Willard W. Wells - Wells Valley Cemetery - Johnston County, OK, USA
N 34° 23.242 W 096° 29.387
14S E 730781 N 3807963
A Dove of Peace bearing an olive branch appears on the marble Woodmen of the World monument marking the final resting place of Willard W. Wells in Wells Valley Cemetery, south of Bromide in rural Johnston County, OK.
Waymark Code: WM12EEK
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 05/09/2020
Views: 0
His
Findagrave page notes that he was killed in a dispute over horses from someone who had leased land from him.
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, and the dove and tools are worked into the fabric of the monument. Here, a lamb has been worked into the monument below the inscription scroll: While lambs are very common on the headstones for young children, it's rare to see them for adults: Someone's family probably took the loss of this young man very hard and still thought of him as their baby. The dove of peace perches atop the inscription scroll, which reads:
Willard W.
Wells
Born
May 7, 1889
Died
Oct. 19, 1914.
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Beloved one farewell