Macabre Memorials Part #1 - Josie Langmaid

In 1875, seventeen year old Josie Langmaid began her morning walk to school in Pembroke, New Hampshire. She never arrived. A search ensued, and by that evening her murdered body was found in the woods near Pembroke Academy. It was a murder for which local woodchopper Joseph LaPage was arrested and three years later executed.

This is a terrible and sad story but not unheard of even for our small towns in New Hampshire, and after 140 years one might expect a memory like this to have mercifully faded away. Perhaps it would have, if not for the well-intentioned but misguided efforts of the Pembroke townsfolk, who soon after the murder erected this 15-foot memorial for Josie.

And on it inscribed the following messages:

Erected by the citizens of Pembroke and vicinity to commemorate the place of the tragic death and memory of Josie Langmaid...

That was the front of the memorial and okay, so far so good.

Then the left side:

Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flow'r of all the field.

Thoughtful words again, and certainly nothing unusual.

But then comes the right side of the memorial, and the reason why people like me are still searching it out 140 years later:

Body found 90 ft north at stone hub, head found 82 rods north at stone hub

Josie had been decapitated and her head was found over 1,000 feet from her body (a rod is a unit of length equal to just over 16 feet). In 1875, the townsfolk somehow thought it a great idea to carve these details in stone as a way to honor her memory. They even went a step further and installed stone posts where each of the body parts were found.

I can't know this for sure, but I suspect there's a reason why Pembroke no longer upkeeps the bushes that are steadily growing around and obscuring this memorial.