Reading Alonzo B. Nichols's tombstone

I'm not sure why I took a couple of photographs of Alonzo B. Nichols's tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery a week ago --- on the Saturday before a foot of snow abruptly turned autumn to winter here. It's a nice stone and in good shape although the urn that once topped it has broken, fallen away and disappeared. But nothing that special.

Looking at the image a few days later, I noticed the books carved into stone niches that are among its decorations. As a result, if I didn't know better, I'd now conclude that this was a case of one bibliophile reaching out to another. (University of Iowa Press is having a pre-Christmas sale and, heaven help us, I ordered three more.)

As we can tell from the tombstone, Alonzo was born July 23, 1841 (probably in Knox County, Illinois --- his parents were Eli and Phoebe Nichols) and died on Saturday, May 24, 1884, at the age of 42, at his farm home some four miles west of Chariton.

He married Rose Smith on Feb. 25, 1871, in Peoria, and not too long thereafter the couple moved west to Lucas County where they became the parents of two children, Florence, born during 1876, and Roscoe, born during 1882 and only 2 years old when his father died.

Alonzo was buried here on the Sunday afternoon following his death and a brief obituary was published in The Democrat of May 28. From that we learn that Alonzo was afflicted with tuberculosis and had gone to Texas during the fall of 1883, hoping for relief. He remained there until about two weeks before his death. En route home to Chariton, feeling relatively well, he became ill in St. Louis but made it home, where he died two weeks later.

After his death, Rose Nichols married as her second husband a widower named Jacob Good, who lived east of Chariton in the Oxford neighborhood, during 1886. They became the parents of one child, Walter. Jacob Good, died during 1899 and was buried beside his first wife in Oxford Cemetery.

Roscoe Nichols died of typhoid fever when he was 9, during 1891, and was buried beside Alonzo in the Chariton Cemetery. Florence married Christopher Prather during 1896 and they settled eventually in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where Rose joined them about 1932 as age caught up with her. She was 92 when she died on Dec. 8, 1944, at Fort Thomas, having outlived Alonzo by 60 years. Her remains were returned to Chariton for burial beside him, however.

But back to Alonzo and his tombstone. The final paragraph of his obituary explains the literary allusion carved into stone. After informing us that "Mr. Nichols was a large farmer," it goes on to state that "He was quite fond of reading, and was the possessor of one of the finest libraries in the county."

So Rose, when ordering his tombstone, did her best to ensure that he would be remembered for his love of books.