Why is it that...

...we are so fascinated by Cemeteries? I guess I could analyze the true reason, or I could just postulate that it is because to US they tell a story of where they are and who lived here. It isn't so much about a resting place for the dead, but rather telling a story of who lived and how they lived and often of what illness they died. Not all headstones are so documentary.

We had been looking for the Historical Oak Grove Cemetery in Brunswick for some time, and the other day, on our meandering homeward, we happened upon the sign pointing the way.

I will let you read the board for yourself. Better than me relaying this information, that is for sure.

Is this the Chapel? It is the only building on the cemetery grounds, so perhaps it is.

From where I was sitting in the car, I turned to the left (cemetery was on the right) and this was what I saw....:) Isn't she lovely? Someone's pride and joy.

We didn't get out of the car, this day, as it was around 97F, with high humidity and was threatening to rain. We will be back, however, and I hope to document some of the fascinating stories this place has to tell. We did get a glimpse of the graves, however.

The grave in the foreground sports a confederate flag, which is such a bone of contention politically, right now. They are being torn down in Tennessee and being burned in other states and places. We stay out of this argument! Note the lovely fence, mentioned on the board.

The large Live Oaks are well hung with Spanish Moss, which apparently doesn't harm the trees. Sometimes I find it a little oppressive.

More of the fence, but you can see graves in the background too.

We look forward to a visit another day.

While we are talking about graves and cemeteries, let me go back a year or more to 2013, and our visit to New Orleans (NOLA), Louisiana. Curious to know what the Lafayette Cemetery in the middle of the city would yield in stories, we ventured there in search of the roots of this city whom most credit the French with founding. It has a long and curious history, and we were most puzzled to find Irish and German graves there.
Apparently the first German settlers came to the region in the 1720's. However, history books would have us believe otherwise.

You can see the German name on the closest grave stone.

This grave commemorates the Firemen of the city.

During Hurricane Katrina, this cemetery and others in the city were inundated with water. So much of the cemetery is in need of help.

I thought you might be interested in this little bit of history. This is from 'The New Orleans Collection'.

The story of Germans contributing directly to New Orleans’ very existence began when Karl (Charles) Friedrich (Frederick) D’Arensbourg, an ethnic German who would today be considered a Swede (he originally came from the German section of Stockholm), took over the stewardship of a group of impoverished but hearty Southern- German settlers. Having come to Louisiana under the flag of John Law’s Company of the Indies, the few Germans who survived the disease-ridden passage from Europe languished on the beaches of Biloxi and Dauphine Island, victims of Law’s dilettantish colonization plan.
Upon arrival, the colonists, who came as engagés of the Company, were provided with as good as no means of support and little plan to follow. According to some historians, they were sent to settle John Law’s consession in an untamed and difficult region of contemporary southern Arkansas. They were unsuccessful, however, and many perished in the attempt. Out of frustration, the surviving settlers abandoned the colony and headed to New Orleans, with the intention of demanding passage back to Europe. Once there, however, they were persuaded to follow D’Arensbourg, who had won favor with the French Governor, Bienville, and settle what was considered to be the best land in the colony, about 25 miles up-river from New Orleans.
Other historians argue that the group that struggled and failed in Arkansas was an unrelated one, and the story of the German Coast begins just there, when D’Arensbourg and his settlers arrived from beleaguered Biloxi in that fertile region in what is today St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parish. Under D’Arensbourg’s leadership, this community quickly began to provide life-saving sustenance to the ragged collection of soldiers and provincial bureaucrats occupying the haphazard encampment of buildings called New Orleans.
The Germans established their colony on the Mississippi in 1721 and, as engagés, had a commission to sell their surplus harvest to the company for the purpose of supplying New Orleans. As early as 1724, the French Superior Council recognized the importance of this supply of goods by issuing a decree guaranteeing its protection en route to New Orleans from the settlement. When John Law’s bankruptcy caused the company to disintegrate in 1731, the settlers ceased to be indentured to anyone, but continued to supply New Orleans. As census records and scholarly works found in THNOC’s German Study File illustrate, the contribution made by this community to the health and growth of New Orleans grew consistently through the 18th century. In fact, the Germans were supplying not only the provincial capital with staples, but were also sending timber and rice to Cap Français, the wealthy capital of the flourishing St. Domingue colony, and to France itself.
In 1803, Napoleon’s prefect to Louisiana, Pierre Clement Laussat, even recommended introducing a regular flow of German settlers to the region, as they were the only group who had as yet proven itself capable of taming the Louisiana wilderness.
Indeed, as evidenced in a number of the manuscripts, the German population up-river from New Orleans thrived through the 18th century. It wasn’t until close to the middle part of the 19th century, however, that Germans began to constitute a significant portion of the population of the city of New Orleans

As always, we are mindful of the family ties and the purpose of a cemeteries. We respect these places and those whose remains lie therein.

Here endeth today's History Lesson :)