Still in the Hoar family plot [Photo 1], take a closer look at the big stone at the right rear. [Photo 2]. It marks the graves of George Frisbie Hoar (1826-1904), his wife Mary Louisa Spurr, and their daughter Mary Hoar, his wife Ruth Miller — whom he married after Mary Louisa's death — and their daughter Alice who died before her second birthday. No, George has no connection to the plastic flying disk. That cool toy is said to have originated in pie plates made by the Frisbie Baking Co. of Bridgeport, Conn. and sailed by Yale students. George, like his father Squire Sam, and his brothers …

Leaving Authors Ridge, walk toward the hollow, down the steep, unnamed path behind the Emerson plot, jogging right about 10 steps to cross upper Hillside Avenue, then continuing downhill to the next paved lane, lower Hillside Avenue [Photo 1]. Then turn left and walk down lower Hillside Avenue about 10 steps. Turn left again and step up the three stone steps to the burial plot of Ephraim Wales Bull. Ephraim's stone is the boulder topped with a green plaque. Most of this essay about grapes and Mr. Bull is derived from the excellent article, "He Sowed; Others Reaped: Ephraim Wales Bull and the …

The following is part 11 of an ongoing Sleepy Hollow series. Leaving the grave of Robert Bulkeley Emerson, we'll walk down the narrow path to get closer to that five-foot, rough-hewn chunk of rose quartz. [Photo 1] Quartz is plentiful in the earth's crust; but a quartz stone of this size, colored rose by the presence of  iron, manganese, and possibly titanium or lithium, is striking. A fitting symbol to mark the grave of the nature-loving Transcendentalist leader, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson (1803–1882), the philosopher, lecturer, essayist, abolitionist, and poet, led America's 19th century …

The following is part 10 of the Sleepy Hollow series. Leaving the grave of John Shepard Keyes and Marths L, Prescott, we continue walking on Hillside Ave. atop Authors Ridge several yards until Hillside peels off on our right [Photo 1].  We continue straight ahead on the dirt Ridge Path. In another 25 yards we come to the graves of Daniel and Harriet Lothrop on our left.  [Photos 2 & 3 (Harriet's stone is partially obscured by sand.)]  Daniel, after running several successful bookshops, found his true vocation as publisher.  He published an array of periodicals and books, most directed at …

The following is part nine of the Sleepy Hollow series. Part eight can be found at this link. Now, where were we?  Ah yes, up here on Authors Ridge, just leaving the Alcott family graves.  This lane next to the Alcott plot is called Hillside Ave.  To our right, it descends to Glen Ave. in the hollow. [Photo 1]  Five yards left and then straight ahead, Hillside runs about 25 yards north along the top of the ridge [Photo 2] before bearing off to the right and sloping down to Glade Ave. I again recommend the guide The Legendary Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, published by The Friends of Sleepy Hollow …

The following is part eight of the Sleepy Hollow series. Still up here on Authors Ridge at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, let's leave the Hawthorne gravesite and walk a few steps to the Alcott family plot on the other side of the path. [Photo 1]  The tall center stone tells us that this is the Alcott plot, but notice that the five small upright stones across the front are inscribed with only initials. The leftmost front stone, marked "LMA," marks Louisa May's grave, as the flat stone behind it with her full name confirms. [Photo 2] The full names of all family members, along with their birth and …

Up here on Authors Ridge, let's leave the Thoreau graves and walk a few steps to the Hawthorne plot, diagonally across the path. [Photo 1] Do you recall that Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia, when picnicking in Sleepy Hollow, dreamed about building a castle here in Sleepy Hollow? Well, this is their castle. That's Nathaniel on our left, between the "Hawthorne" headstone and the "Hawthorne" footstone. Behind Nathaniel's headstone is the small grave of five-year-old Francis, son of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop. Rose was Nathaniel and Sophia's second daughter. Beside Nathaniel grave is Sophia’…

Continuing our walk, we've now climbed the steep path to the world famous Authors Ridge. The first plot on our right is that of the Thoreau family. [Photo 1] Henry David Thoreau's gravestone [Photo 2], in the left rear corner of the plot, appears a bit brighter than the other stones, as it is the replacement for one stolen by a felonious fan some years ago. Note that corners of the "new" stone have been chipped away by more recent vandals.  Much more appropriate tokens of remembrance are the stones, coins, and pine cones left at the stone by some of Henry's law abiding fans. Often tributes …

Editor’s Note: The following is the fifth in the Sleepy Hollow series. Part four can be found at this link. Leaving the grave of Daniel Chester French and Mary French French, we proceed carefully down the steps behind us (no handrail) [Photo 1] and turn left on Upland Ave.  On our right, just before we get to the small parking lot, we see a stone tablet directing us up a steep paved path to the authors' graves on the glacial esker known as Authors Ridge. [Photo 2] Let's climb that path with Cat's Pond -- laid out in Cleveland and Copeland's cemetery design and surveyed by Henry David Thoreau…

Editor's Note: The following is the fourth in the Sleepy Hollow series. Before leaving Franklin Sanborn's grave, turn around and look at the beautiful glade laid out below us (photo 1). This glacial kettle hole is the hollow that gives Sleepy Hollow Cemetery its name. It was called Sleepy Hollow even before the cemetery was founded, perhaps named after Washington Irving's short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Local folks often picnicked here, Nathaniel Hawthorne and his fiancée (and then wife) Sophia Peabody among them. The Hawthornes dreamed of building a castle at this spot. In 1855, …

Leaving the Melville Memorial, let's walk up Upland Avenue as it curves left through the notch. Here in the notch, we'll climb the stone steps (with railings) on our left to the Chestnut Path. [Photo 1] Unfortunately, Chestnut Path and the two gravesites we'll visit there are not accessible to folks using wheelchairs.  Solving this problem will present a real challenge. The roughly paved Chestnut Path quickly turns to dirt. [Photo 2] Let's stop at the 7th stone on our left, the grave of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. [Photo 3]  Frank Sanborn was a journalist, a biographer, a schoolmaster, a …

Recall that, as we left Anne Rainsford French Bush, I mentioned that she was the niece of Mary French, the wife of the sculptor Daniel Chester French.  Let's cross Vesper Circle, walk up Union Ave., and down around the corner onto Upland Ave. where we'll confront Daniel's impressive sculpture, the Melvin Memorial. [Photo 1]  This walk takes us up out of the fairground part of the cemetery and into the section established in 1855, the first part to be called Sleepy Hollow.  While we walk, I'll tell you about Daniel. Growing up in Concord in the mid-1800s, Daniel Chester French showed little …