"The Angel of Grief" - Friendship Cemetery, Columbus, Mississippi

"A century later, Friendship’s weeping angel still inspires," writes Jan Swoope in an article published in the Columbus (MS) Dispatch on May 19, 2009. A reprint of Ms. Swoope's article can be read here:

"She is one of the most photographed ladies in Columbus, her image gracing magazines, brochures and gallery walls. She captures imaginations and inspires artists. And, even after 118 years, the weeping angel of Friendship Cemetery still keeps a silent and poignant vigil over the grave of the Rev. Thomas Cox Teasdale, the ninth pastor of First Baptist Church in Columbus, who died in 1891, at the age of 83.

Photograph by Natalie Maynor

“The Angel of Grief,” as the statuary is also known, epitomizes the beauty of the weathered, hand-carved monuments found in the cemetery. This marble creation came from the firm of J.L. Miller, in Quincy, Maine, a gift of the beloved pastor’s congregation conveying, “When he died, even the angels wept.”

Sharon Foster, of Columbus, and Carolyn Wright, a former Columbian now living in Macon, are among artists inspired by the city’s resident angel. They join others, like Rene Sheridan and Robert “Uncle Bunky” Williams, who have found a muse in the celestial figure.

Through the lens

“It’s all my mother’s fault,” smiles Foster, sorting through dozens of greeting cards she has made using images of her whimsical paintings as well as photographs she took of the angel. “She was the one who got me started; she loves cards and wanted me to make some.”

Foster became intrigued with the Teasdale marker, taking over 300 photographs with a 35 mm camera over several months, capturing the lovely figure at different times of the day and in varying light.

“The way her body is placed displays so much emotion,” the artist said. “You can know without words what she’s feeling.”

Using computer software, Foster has produced a series of quality greeting cards available at The Hitching Lot Farmers’ Market and Table of Plenty. The images have become popular, especially as sympathy cards, and not only locally.

“I’m able to sell my cards online on several sites. It’s been really interesting; I’ve met people from all over the world,” she enthused.

Foster, who designed the 2008 Farmers’ Market poster, also has an array of cards featuring whimsical animals and colorful flowers. Several benefit animal welfare groups, including the Columbus-Lowndes Humane Society. More of her greeting card art can be found at www.sharonfosterart.etsy.com.

Angel in clay

Carolyn Wright is skilled at painting portraits and still life, but the Macon woman doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty either. Wright began working with polymer clay, natural woods and stone about eight years ago. Several of her pieces are on display at the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi sales gallery in Ridgeland.

Wright’s first interpretation of the fabled angel grew out of personal loss. When her own brother passed away several years ago, she crafted a version of the grieving figure around an 8-inch-by-10-inch frame holding his photograph to give to her mother.

“That one was all white, and I put a red rose in her hand,” recalled Wright. “My mother loved it.”

The original article, complete with photos of Sharon Foster and Carolyn Wright, can be viewed here.

Tombstone Tuesday - Weeping Angel

This large grave monument of a weeping angel bears the name Teasdale and marks the plot where several Teasdale family members are buried in Friendship Cemetery, in Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi. Smaller stones nearby mark the graves of Rev. Thomas Cox Teasdale and his wife, Delia Lottridge Teasdale.

Rev. Teasdale was born in Massachusetts, and according to his grave stone, his date of birth was December 2, 1808. Well-known for his service as the pastor of First Baptist Church in Columbus, Mississippi from 1858 - 1863, Rev. Teasdale died on April 4, 1891. Also nearby is the grave marker of Rev. Teasdale's wife, Delia Lottridge Teasdale. Born in New York, Delia's date of birth was January 16, 1811. On July 5, 1899, Delia died, having outlived her husband by a little over 8 years.

Friendship Cemetery, a historical cemetery in the eastern part of the state, contains several thousand graves, including those of Confederate heroes and Mississippi statesmen.

The Black Knight of the South

Left: Cenotaph of Alexander Keith McClung, Located in Friendship Cemetery, Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi

A nephew of Chief Justice John Marshall, Alexander Keith McClung was allegedly born in Virginia around the turn of the 19th century. His date of birth differs, according to the source, but an approximate date appears to be somewhere between 1809 and 1811. By all accounts, McClung arrived in Mississippi about 1832. According to most sources, McClung lived a life of reckless abandon, a man with more than a few less than desirable habits that created feelings of both admiration and fear in those who knew him. Like his uncle, McClung became a lawyer, but he seemed to have more interest in dueling and writing poetry than in studying and interpreting the law. He became somewhat of a "folk hero" after his involvement in several infamous duels in Vicksburg that left eight members of the Menifee Family of Kentucky dead. McClung's reckless bravery and often strange and somewhat morbid behavior, seem to be the basis for being referred to as "The Black Knight of the South."

McClung's reputation as a duelist and as a man who was often moody and melancholy apparently did not prevent him from being popular among the ladies. One of McClung's admirers, a Mrs. Clay, who met him while visiting her uncle in Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi, discusses her relationship with McClung in her memoirs. Clay describes him as "...the gallantest lover that ever knelt at a lady's feet." Almost betrothed to him as a very young woman, the writer expressed her concern about his "fitful, uncertain moods" and "....periods of deepest melancholy." Mrs. Clay further explained her fear for him when he was away by telling how McClung would "...mount his horse, named 'Rob Roy,' wild and untamable as himself, and dash to the cemetery, where he would throw himself down on a convenient grave and stare like a madman into the sky for hours." Perhaps McClung's cenotaph is located in the same cemetery referred to by Mrs. Clay in her writings.

While serving in the Mexican War, McClung's fearless disposition earned him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st Mississippi Infantry. Legend has it that McClung returned from the war with two fingers missing on his left hand, the result of being hit in the hand by a stray bullet as he charged forth carrying the American flag. McClung's service in the Mexican War was apparently later rewarded by an appointment as U. S. Representative to Bolivia between 1849 and 1851.

In 1855, Alexander Keith McClung, lawyer, poet, and a veteran of deadly duels and a war, died alone in a hotel room in Jackson, Mississippi, apparently from a self-inflicted bullet. Just as he had been drawn as a young man into a cemetery during times of distress and unrest, McClung seemed to have been drawn by his own demons into death. He is buried in Vicksbrug, Mississippi, in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

The poem below was among the deceased man's belongings when he was found.

Invocation to Death

Swiftly speed o'er the wastes of time, Spirit of Death.
In manhood's morn, in youthful prime, I woo thy breath.
For the glittering hues of hope are fled Like the dolphin's light;

And dark are the clouds above my head as the starless night.

Oh, vainly the mariner signs for the rest
Of the peaceful haven,
The pilgrim saint for the shrines of the blest,
The calm of heaven;
The galley slave for the night wind's breath,
At burning noon;
But more gladly I'd spring to thy arms, O Death,
Come soon, come soon.

Colonel Alexander Keith McClung

Died March 25, 1855

Buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery

Vicksburg, Mississippi

References:

The Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest, by Henry S. Foote, p. 104-105 (St. Louis: Soule, Thomas & Wentworth,1878) (Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., 1994, reprint)

A Belle of the Fifties; Memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, Covering Social and Political Life in Washington and the South, 1853-66, by Virginia Clay-Clopton, 1905

"Duel! Defenders of Honor or Shoot-on-sight Vigilantes?" by Ross Drake, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2004