Tombstone iconography: The sign of the cross

This is by no means the best depiction of a cross found on a tombstone in Chariton, but it is one of the earliest in the Chariton Cemetery --- and thereby hangs a couple of tales.

It marks the grave of Charles Archibold, murdered by his neighbors, Thomas and Margaret Kelley, on April 6, 1886, when he was 85. You can read more about that here in a post entitled "The Murder of Charles Archibold."

Mr. Archibold, born in County Wexford, Ireland, was Catholic --- and as such perhaps should have been buried in the new Calvary Cemetery, founded during 1879, where crosses would not have seemed unusual. But his nearest relatives were living in Chicago when he died and funeral arrangements were made by court-appointed Protestants --- and that's probably why he ended up as the occupant of a prime piece of real estate some distance to the southwest of the main Chariton Cemetery gate --- in territory that was overwhelmingly Protestant.

It was his nephew, who arrived later from Chicago to settle his uncle's affairs, who arranged for the tombstone to be placed.

Although the cross now generally is embraced by most Christians as a physical symbol of their faith, that was not the case in the late 19th century when American Protestants with Reformed roots --- nearly all, other than Lutherans --- still looked upon the sign of the cross as a "graven image" and something to be avoided.

This aversion dated back to the Reformation when followers of reformers other than Martin Luther, who had few issues with symbols, formed themselves into merry bands of "iconoclasts" and went about destroying irreplaceable signs, symbols and artifacts of the Roman Catholic Church in countries where they had gained enough traction to do so.

Anglicans, represented in Chariton by Episcopalians and influenced by the late 19th century rise of Anglo-Catholicism in England, were among the first Protestants in the Reformed tradition to recover, so it's not suprising that one of the finest crosses in the Chariton Cemetery tops the tombstone erected by Edward Ames Temple, founder of what now is the Principal Financial Group (and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church), to mark the graves of his family, also near the Chariton Cemetery entrance.

You'll find many crosses at Calvary Cemetery, but the earliest in the Chariton Cemetery are for the most part found at the graves of Lutherans, Episcopalians and the occasional Catholic, like Charles.