Sleepy epitaphs

Sleep is a popular and enduring metaphor for death. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the graveyard, especially in the epitaphs on 19-century gravestones.

Salina Nettleton (d. 1848)

Sleep on sweet Child & take thy rest
God called the hence he saw it best.

Jesse Rowles (d. 1835)

Go home dear friends and do not weep,
I am not dead but here to sleep;
Though cold and silent is my bed,
My rest is sweet, my sorrows fled.

I here will slumber underground,
Untill the last loud trump will sound
Then burst my tomb with sweet surprise,
And in my saviours image rise.

William Radley Arrison (d. 1844)
Amelia Isabella Arrison (d. 1844)

Sleep, brother, sister, side by side,
No chance, no change can you divide;
Togather in the dust you lie,
Together tread the courts on high.

If once the eye of faith could see
Your full, complete felicity,
How would our sad repinings cease,
And all our sighs be hushed in peace.

Elizabeth Jones (d. 1871)

She’s gone – and many lone ones
In bitterness will weep.
That death o’er one so young and loved
Would spread its blighting sleep.

Katie L. McCarty (d. 1882)

SLEEP ON MY SWEET ONE!
SLEEP! SO EARLY GONE;
TO EARTH A CHILD IS LOST,
TO HEAVEN A CHERUB BORN.

Margaret J. Thomas (d. 1877)

Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep
From which none ever wakes to weep
A calm and undisturbed repost
Unbroken by the last of foes.

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Cheshire Cemetery, Delaware County, Ohio
West Rushville Cemetery, Fairfield County, Ohio
Blendon Central Cemetery, Franklin County, Ohio
Fargo Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, Morrow County, Ohio
Somerset Cemetery, Perry County, Ohio
Liberty Church Cemetery, Delaware County, Ohio