Closing out our cool Woodmen of the World headstones (but not our Rowlett Creek cemetery series!), I present for your visual enjoyment the headstone of Charles W. Farrell, May 5, 1866 to July 11, 1908. He and Bettie Ogle (from yesterday’s post) might well have been friends as this was a tight knit community and their ages/date of death are very similar. They would have been contemporaries in a small town and both Baptists as this was a Baptist cemetery.
The Farrell headstone is an upright tree stump with a scroll hanging from the front by a rope. The scroll has the Woodmen of the World memorial stamp on it in addition to the saying:
A precious one from us is gone
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in our home
Which never can be filled
This poem traditionally ends with:
Which can never be filled
God in His wisdom has recalled,
And the boon his love has given,
And though the body slumbers here,
The soul is safe in heaven*.
These last four lines starting with “God in His Wisdom” are omitted from the front of the Farrell headstone. I believe they adjusted the word order of the “can never be filled” line as to truncate the entire poem so it fit with the overall headstone design. That is just my guess.
*After much unsatisfying digging, it would appear this poem is anonymous.
