Izannah Walker's Tombstone

       ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Izannah Walker has what appears to be two tombstones, one in Providence, Rhode Island, and one in Somerset, Massachusetts, which can be very confusing for her fans.

Izannah's death notice does not state that she was buried in Providence, but it would not have been unusual for her funeral to have been held in her house in Central Falls and for her to have been buried in nearby Providence. 

The tombstone that she shares with Emeline B. Whipple suggests a final resting place for her. That means that her name on the stone in Somerset, Massachusetts serves as a cenotaph, which is a memorial for someone whose body is somewhere else. 

The more interesting question is not how this happened, but why it happened.

My husband has an ancestor who died as a result of his wounds in the battle of Vicksburg during the Civil War. He was interred in the national cemetery there. At some point after the war, his widow and one of their sons traveled to Vicksburg with the intention of disinterring his body and taking him back to Illinois. However, once they visited the cemetery at Vicksburg, they decided to leave him there and extended their visit in order to purchase and erect their own tombstone for him in the national cemetery. His is one of a handful of personalized obelisks in a sea of military stones. When his widow died in Illinois, his name was included on her tombstone as a cenotaph. 

Something along those lines may explain why there is a cenotaph for Izannah in Somerset, Massachusetts.

In July 1889, a year and a half after Izannah died, her sister Jane H. Walker made a quick trip from Somerset, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island to visit friends. 

I would think that she visited Swan Point Cemetery where Izannah was interred. Was there a tombstone there at the time? Did she also visit Emeline B. Whipple? If there was not a tombstone, was there a conversation with Emeline about when and how a tombstone would be erected for Izannah? Was erecting a tombstone for Izannah the purpose of Jane's trip? 

It's just a guess, but Jane seems to have entered a "putting your affairs in order" frame of mind, following Izannah's death. Within a month after Izannah died, Jane H. Walker had written her own will, leaving all of her property, both real and personal, to her sister Ann R. (Walker) Smith. Like Izannah, Jane named George A. Holbrook as her executor. That means that the task of administering her estate probably fell to his widow, Mary Helen (Smith) Holbrook, who was Ann R. (Walker) Smith's daughter. 

Something about the Swan Point tombstone makes me think that it was erected following Emeline's death, which, of course, might not be the case. However, if it was, Jane may not have been happy about Izannah's grave being unmarked. If the tombstone at Swan Point was erected after Emeline's death, then my guess is that Mary Helen (Smith) Holbrook erected it with funds from Izannah's estate. It may be one of the sundry expenses that she filed with the probate court in 1914. 

Within months of returning to Somerset, Jane had a monument for her family erected in the Palmer Street Cemetery. One side records her parents, Izannah, and a young brother. Another has the records of her Swasey grandparents. One side is devoted to her Uncle Anthony and Aunt Jane Hintz. The last side was reserved for Jane herself. The stone seems to be the only one for the whole family plot. It's so large that it was newsworthy at the time: