James Mathison Smith - Itasca Cemetery - Itasca, TX, USA - Doves of peace on Waymarking.com

The Woodmen of the World are known today as WoodmenLife, a fraternal society that provides insurance to its members. Visitors to older cemeteries can frequently spot the marble tree trunk monuments that they placed at the graves of their members, although not every tree trunk monument out there was placed by the Woodmen of the World: It was common in the late 19th century to use a log to note that a person had died young. Eventually, those tree trunk monuments became too expensive to produce, and headstones would be marked with a Woodmen of the World emblem of some kind. Earlier ones featured a dove of peace with an olive branch in its beak, flying over a fallen log where the tools of the woodmen's trade -- hatchet, mallet, and wedge -- can be seen. Later ones like this one would show a simple tree stump instead, with the dove and tools worked into the fabric of the monument. Here, though, only the dove appears, perched on a log with oak leaves. The inscription scroll was sculpted to look torn and creased -- note the separation at the top -- and it reads:

James Mathison
Smith.

Born
Jan. 26, 1853,
Died July 9, 1902.

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"Blessed are they that die
in the Lord."

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Erected by the
Woodmen of the
World.

Kind of dove: Dove with olive branch Used material for the dove: Other (explanation in the long description) Address: Itasca Cemetery S Wall St & FM 66 Itasca, TX USA 76055

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