Kaitlin Ruiz: an initiation rite for prospective Woodmen involved THE FERRIS WHEEL COASTER GOAT (source: Lisa Hix, Collectors Weekly)

learning that the founder of Woodmen was a guy named ROOT!!!!

when my siblings and I were kids, we were obsessed with Woodmen of the World, in the way that some people are about Freemasons. we especially loved visiting the graves of local Woodmen, which were often styled to resemble felled trees.

source: Kaylyn F. Mabey, Statesman Journal

"The organization sold insurance, especially for people in high-risk occupations, and many of the policies included riders for a tombstone. In Colorado, the very common high-risk occupation was mining. The organization was committed to the motto 'no Woodmen shall rest in an unmarked grave.'"

Is this headstone a Woodman of the World marker?www.colorado-cemeteries.com Cemeteries in the United States are filled with Woodman of the World headstones. What is the Woodman of the World, and how do you identify a Woodman headstone.

OH MY GOSH THEY HAD GOAT ORDEALS

an initiation rite for prospective Woodmen involved THE FERRIS WHEEL COASTER GOAT (source: Lisa Hix, Collectors Weekly)

here's an example of the stone trees typical of Woodmen graves (source: Richland Cemetery, Dravosburg, PA; Pittsburgh Orbit)

according to Lisa Hix in Collectors Weekly, the base of stone logs represent surviving children. in the above photo, then, we can gather that Peter Wersderfer left behind four kids.

mourners at a Woodmen funeral in the early 20thC. note that the women are holding spears! (source: Barbee Cemetery, c. 1910; Dublin Historical Museum to UNT's Portal to Texas History)

surely my 19thC studies peeps have some Woodmen info to share with us! (source: Jessie Lie Farber, Association for Gravestone Studies)

tree-stones themselves weren't introduced by Woodmen, but it's probably fair to say that Woodmen graves were made distinctive by the form till 1910, at which point the organization began charging for the stones (until that point, gratis with membership) (source: Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura)

@cait.bsky.social have you come across any tree-style monuments?

One can be seen in the background here in suburban Chicago! Thanks for this info - I’ve wondered about it for years. (if you want a better photo I can get one later today – it’s right down the block)

thank you so much for this pic! (and the featured pup--what a beauty!) if you happen to take any other photos of the stone, I'd love to share them here!

Update: maybe it’s not related to the Woodmen of the World? No crest, no Latin motto. A sword instead of an axe. I think that’s a log at the base though.

Im going to try the pencil-rub-on-paper on the inscription to see what it says

This one is nearby

thank you so much for sharing! I can't get over how beautiful this stonework is--or how skilled the craftsman must have been.

I saw one in Uniontown PA as well!

this is such a great image!!! thank you for sharing!

Yw!

Interesting motto... "Though silent, he speaks".

The person whose grave is marked speaks, though they are silent. Grave markers were/are expensive, 600,000+ Americans died in the Civil War, and Black Americans who had been enslaved almost never had grave markers. It’s moving.

me seeing this and scrolling up: please don’t be racist, please don’t be racist 🤞🤞🤞 And if they were, let’s build back better!

WHOA. There are three or four really ornate grave markers like this in the tiny Wisconsin town near where I grew up, I had no idea this was a thing and always had a lot of questions about those markers.

This is so interesting. O just saw one of these stone trees and wondered what it was representing.

@cait.bsky.social I think you'll find this neat

There are catalogs of fraternity/fraternal order supplies that are full of various "goats" that were deemed necessary for initiation rituals. Not sure why it was so often a goat.

Goats start on the linked page in this catalog from the DeMoulin Brothers, purveyors of the finest initiation paraphernalia, hoodwinks, and the most culturally appropriating (not to say racist [no, let's say racist]) costumes imaginable:

[Catalogue] : Demoulin Brothers and Company (Greenville, Ill.) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archivearchive.org

thank you for this source, which I will absolutely check out!!!

I’m going to be laughing at “a baa attachment makes the goat more goaty” for a long time.

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