Tombstone Iconography: A giant acorn

Oak leaves and acorns, usually masculine symbols of endurance, strength and immortality, were featured in an earlier post in this series. But this acorn, the largest I've seen in a southern Iowa cemetery, stands alone so far as scale is concerned.

It marks the graves of eight adults and two infants in the Garden Grove Cemetery, Decatur County, and apparently was erected by the widow and children of Thomas Jefferson Knapp (1833-1914) soon after his death. Knapp was a prominent Garden Grove businessman and member of a pioneer family in the Garden Grove area. Four family groupings are commemorated on the four faces of the tombstone's base.

T. J. Knapp's wife, Sylvia F. Mudgett Knapp (born Oct. 31, 1847) died during May of 1925 in Waterloo, where three of her children lived, and her remains were returned to Garden Grove for burial --- but her death date never was inscribed on the stone.

Commemorated on another face of the base are Sylvia Knapp's parents, Maj. Gilman C. Mudgett (1813-1897) and Rebecca (Haymaker) Mudgett (1817-1907).

Commemorated on the third face are Nina K. Knapp Frazier (1866-1935), David E. Frazier (1866-1919), her husband, and their infant child, born and died on Dec. 26, 1892. David Knapp, a railroad postal clerk, died in Council Bluffs and apparently was interred initially in the mausoleum at Fairview Cemetery in Waterloo, then presumably transferred in one form or another to Garden Grove. Nina died April 25, 1935, and was buried here following funeral services in Waterloo. They had no surviving children, so there was no one left to ensure that their death dates were inscribed on the stone.

The final face commemorates William J. Knapp (1873-1934), another child of T.J. and Sylvia; his wife, Sadie (1872-1947); and their infant son, Don Edwin Knapp, June 3-14, 1897.

William J. Knapp was operating a funeral home in Vancouver, Washington, when he died. His remains as well as those of his wife, Sylvia, were cremated and the ashes brought to Garden Grove for burial. There only surviving child, a son, continued to operate the family funeral home until retirement.