We live across the street from a cemetery. If the weather is nice and we have the time, we often walk up and down the roads just for some exercise.

The other day when we were walking, I noticed a series of three tomb stones on a family plot. The first said “Morse”. Next to it was “wife of Morse”. And besides that one was “brother of Morse”.

Since these stones were in the oldest section of the cemetery, I assumed that they had been there for awhile. Still, I had to wonder why there were no first names on the stones. After all, wife of Morse sounds very cold and impersonal; more like a commodity that a human being.

At first I thought that maybe that was the custom back then to only use last names on the stones. But, when I checked on other stones in the area around the same time, they all had first names listed.

Maybe it cost too much to have first names carved on the stones. Or maybe their first names were too long to fit. Certainly, first initials would have been cheaper than “wife of Morse”

Then I thought that maybe they were a recluse family. After all, many immigrants were loners and did not trust other people. Morse would be known when he came to town to buy supplies but being a loner, he did not socialize. The woman with Morse would be known as his wife and the other guy that came with him would be known as the brother of Morse.

Or, another possibility might be that they were traveling through when they met an untimely death. Morse may have conversed with someone as he was passing through saying that he and his wife and brother were headed for ….. Later, they were all found dead. Since the man was only known as Morse who was traveling with his wife and brother, that is all that they could put on the stones at the time.

The stones are quite weathered and hard to read. Maybe I can do a rub on them and find out if they all died in the same year.

Interesting.