Gone to the Grave: Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850-1950

by Abby Burnett

Overview

A RICH SURVEY OF FOLK PRACTICES PRIOR TO MORTUARIES AND THE FUNERAL INDUSTRY Before there was a death care industry where professional funeral directors offered embalming and other services, residents of the Arkansas Ozarks--and, for that matter, people throughout the South--buried their own dead. Every part of the complicated, labor-intensive process was handled within the deceased's community. This process included preparation of the body for burial, making a wooden coffin, digging the grave, and overseeing the burial ceremony, as well as observing a wide variety of customs and superstitions. These traditions, especially in rural communities, remained the norm up through the end of World War II, after which a variety of factors, primarily the loss of manpower and the rise of the funeral industry, brought about the end of most customs. Gone to the Grave, a meticulous autopsy of this now vanished way of life and death, documents mourning and practical rituals through interviews, diaries and reminiscences, obituaries, and a wide variety of other sources. Abby Burnett covers attempts to stave off death; passings that, for various reasons, could not be mourned according to tradition; factors contributing to high maternal and infant mortality; and the ways in which loss was expressed through obituaries and epitaphs. A concluding chapter examines early undertaking practices and the many angles funeral industry professionals worked to convince the public of the need for their services. Abby Burnett, Kingston, Arkansas, is a former freelance newspaper reporter. She is the author of When the Presbyterians Came to Kingston: Kingston Community Church, 1917-1951.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496804600
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	03/13/2015
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,104,749
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Abby Burnett is a former freelance newspaper reporter. She is author of When the Presbyterians Came to Kingston: Kingston Community Church 1917-1951.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Chapter 1 Keeping Death at Bay 3

Chapter 2 Sitting up with the Sick and Dying 25

Chapter 3 Laying out the Body 43

Chapter 4 Sitting up with the Body 61

Chapter 5 Coffins and Caskets 82

Chapter 6 Notification, Transportation, and Farewell 107

Chapter 7 Creating Graves and Graveyards 128

Chapter 8 Marking the Graves 147

Chapter 9 Funerals and Decoration Day 169

Chapter 10 Childbirth, Children, and Death 190

Chapter 11 Disenfranchised Death 212

Chapter 12 Early Undertaking 236

Conclusion 257

Notes 261

Bibliography 291

Index 315

Editorial Reviews

The research that went into the work will make it a useful guide for scholars and interesting to anyone who has ever wondered about an odd-looking monument in an Ozarks cemetery.--Rebecca A. Howard, Lone Star College "Arkansas Historical Quarterly"

This book is engaging, fascinating, and horrifying as Burnett explores most every conceivable aspect of dying, death, burial, and remembrance. . . . Few things offer more insight into a society than how it responds to death. A landmark work.-- "Elder Mountain: Journal of Ozarks Studies"

From the Publisher