Betts Family Plot Gate -- Wharton City Cemetery, Wharton TX USA
N 29° 18.702 W 096° 05.575
14R E 782359 N 3246028
The winged hourglass on the Betts Family Plot Gate in the Wharton City Cemetery, Wharton TX USA
Waymark Code: WM15YXY
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/26/2022
Views: 3
The haunting triple broken column tombstone is the first thing that catches the eye, but there is much more to see at this haunting and evocative grave.
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.) The entire plot is carpeted in Astroturf, surrounded by a beautiful wrought iron cemetery fence with an winged-hourglass on the gate.
Blasterz have never seen a triple broken column tombstone before, and we will never forget this one. It's both tragic and heartbreakingly beautiful.
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:
[HAND POINTING UP]
BARBARA
Wife of
CHARLES S. BETTS
Died
July 24, 1843;
Æ 33 Y'S 1 M'H & 26 D'S.
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:
[SLEEPING LAMB]
LOUESE MORIN
Dau. of
CHARLES S. & BARBARA
BETTS,
DIED
Aug. 5, 1842;
Æ 6 Y'S 8 M'S
&8 D'S.
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:
[DEATH MASK]
ELISABETH L.
Wife of
CHARLES S. BETTS
DIED
JAN. 20 1858;
Æ 26 Y'S 9 M'S & 22 D'S.
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.