“Can you tell me what they call the window/door that was used to move the dead body from the home? I have heard it called “death’s door” hence the expression of one being at death’s door. There is some superstition about moving the dead through the front door.”

REPLY

I am aware of some superstitions surrounding the removal of a body from the home. The deceased was always taken out feet first in the coffin so that the dead could not look back at its home and the spirit remain inside the house.  Many houses of the mid-to-late Victorian period have a special niche called a “coffin corner” cut into the stairwell so that the coffin could make the turn in the flight of stairs by fitting the head of the coffin into this little niche shelf.  Some old homes also have a showcase window in the front of the house, a sort of bay window where the deceased could lie in state for people to pass by on the street and pay their respects.

The expression “at death’s door” is applied to someone so ill as to be at the very brink of death. In funeral statuary in cemeteries, a door is often used as the symbol for passing through the portal from Life to another state.  Arches, windows, and portals carry the same meaning.  Sometimes in remote rural homes, a door was used to lay the body upon when carrying it downstairs (as most died in upstairs bedrooms).  Boards made of wide planks of wood or caned surfaces were used as “cooling boards” to lay out the body during autopsy or embalming before placing the deceased in a casket or coffin. Please write and tell us if you have more information on this expression!

Contents

1-2 Introduction

3-4 History of Oak Grove as described in the report of the Massachusetts

Historical Commission, Office of the Secretary, Boston

5-7 Oak Grove in More Recent Days

8-9 Relating to Oak Grove Cemetery and the Interment of the Dead Chapter XXII

City Ordinances 1859

10-16 1915 Report to the Board of Park Commissioners by Egbert Lawton

17-19 Mr. Egbert Lawton, Superintendent of Oak Grove

19 A-B Salaries of Early Superintendents and Expenses of Interest

20 Initial Expense Report 1856

21-22 Approved City Ordinance Applying to Oak Grove Cemetery

23-29 Symbolism on Victorian Funeral Statuary

30 Map for Tour Circuit #1

31-34 Autopsies of Abby & Andrew Borden, August 11, 1892

35 Funerals of Abby & Andrew Borden, August 6, 1892

36-39 Identifications and Biographies for Tour Circuit #1

40 Map for Tour Circuit #2

41-42 Identifications and Biographies for Tour Circuit #2

43 Map for Tour Circuit #3

44-46 Identifications and Biographies for Tour Circuit #3

47-49 Uncle Lawdwick Borden and the Sad Case of the Deaths in the Cistern:

The Suicide of Eliza Darling Borden and Murder of Her Children

50-55 Other Gravesites of Notables

56 Borden-Related Personalities Not Buried at Oak Grove Cemetery

57-63 The Victorian Celebration of Death: The Borden Funerals

64 Sources Used in the Preparation of This Publication

Photographs labeled WC were taken by Will Clawson, SD by Shelley Dziedzic on the Friday after New Year’s Day.  The ground was particularly warm hitting the cold air, and a very theatrical misty effect was the result!

There are several postcards of Oak Grove, made during the golden age of postcards from 1900-1920 when every prominent beauty spot and building or structure was fodder for the photographer’s camera. A penny postcard was the way to keep in touch with friends and family while traveling or on vacation and there are hundreds postcards of Fall River scenes available on Ebay and through dealers in ephemera.

The postcard above was postdated 1910 and shows ivy-covered walls and archway at Oak Grove. The ivy obscures the magnificent iron work of the gates as well as the inscription.  There is a photograph of Oak Grove taken in 1890 which also shows the ivy growing on the gates, so it is likely this is how the Prospect Street entry looked at the time of the Borden funeral on August 6, 1892.

Below are two cards with no dates, showing the arch with and without ivy.  All postcards shown here were purchased on Ebay. 

Arch today: 

Lydia and Abraham Hart gravestones

Banker, Abraham Hart, was one of the last people to see Andrew Borden alive on the morning of August 4th 1892 when Andrew stopped by the bank near City Hall.  Mr. Hart would later tell police that Mr. Borden looked weak and feeble that morning.  The Bordens had been suffering from an unknown illness since Tuesday evening after supper.  Abraham Hart would also be one of the Borden pallbearers on the morning of Saturday, August 6th at the short service at #92 Second Street and procession to Oak Grove Cemetery.

Dr. Michael Kelly, the Borden’s next door neighbor to the south was away on August 4th but Dr. Kelly’s wife, Mary Caroline Cantwell Kelly was the last (but one) to see Andrew Borden alive as he entered his front door moments before his murder.  Mrs. Kelly was expecting a baby at the time and was on her way to the dentist.  Mrs. Kelly’s second child, Mary Philomena married the grandson of Abraham Hart, Bertrand K. Hart.  Both are buried in the Gifford/Hart plot at Oak Grove, directly across the path from the Rev. Augustus Buck, Lizzie’s minister and champion throughout her ordeal.  All are together for eternity in a fascinating entertwining of personalities who had Lizzie Borden in common.

Bertrand and Philomena Kelly Hart

The Rev. Augustus Buck of the Central Congregational Church

(edit)

I am finally in the process of doing my family tree. My great grandfather’s name was Nicholas Kessell and I have always known he was a stonecutter in Fall River Mass in the mid to late 1800′s as he past on in 1904 of “stone consumption”. I came across a book “The Fall River Directory of 1882 and notice an ad in there for Kessell and Lawson, a stonecutting company. I can only guess that my great grandfather was in that partnership. My question is, if there is anyway you could find out if he was all involved in the cutting of the Borden tombstone in 1892? I have been intrigued all my life, but now am very curious.
Thank you,
Elaine Kessell
There is never any information about stonecutters.

 Thanks for your email. Sorry to say, the Borden stone was ordered from a Westerly, R.I. carver.  Westerly was a hub for this sort of work and still today has a few remaining carving studios. Buzzi’s is still in business (Ruth Buzzi of Laugh-In fame is in that family) The Borden stone was installed in January of 1894 and is made of Westerly blue granite.  Fall River also had some great carvers and a rosy-colored granite.

A Maiden’s Garland still hanging in a church in England

This particularly beautiful tall arch is to be found in the central west end of Oak Grove and is a familiar symbol of passing through from one state to another- from earthly to celestial, from life to the hereafter.

There are smaller arches, gateways and doors to be found in Oak Grove, some found carved onto tabular monuments and others carved completely as the symbol itself. This one has an Egyptian inspiration- complete with canopic jar.

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you must be.

Prepare for death and follow me.”

The Young Widow 1877, exchanging the wedding gown for mourning

The Victorian preoccupation with death is reflected in the art of the period.  Photographs, paintings, death portraits, steel engravings, lithographs, etchings, and other art forms embraced the most sentimental and heartrending portrayals of loss and bereavement.

These works by both amateurs and the great artists such as Landseer and the Pre-Raphaelites were displayed in the parlor or sometimes in the bedchamber as a perpetual reminder that death is always with us.

The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner by Landseer

Animals and children were especially popular as subjects to portray pathos and grieving.

The 1894 sketch above is called For Such is the Kingdom by Frank Bramley and illustrates the custom of little children dressed in white walking in procession in front of a small white coffin containing a young person.  Often four young maidens, also dressed in white attire served as pall bearers for the departed child.  The custom of children wearing white to funerals continued well into the twentieth century.

Every August 4th, traffic to the Borden plot in Oak Grove increases.  Flowers, notes, stones, coins and other mementos are left at the grave site of Lizzie Borden.  More rarely are the victims, the elderly couple, Andrew and Abby Borden remembered with tokens. The burial plot is easily found by following the black arrows painted on the asphalt to the left after passing under the Prospect Street arch.

William Almy , Andrew Borden’s business partner, and his family share the raised corner knoll.  Head stones for Lizzie’s grandparents face out toward the road at the front of the lot.

 Many individuals associated with the trial and with the Borden family, as well as friends and neighbors have found their final rest in Oak Grove.

 N.B. Borden School (now closed) on Morgan Street

US Congressman. Born in Freetown (now Fall River), Massachusetts into the Mill-owning Borden family, he himself founded the Pocasset Mill, which was located near the present day City Hall. He served two terms in the Massachusetts State Legislature before being elected to represent Massachusetts‘s 10th District in the United States House of Representatives, serving two terms from March 4, 1835 to March 3, 1839. He was defeated in an attempt to be elected to a third term by Congresssman Henry Williams in 1838. However, in 1840 he ran against Congressman Williams, and won back his seat. He again represent the 10th District, serving from March 4, 1841 to March 3, 1843. He declined to run again, and the seat went to Congressman Artemas Hale. A few years later was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate. After his time there, he returned to the State House of Representatives, and served as Mayor of Fall River from 1856 to 1857. After one more stint in the State House during the Civil War, he became President of the Fall River Savings Bank and of the Fall River Union Bank, and also served as President of the Fall River Railroad Company (which were directly tied into the thriving Fall River milling business).  (bio by: Russ Dodge)

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