Tombstone iconography: Woodmen of the World

John W. Shelton's end was harsh. A teamster, age 33, John and his blacksmith friend, Ed Smoot, 38, were stalking quail near the Isaac Fain farm west of Chariton on Thursday, Nov. 29, 1900. Their dog flushed two at about 4 p.m. John raised his gun and fired at one. Ed raised his gun to fire at the other but inadvertently shot John in the head. And that was the end of that.

John was carried to his final resting place in the Chariton Cemetery on the Sunday afternoon that followed after funeral services at First Baptist Church under the auspices of friends and fellow members of Manchester Camp 120, Woodmen of the World. 

Organized during 1890 in Omaha, Woodmen of the World was a fraternal benefit society that sold both life insurance and social opportunities --- policy holders were organized into "camps" that operated much like other lodges with regular meetings and elaborate rituals. One of the principal selling points of the W.O.W. was the fact that death benefits included, from 1890 until the mid-1920s when the cost became prohibitive, a tombstone. Chariton's Manchester Camp had been organized during the summer of 1897.

John was the first Manchester Camp member to take advantage of the tombstone benefit, and as a result this magnificent chunk of granite was unveiled on Sunday, June 2, 1901, after ceremonies that had drawn some 300 fellow Woodmen and their families from across southern Iowa. It is Lucas County's first --- and one of several --- Woodmen of the World tombstones emblazoned with the Woodmen seal and its motto: Dum Tacet Clamat, "Though silent, he speaks."

There's a common misunderstanding about these tombstones. It's sometimes reported that they were all similar --- cast into the shape of tree trunks. Some are, but many are not.

The great majority of Woodmen of the World tombstones in Lucas County are polished granite with inscriptions featuring the Woodmen seal. In some cases, the Woodmen insignia is in the form of a bronze plaque attached to the stone.

Woodmen of the World remains in business, still headquartered in Omaha, but Manchester Camp 120 faltered and then vanished entirely during the early 1930s.