Elisabeth Betts - Wharton City Cemetery - Wharton TX
N 29° 18.702 W 096° 05.575
14R E 782359 N 3246028
The haunting triple broken column tombstone for various members of the Betts family and the Wharton City Cemetery, Wharton TX features a death mask for Elisabeth Betts.
Waymark Code: WM15YXZ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/26/2022
Views: 3
This amazing tombstone is located in the northeast corner of the Wharton City Cemetery along N. East Avenue at E. Alabama Street. (the street names make sense when you're there - promise.)
Blasterz have never seen a triple broken column tombstone before, and we will never forget this one. It's both tragic and heartbreakingly beautiful, with a sleeping lamb on one, a pointing hand on another, and a death mask on a third.
The tallest broken column belongs to Charles Betts' first wife Barbara (d. 1843), and features a relief of the Victorian funerary hand pointing up symbol in a cabochon attached to the shaft.
The shortest broken column is for Charles and Barbara's daughter Louese, who died in 1842 at the age of 6. That broken column has a sleeping lamb in the center.
The middle broken column is for Charles Betts' second wife Elisabeth, (d. 1858). It features a death mask of her in a cabochon on the shaft.
The entire plot is carpeted in Astroturf, surrounded by a beautiful wrought iron cemetery fence with an winged-hourglass on it.
There are 2 concrete covered tombs near the broken column monument, were Blasterz think the actual graves lie beneath. That would make sense, since according to Find-A-Grave, Charles and Elisabeth both died in 1858, and both are buried at this cemetery.
The columns are inscribed as follows:
[tallest - HAND POINTING UP]
BARBARA
Wife of
CHARLES S. BETTS
Died
July 24, 1843;
Æ 33 Y'S 1 M'H & 26 D'S.
[medium - DEATH MASK]
ELISABETH L.
Wife of
CHARLES S. BETTS
DIED
JAN. 20 1858;
Æ 26 Y'S 9 M'S & 22 D'S.
[shortest - SLEEPING LAMB]
LOUESE MORIN
Dau. of
CHARLES S. & BARBARA
BETTS,
DIED
Aug. 5, 1842;
Æ 6 Y'S 8 M'S
& 8 D'S.