

Lydia Searles was not the only person whose body was removed from St. Mark's Cemetery around this time and reburied in another location. The body of Charles Thorn, who was buried at St. Mark's in 1878, was moved to Kensico Cemetery by his wife in 1907.

Susan has noted that more than a few stones that are visible in old photographs of St. Mark's are absent today. This is the only such stone whose transcription is legible. It may be that some of the other missing stones and their accompanying bodies were moved as St. Mark's Cemetery began to decline and rural cemeteries became more popular.