Curious Graves - God Aimed The Tree That Crushed Him Dead

Sunday drives with our family are not your typical afternoon ride, and if you ever find yourself in our car during one of these trips your apt to see something like this as the destination on our GPS.

This day we were on the hunt for the gravestone of David Moors, buried in the town of Hancock New Hampshire and with a tombstone that has been mentioned in a graveyard oddity book I found at the library. David met his untimely death while chopping down a tree, which is unique enough, but on the grave's eulogy was a poem that described how "God aimed the tree that crushed him dead". This seemed a bit accusatory to us, or else reflected a weird sense of humor by his widow, and although we couldn't find pictures of the grave the transcript was listed in the cemetery's burial records so we knew it existed. Our plan to find this tombstone was, in terms of computer hacking, what is called a brute force attack. That is, to systematically try every combination possible until you find the right one, or in our case, read every single headstone until we located the one we were looking for.

One thing about reading every headstone in a cemetery is you're bound to find a few gems, and this day did not disappoint. First there was the wife of Hiram Whittemore, a lady I'm guessing didn't win any lifetime achievement awards in her day. She is described on her tombstone simply as someone who "Hath Done What She Could".

People weren't shy 200 years ago about informing us of how their loved ones died, either. Meet George Edward Sheldon, a man whose life was cut short the day he was "shot by a ruffian".

This is actually a pretty good life-hack to try yourself someday. Pick a cemetery - older ones work best for this - and spend an afternoon reading every single one of the headstones. You'll never be at a loss for small talk again. The flip side of this is you may find yourself at a loss for people who want to keep hanging out with you, but fortunately that's never been an issue for me. I was lucky enough to find someone who enjoys these jaunts as much as I do, and even after scouring the cemetery and not finding David's grave the first time through, my wife was eager to swap sides and give it another go.

It was on the return sweep that I spotted the grave, and with writing that has somewhat faded over time it was easy to see how we'd missed it the first time through. But the words were still plenty legible once you zero'd in on them, and they matched the transcript exactly.

David Moors

Died Sept. 15 1811

AE.29.

Here peacefully lies the once happy father

The joy of his beloved wife & daughter

But whilst in health the woodsman's ax he sped

God aimed the tree that crushed him dead

It was another successful expedition, and we did our usual high-fiving and posing for pictures before packing it in and calling it a day. In our scavenger-hunt battle for who can find the most curious headstones, I am now in the lead 3-0 against my wife Tina.

Related Links:
Curious Graves - Persecuted For Wearing The Beard
Curious Graves - Grave For A Leg