Hill Cemetery, Putnam County

About a week ago we visited the very historic Hill Cemetery in Putnam County as part of a walking tour. The cemetery is the final resting place of members of the Hill family, including William Hill, who served in the local militia during the French and Indian War, his mother, and his descendants. The cemetery is also notable for its several large Gothic monuments, of which quite a few are "white bronze" or zinc. I had never seen such large zinc monuments before.

As you can see in the picture below, the same style of monument is represented in granite (left) and zinc (right). The zinc monument would have been several times cheaper than the granite, and preserves remarkably well. Zinc first became popular as a gravestone material in the late nineteenth century and stopped being used with the onset of World War I.

Some of the zinc monuments had corn and sheaves of wheat on them, a testament to the Hill family's occupation as farmers. You can see in the right photo how the panels of the monument are bolted into place, allowing for customization of each side.

The inscriptions and designs in zinc monuments are extremely crisp and clear. At this point I probably sound like an advertisement for zinc monuments, but if you were used to straining to read marble gravestones, you'd understand my appreciation for them. They certainly look great at a hundred years old. Whether they'll look this great at 200, 300, or 1000 is another story.

Below are the gravestones of William Hill, the French and Indian War veteran. The undressed fieldstone marker on the right is inscribed with Hill's initials. The marble monument in the center was added in the nineteenth century by his descendants and commemorates Hill and his wife, Bethiah.

This Hill descendant was a Free Mason. I have been intrigued by the Free Mason symbol ever since I first saw it on my great-grandfather's grave marker. For those who are interested, here is an explanation of what the G means.


Here's a general view of the cemetery showing the old stone wall and the grave of William Hill. The family's original eighteenth-century house was located nearby; their nineteenth-century house still stands and is, I believe, where Laurie saw this 1843 doorknob (I wasn't there for that part of the tour).


And one more view showing the amazing zinc monuments. While they're not really to my taste (I would like to have an eighteenth-century, Solomon Brewer-style sandstone gravestone with a crowned cherub like that of Deborah Haight, which spells out my exact age down to the day and used the abbreviation AE.) I think they're wonderful. I like the irony of Victorian excess being expressed in such a utilitarian form, and of Gothic architectural styles being expressed through industrially produced materials. Plus the noise - clang! clang! - when you knock on them. They're just great.