Mount Hope Cemetery is an amazing place. Living on a side street off of Mount Hope Avenue, I have been fortunate to spend many hours in the beautiful park like cemetery. There are certain paths in the cemetery that I must have walked dozens of times, yet each time I notice a new stone, or a change in the foliage of a tree. The cemetery is a great place for exploration. It is playground for the curious mind, filled with many examples of architecture, geology, poetry, and art.

On one fall day, as I cut through the cemetery on my way home from class a particular monument caught my eye. This monument memorializes the late Dr. Theodore Francis Hall. The feature, which drew my attention to this stone, was the dark red-brown color of the sandstone, and the way it contrasted with the many light colored stones surrounding it. I walked closer and read the inscription, and was intrigued by the connection this stone made between the living and the deceased.

The Hall monument stands about 10 feet tall in the north half of lot 33 R 2. The tall structure resembles an obelisk, however the pointed top of a normal obelisk is replaced in this monument by ornamental arches and an urn. "The ashes contained within the depicted urn signified penitence, the death of the body, and its return to the dust in the final resting place"(Wasserman 27). A flame sits on top of the urn, symbolizing life and immortality. A wreath of oak leaves hangs on the urn. Oak leaves hold a masculine connotation; they symbolize strength and wisdom. Above the inscription, on the front face of the monument is an ornate shield. It is difficult to say whether this is used for purely aesthetic purposes, or if this shield has symbolic meaning. Coats of arms and shields are sometimes used to symbolize prestige, honor, and social position.

The iconography on Dr. Hall's monument is fairly simple, representing classic themes in funerary architecture. But, the most striking thing about this stone is the epitaph. It reads: The Beloved Physician/Whose conceded skill in the councils of his profession/Whose rare social and sympathetic heart/made him at once honored by the rich and loved by poor/all that knew him in life mourn him in death/ERECTED BY HIS FRIENDS.

This inscription is telling because in many cases epitaphs are written in the voice of a family member, the spouse, or the deceased themselves. In this case the words clearly come from his friends. An interesting question then is, who were Dr. Hall's friends? Both his wife and daughter outlived Dr. Hall, so they may have been involved in the writing of this inscription. Regardless of who wrote the epitaph on the monument, the emphasis is on Dr. Hall's friendships, which are of considerable importance to the deceased and those he left behind.

The iconography and inscriptions carved into a gravestone represent the things considered most important to the family of the deceased. The epitaph in many cases serves as a conclusion to an individual's life, and an account of who the person was and what they have done. Due to the limited space available on a gravestone, only things of great personal significance are represented. Many stones in Mt. Hope cemetery have kinship relations engraved into them. For example, if an individual has the word "mother" on her gravestone, we can assume that this word represents something very cherished to the deceased or to the family members left behind. This one word explains so much about that individual's life. Many other stones show signs of the deceased's social standing or profession. The Hall monument emphasizes the good doctor's kind relations with people, his "rare social and sympathetic heart", and great skill in an honored profession. We can assume that these attributes were very cherished to Dr. Hall and his family.

From the epitaph on his monument and the obituary in the Rochester Democrat, it is evident that Dr. Theodore Francis Hall was very well respected member of the community. "It is scarcely necessary to enter into any detail regarding the honor, respect and love which [the] deceased had gained from all classes of the community"(Rochester Democrat March 6,1869). Both his epitaph and his obituary stress his care for the poorer members of the community. This man's generosity and care for his patients had a great impact on many people.

In several ways the Hall monument serves to immortalize the deceased physician. According to Lifton there are five modes through which one may express a sense of immortality (Lifton 18). Two of the modes seem to be especially representative of the Hall monument. The first is the biological mode, which is "epitomized by family continuity, living on through-psychologically speaking, in-one's sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters, with imagery of an endless chain of biological attachment"(Lifton 18). The other is the creative mode. Dr. Hall lives on through his accomplishments as a physician. Through his work, this man has touched his patients' lives and the lives of his colleges in a way which immortalized him in their minds. Their memories of his kind nature and their respect for his professionalism and generosity allow him to live on in their memory.

These modes of immortalizing the deceased are important for the living because being social animals humans are greatly affected by the broken connection that ensues when a loved one dies (Lifton 19). People feel great grief, and must make sense of what has happened, whether on a conscious or unconscious level. One way of dealing with feelings of loss and grief is through immortalizing the person who has passed on. Funerary rites exist to smooth this broken connection between the living and the dead (Davies 40). The biological connection broken by death is fairly concrete, and hard to deny. It is the social and spiritual connections that are much more difficult to grasp and understand. Burial rituals and the presence of grave-markers with personalized inscriptions serve the function of retaining a connection with the deceased on a spiritual and social level.

The obituary and inscription convey an overwhelming sense of loss. This may be due in part the early and sudden nature of Dr. Hall's death. The physician died at the age of 42 from inflammatory rheumatism. Apparently Theodore Hall had a severe attack of this disease in college, and the disease stayed with him for the rest of his life. Evidently while caring for a patient, the physician's feet got wet, and this triggered the final fatal attack of the disease. (Rochester Democrat)

When the stone marker was erected in 1869, Hall had left behind a wife, a 13-year-old daughter, along with many colleges, patients, and friends. Through the inscription on the stone and the ability to visit the gravesite, the living were able to show their love and respect for this man, which they had lost.

Dr. Hall's wife Sarah lived another 27 years after the death of her husband, dying on January 26, 1896 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her head stone sits to the left side of the head stone of her husband, in front of the large monument erected in his memory. Louise Hall, the daughter of Sarah and Theodore, and her husband John Cosart, share a headstone, which sits to the right of Theodore's head stone. Louise died at the age of 79 from stomach cancer, her ashes where buried beside her father on July 8, 1935. John Cosart died of chronic myocarditis at the age of 88. He too was cremated and buried on the Hall family plot. The three small simple stones are made of the same red sandstone as the monument, and lie in a line in front it.

The stones in the Hall family plot exude simplicity. The few iconography elements on the monument have meanings that correspond with the general themes touched upon in the epitaph such as honor, friendship, giving, kindness, respect, love, and immortality. The dark color of the stones gives them a noble and honorable feeling and sets this plot apart from the white and gray stones present in surrounding plots. Unfortunately along with the distinguishing qualities of this magnificent sandstone comes and its fragility. Monuments made of this material are infamous for cracking and splitting. Due to the porous nature of this stone, water tends to enter in and expand when it freezes, causing cracks in the rock. The front face of the Hall monument, which holds the inscription, has a large crack, which at some point may separate the face from the rest of the structure. It is unfortunate that in years to come passers-by may notice this red monument and be unable to read the touching inscription carved in stone.

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Davies, Douglas J. Death, Ritual and Belief. Cassell, Washington: 1997.

Lifton, Robert Jay. The Broken Connection. Simon and Schuster, New York: 1979.

Wasserman, Emily. Gravestone Designs. Dover Publications, Inc., New York.

"Death of Dr. T. F. Hall," Rochester Democrat. March 6, 1869.

Daybooks and Logbooks at Mount Hope Cemetary.