@@esm1817 well there's less done by hand now for sure.....still I think the zinckers are pretty cool looking and its impressive with the build quality and how long they lasted
I have an ancestor that has a zinker in an old, secluded cemetery outside a dried-up rural town. During prohibition my father would removed one of the panels and leave cash for bootleggers, who would later retrieve the cash and leave a bottle of Templeton rye inside the monument.
Seems like the Zinker ads were spot on... every single one of them is as legible as the day it was made, meanwhile the stone monuments ARE all cracked and decayed. A very rare example of a product that actually lives up to the marketing blurb.
My thoughts exactly. I want to know what the disadvantages were, why they fell out of favor and why DSA laughs dismissively about them. I'd like one for myself when I croak. If my headstone makes a weird thunking noise whenever somebody taps it, my corpse will consider that a good thing.
@@scotttaylor1051 Seeing how it was only made by one company, that company could've just decided to stop making it one day and then boom the fad ends because no one buys them and people just kind of assume they fall out of style without knowing it was only because the company just stopped.
@@scotttaylor1051 I haven't studied it, though I've been a nut for decades and in a group for 20 years about gravesites, but my guess is you still get some oxidation (dependent on the fasteners), and hollow metal will not hold up to accidents. Trees, cars, etc. It'll be "dented" and punctured. (I'm also a mechanical engineer.) Someone here wrote that the single company doing this was "enlisted" for WWI and never got out of it. If they were in existence for some 50-60 years, I can tell you there aren't many at all, ever, in any era or location, so I'm sure the granite craze kept it from ever becoming prominent. As perhaps did their protection of their patents? That can get to be a curse as much as a blessing.
Wow! I had not idea that Sears made headstones. I grew up in a Sears mail order home that was built in 1912. Sears had you covered cradle to the grave.
Ummm.... Those zinkers look like they are holding up really well. Can you compare them to other graves from the same era? Maybe they should make a comeback?
Guess who drove past the Douglas Center Cemetery and geeked out because they have 2 Zinkers right in plain sight? Thoroughly embarrassed the kids. 10/10 would do it again.
Back in 1968 as part of my final high school project for US History, English and Probability and 8:05 Statistics classes I walked to several cemeteries, both public and private, and recorded the tombstones I found. These cemeteries were as old as the early 1800’s and as late as 1968. I found there were many different types of tombstones. Some had an engraving of a lamb; some had a weeping willow tree; some showed the gate to heaven; and, some had two hands joined together. I drew each tombstone and recorded the birth and death date on each, the type of material the tombstone was made of (granite, rhyolite, marble, limestone, and even sandstone); and the overall shape of the tombstone (rectangular, pillar, odd-shaped, ovals, and heart). From all this I listed the data for each shape, inscription, material, especially the death date for each. Once organized I could show the popularity of each type. Each type of tombstone would have but one or two early on, grew in popularity, and then faded out. From this I could draw “battleship” graphs (graphs that started out with a single point on the X-axis, grew upwards over time, then curved back to the X-axis. The first point started at its date and last point was on its date. All curves were superimposed on the graph. From this, one could see which types were popular over a particular time frame. I also did my best to get the history of the deceased and matched that to the time of death and the type of tombstone. It got to the point I could look over a cemetery from a distance and tell you the time frame of the burial, the profession of the deceased, if the deceased was an unmarried woman, etc. Quite a bit of history is portrayed in a cemetery. Most every cemetery had at least one Woodsman of the World tombstone if it was in use in the later part of the 1800’s. In that same time frame one found several pillars marking high ranking soldiers who fought in the Civil War (who were also well-to-do lawyers as well). To this day I still look over old cemeteries to see if my original work still holds true. For the most part I find that it does.
Fascinating!...but did you come across any zinc monuments? I was in the alps town of Merano and was impressed by the neat and tidy cemetery. The stones were beautiful with a small oval..maybe ceramic...which had imprinted on it a photograph of the deceased. Very Beautifully done. Sometimes both husband and wife. The stone was so beautifully white..they were probably marble.
@@angelicafreund8551 -Never saw a zinc monument. I did see several tombstones with a glass encased photograph, often in color, of the deceased. I also found several above ground box tombs with inscriptions on the top plate. Several lids had cracked and separated and allowed one to see the skeleton in the box. In the family cemetery in north Florida there are several box tombs well over a hundred years old and all have cracked lids, usually separated into several pieces. The bones of the deceased were easily observed.
Wow ! I wish I had done a project like that ! I have always been fascinated by old cemeteries. My grandparents lived near a town in what was once a rural part of Pennsylvania. It had an old cemetery that was small, but fascinating to tour. I would’ve been happy to do a project on that in high school.
You could still get s Sears headstone into the 70s. (The BIG Sears store in Minneapolis) When my great grandfather died in 1971 we went to Sears to look at stones, and the stone display was right behind the toy department!
This is one of the koolest videos of cemeteries I’ve ever seen. Those Zinkers are also easier to mold into designs I would think. I love looking at the craftsmanship of headstones some are quite beautiful. Gotta love Sears in everyone’s homes throughout America! The ads were so kool to see. In Northern California some of the more rural cemeteries still have wooden headstones or crosses. You can’t read them though. Thank you so much for the education of this. Great job!
After watching this, I took a stroll through a cemetery here in Canada and found some zinkers. Quite a few actually. I thought it would be an american only thing. Was pretty cool to actually see them in the first cemetery I checked.
Was thinking the same thing…. Canada used to be close the us, now canadas not even on americas preferred immigration list, even though they’re related….
I'm from south Carolina. FYI there are many of those above ground vaults in this area with bodies in them. I've seen quite a few with bones visible through the cracked lid.
The tree stump is common with Jewish headstones. Like the emerging stone you mentioned it denotes someone who died young. There’s a Jewish cemetery right by my house (in SE Massachusetts) so I researched a lot of the different symbolism.
Tree stumps are also pretty common anywhere there are usable limestone deposits. Many of the master carvers made headstones on the side, and supposedly, only the richer families could afford to have such a massive stone cut and set. They were often used as family markers as the girth and height of the stone allowed multiple panels, names, and information.
The New England cemetery is spot on! We live in a small town in Mass and since it was built and incorporated in the 1600’s there are a dozen or more little cemeteries around. All with little fences with wrought iron gates and granite pillars on all four corners. The one on our street backs up to a Native American stone wall that also runs across the back of our property.
I have no problem with the Sears headstones, there is an infinite variety and top quality so what's not to like? Have seen some "tree stump" headstones, they are cool too.
That divot in a cemetery is more likely a burial of either just a casket, or a rough box, a vault made out of wood, that has decomposed and sunken in. That's why most places require a concrete burial vault nowadays. It's to keep the cemetery up... Hard on a lawn mower to be dropping in those divots all the time. Also you can get a truck stuck in one pretty easy in the wet time of year. I've been a vault man and done cemetery work for over 40 years. I have some experience...
That would be true if the ground was even on either side of the grave, but the raised mounds directly on either side are indicative that earth was removed from the grave and tossed immediately to the side. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of plots were reused. Not a whole lot of reason to dig another grave if one plot is already open.
So, "concrete vaults" aren't a thing where I'm from and families often use the same plot, with multiple caskets layered on top of each other, and those divots are infront of almost _every_ grave in old cemeteries. I believe it's a result of a mix of what you're both saying; excess earth left over from filling the grave back in and older caskets in lower layers having decomposed, causing the surface to sink.
That can happen too! Look for raised dirt piles around the hole to tell the difference. A collapsed coffin will just produce a divot with no dirt piles.
I love white bronze memorials. They have held up so well over the years and I love seeing them. It seems too bad they fell out of fashion because they look so good today.
Just a note about war monuments: If you see a soldier mounded on a horse and the horse has all its feet on the ground it means the soldier survived the battle… A horse with one leg off the ground means the soldier was wounded in battle but survived… A horse reared up on only their back legs (touching the ground) means the soldier was killed in battle. Hope this helps when you visit a military cemetery or battleground.
I grew up near a very large, very old cemetery in SE Wisconsin that I walked through every single day on my way home from school. I recognize ALL of these types of headstones - there are even a few of the Sears tree stump models there! definitely want to go back one of these days and see if I can spot any zinkers.
That last tree stump one from Sears in in one of our local cemeteries. In fact our local cemeteries are pretty much all Sears models you just showed. A lot of our homes are Sears models still. Small town life
I'm a funeral director in Canada 🇨🇦 Where I am, many of the old rural cemeteries have the 'tree stump'. I love them! And the old children's markers are often lambs. Never heard of Zinkers, but I'll be checking now.
@@tsm688 There are some standing in my families cemetery and they are gorgeous. They stand out from all the rest. They look like new and the detail is stunning.
I've walked around maybe 20 cemeteries across north/central Texas and never spied a zinker. I have however seen so many Sears stones...and not known it. I won't be able to unsee it. You have a great channel by the way, I found you from Al Muqaddimah's "Best of History TH-cam" playlist.
As an amputee growing up I was always the slowest runner out of all my class mates. As such I finished every foot race in las place. For this reason, I want my headstone to say, "I finished ahead of you in the human race.," But already, some of my classmates are still finishing ahead of me. I never picked up the habit of smoking. Maybe that's why.
If I may, I've actually seen a few instances of an amputated limb buried separate from the rest of the body. Stonewall Jackson's arm is probably one of the best-known examples, while another notable one is that of William Henry Holland, who lost an arm after a fall from a tree. His arm is buried near his parents in the Granbury Cemetery in Granbury, TX -- within view are the city's namesake, as well as a grandson of Davy Crockett -- while his body is buried some distance away. A few feet from his headstone is the final resting place of J. Frank Dalton, who claimed to be Jesse James, and when they exhumed Dalton in 2000 to try to put the associated controversy to rest, they inadvertently dug up Mr. Holland, realizing their mistake quickly when they noticed that an arm was missing.
Hey! I never knew that about the “unfinished” headstones! There are some of those in the cemetery that my fiancé and I frequently take walks in. I’m gonna point that out to her next time we’re there and mention that it may have likely came from a seer’s catalogue :) I also do recognize some of the other headstones shown too!
The Zinkers were popular here in the Dallas area, I see them in many cemeteries, especially in the suburbs and rural areas. They are durable, was walking in an old cemetery on a hill in Mesquite, Texas and found a Zinker that was struck by a bullet, with little damage. It’s all houses around it now, but I can imagine someone shooting in the field 50 or 80 years ago when the cemetery would’ve been far removed from any houses and accidentally striking it. Any time I’m able to travel to New England my friends are exasperated because all I want to do is explore old cemeteries, since they are ancient compared to the ones in my area, where a monument from even the 1870s is often the oldest, and rare. Excellent video.
I love checking out old cemeteries! I always look for the oldest grave, and I also read the tombstones. Sometimes there is interesting things chiseled on them. Funny sayings, etc.
I live in a city that was developed for trade in the early 1700s, pretty common to find 1700s stones up here. Always blows my mind that some of them are still in surprisingly okay shape
A couple of observations and a comment: the tree truck-looking headstones, common in my area, are often provided by Woodmen of the World. Sunken graves are most commonly caused by the decomposition of the coffin, especially in shallow graves. Fieldstone grave markers, instead of being rare, are the commonest type of headstone in the area where I live, a rural part of Arkansas.
My little field just outside Cabot Arkansas has a couple fieldstone graves and theres a weird divot we think might be one too. Cool seeing another person from arkansas in the wild!
Wow! Thank you. Now I'll have to go to our old cemetery and check these out. One cool thing I noticed at the 0.34 marker was the oil lamp/ urn on top the column. Our cemetery actually has an urn with a cloth over it signifying life snuffed out. I think I also saw at the very edge of a frame a broken column. Unless the column has actually been broken off, it is often a symbol of a life cut short. Going to start looking for Zinkers now.
There's actually a tree stump headstone in a cemetery near an office I used to work at. I remember sticking out that I noticed it right away when I passed it going to work
I grew up in Syracuse NY. My grandmother lived in apartment complex’s. When we went to see her we would picnic in the graveyards nearby. (They were safer than the public parks) We were see to run between while dragging kites up. We got more savvy and used fishing pole to flick the kite up with 15’ of space.
I did landscaping in a cemetery one summer in college. Once you get over the creep factor, it’s actually a relaxing, peaceful place to work. I actually never came across a zinker.
Honestly, I liked the idea of living in a house that comes with an old cemetery because, at least, it would give me something to do other than watch videos. Just keeping the old thing tidy kind of thing. Thought about trying to look some up for when my partners and I move to Europe. lol
I'm surprised you didn't cover the Woodmen of the World headstones. They're always timber/log themed and some of my favorite headstone designs from a membership society that is now an insurance group.
I live in Timber country, so we have a LOT of WoW tree stump headstones around. I always love to show them off to people. They look so unusual, with their scrolls and ivy and little hidden animals.
There’s one of the tree stump sears stones in the Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, CO. It’s always been my favorite. There’s also one that’s just a sheet of some kind of metal marked with white paint. The metal is rusty and the paint is becoming illegible. I haven’t been in a long time but it was from the first few decades of the 20th century-I think the 1910s or 1920s, but i don’t quite remember.
The stone logs.. I've seen many when I lived in Western Kentucky. There are two located in one cemetery in Hickory. And at least one more in another, up the same road.
We visited the cemetery outside Templeton, Iowa, and found a bunch of those Zinkers. Templeton is home to Templeton rye whiskey, which was apparently a favorite of Al Capone's. We ran into a local in the cemetery who told us bootleggers would take those removable panels off to put whiskey inside for someone to pick up; the recipient would take the whiskey and leave their money in the same place. It was an interesting story, although I wouldn't be surprised if he was pulling our legs. The tree trunk headstones are more common in some parts of the midwestern US. They seem to have some connection to "Modern Woodmen of America," which is a fraternal/insurance organization that originated in small town Iowa in the late 1800s.
I live in Canada across from NY. There are many old cemeteries along the seaway. Alot were from when the Brittish fought the Americans. I found some from 1600s.
Interesting that all the Zinkers were made in Bridgeport, Conn. I used to visit relatives there in my youth and we would explore the nearby very cool cemetery. It even had the grave of P.T. Barnum.
We have here in Greenwood cemetery (brooklyn) a figurative zink statue/marker of a twelve year old drummer boy. First casualty from brooklyn in the civil war.
Fascinating! Here in Los Angeles, we have *easy to mow* flat, embedded markers. Any trip east hopes to include a cemetery stop for hubby and I. Words, images, and choices made do elicit surprising emotions in me. RIP
Very cool. I found one of these walking through an old cemetery in northern Vermont while I was up there for work. I was actually initially drawn to it because it looked like an old stone monument but was in remarkably good condition. When I touched it I realized it was metallic. This video explains it. Considering how pristine it was, I’d say their advertising was accurate.
Sears was the Amazon of its day. Last fall I arranged for my own monument. Wish I had known about a zinker lol. The family cemetery reflects the people and time passed. There are field stone, concrete, limestone and granite markers dating back to before the civil war. I'll look for a hollow metal one next time I visit the folks. My cousin found a product that cleans all that grimy patina off- makes the stone look new! Don't know the name of it but it exists for those interested and so inclined.
Got a couple of those zinc ones in our old cemetery up here they're holding up very well and approaching a 150 years old at least . Gotta say I like the shorter videos a little bit more
I always wanted to know about the zinckers! Thank you! I always felt like they looked more like Halloween decorations tombstones than the stone ones do. I also didn't know about Sears tombstones - and I recognize a lot of them!
Sears had it all. No crime in that. Got my first bike, Stars Wars Kenner action figure, there, first stove and fridge. Loved that store. Quite a shame it's gone. Now where's the headstone for Sears?
There are at least 2 of the tree trunk head stones in a cemetery in my hometown. Actually there are many Sears stones there. The cemetery is beside a railroad. Sears used the railroad a lot to deliver large items.
One of my relatives who died in 1902 has that particular Sears tree stump monument at the end of your video. I have husband/wife relatives who have a 1896 zink monument. The 1896 zink monument looks absolutely brand new. The stone markers surrounding the zink marker are badly weathered. There is a 120ish year old zink monument in a cemetery where a friend of mine is buried. That zink monument also looks brand new and way better than the surrounding stone monuments. I hope someone starts making zink monuments again.
I only learned about zinkers a couple years ago during a guided tour of North Burial Ground, which it looks like some of your photos are from. If you have a chance, go on one of their Full Moon hikes. At 5:00 - wow, instantly recognized this as the cemetery in Black Hut. I grew up on the lake so I used to wander around in these woods ALL the time. I was always impressed by those stately trees (and how I first recognized it). In recent years, the Mencuccis have done an amazing job of cleaning and maintaining the cemeteries in town, this one being no exception, despite being a bit "off the beaten trail." I didn't know about the Sears headstones before, and I've certainly seen many of those designs. If you want to learn more neat stuff about local cemeteries, look up Rhode Island Cemetery Weeks, which is a series of events held state-wide every spring, and don't miss the Elder Ballou Cemetery & Cumberlandite tours offered several times a year.
I've actually seen quite a few of those tree stump ones around here in Indiana. I was told they also symbolized people who died young. And boy, do I recognize a ton of those stones...I worked in a cemetery for a few years and those Sears ones really are everywhere.
Ancient Order of the Woodsmen was an organization in my area in the 1800's & early 1990's, we have many Sears Log headstones in our old cemeteries. And I just want to say, I wish the Zinker was still around, it lived up to it's hype, Still a beautiful monument today!
Those Zinkers held up really well, just like the ad said. Still clear and legible after all those years. The stone ones are cracked and worn, just like the ad said. I guess we can't get any more of these these days because the entire mortuary industry is a total ripoff.
@@Heike--Tell that to the grieving parents of dead children who I've buried. Don't ever go to a funeral home then if your loved one dies. Figure it out on your own.
@@farmersdaughter2584 Yeah, we do have to figure it out on our own. We come to funeral homes when we're grief-stricken. That's how you take advantage of us and rip us off.
Zinkers. Another strange and specific thing to come out of my local city. And you're right, there are a lot of them around here so thanks for the info!
I enjoyed your story. Thank you. I went exploying in a cemetery behind a church in Middletown, CT. I found stones of the same size and style with the carvers name on it.
Stopping by cemeteries whenever I travel is a favorite hobby of mine. I call it "visiting the locals." This gives me something to look out for. Good video!
Another thing Ive seen in very old mountainside appalachian cemetaries. two long thin stones as long as a body propped up against eachother like a long shallow tent probably 1-2 feet high, may or may not have a headstone. Its put over where the body is buried.
I love your channels! Entertaining and educational. You must spend hours researching the topics you bring to life, much respect, also your energy level is off the charts!! Job well done.
I always liked old cemeteries. I think it’s because I grew up about 2 blocks away from the town cemetery, which had so many old fancy statue type grave markers. The town must have had some very wealthy people prior to 1900.
I recognize nearly all the old Sears style headstones from seeing them down in the old River bottoms grave yard in my part of the world. Small farming towns along the Mississippi River in Minnesota
5:40 speaking of massive trees in old graveyards, I want to say the oldest tree in Arkansas is in a small family cemetery at what is now an interstate rest area
Whatever those zinkers are made of must be a good alloy for weathering and most importantly not lead contaminated (zinc pest). That purification would have been an expensive process in 1912, as the distillation process of the New Jersey Zinc company was not available until 1930 or so. Unless the process was convenient to the manufacturing of the end product, it would have been expensive. Thus: The zinc would have been produced by electrolysis, which also gives an idea of how these monuments may have been made hollow. I fully expect the process was electrolyzing crude zinc onto a graphite coated mold or similar. That skips a process step compared to casting by making the electrolysis producing pure zinc the main production step. No wonder these were well advertised, the costs associated with final production and transportation would likely have been close to the mold-making cost alone. Excellent Engineering!!! ~One Engineer
wow ive actually seen the tree stump grave marker in graveyard about 3 minutes from my house, always thought it was an odd one, crazy to know it came from sears of all places! but yeh youre right, ill never see past the fact sears made grave markers because my goodness there are a ton like that in all grave sites!
Those old Zinkers seem to be in pretty good condition compared to some of the stones…..maybe they were on to something!
They seem to be very durable, but they don't weather nicely like stone, they just retain a dull metallic or oxidized finish.
They seem to last longer....maybe they will make a comeback someday like the electric car😁
I'm betting that advances in stone cutting techniques lowed or even eliminated the price advantage.
Like sandblasting. I don't remember when that was invented, but I seem to remember that it may have been around...1900??? Maybe???
@@esm1817 well there's less done by hand now for sure.....still I think the zinckers are pretty cool looking and its impressive with the build quality and how long they lasted
I have an ancestor that has a zinker in an old, secluded cemetery outside a dried-up rural town. During prohibition my father would removed one of the panels and leave cash for bootleggers, who would later retrieve the cash and leave a bottle of Templeton rye inside the monument.
This is a story of American history crossing in many ways. Very neat.
That’s amazing
holy shit, there's a hole there!?
Really?? Hysterical, I love it!!
Great, now everyone is going to remove the panels on all the zinkers, to check for old forgotten cash and/or liquor.🤣😆 Not me though,I promise 🤞 😉😉
Seems like the Zinker ads were spot on... every single one of them is as legible as the day it was made, meanwhile the stone monuments ARE all cracked and decayed. A very rare example of a product that actually lives up to the marketing blurb.
My thoughts exactly. I want to know what the disadvantages were, why they fell out of favor and why DSA laughs dismissively about them.
I'd like one for myself when I croak. If my headstone makes a weird thunking noise whenever somebody taps it, my corpse will consider that a good thing.
I want a zinker, but I can only afford a cremation.
@@scotttaylor1051 Seeing how it was only made by one company, that company could've just decided to stop making it one day and then boom the fad ends because no one buys them and people just kind of assume they fall out of style without knowing it was only because the company just stopped.
@@scotttaylor1051 I haven't studied it, though I've been a nut for decades and in a group for 20 years about gravesites, but my guess is you still get some oxidation (dependent on the fasteners), and hollow metal will not hold up to accidents. Trees, cars, etc. It'll be "dented" and punctured. (I'm also a mechanical engineer.) Someone here wrote that the single company doing this was "enlisted" for WWI and never got out of it. If they were in existence for some 50-60 years, I can tell you there aren't many at all, ever, in any era or location, so I'm sure the granite craze kept it from ever becoming prominent. As perhaps did their protection of their patents? That can get to be a curse as much as a blessing.
Might should read Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley @@scotttaylor1051
Wow! I had not idea that Sears made headstones. I grew up in a Sears mail order home that was built in 1912. Sears had you covered cradle to the grave.
"Sears has EVERYTHING" was the motto...
...and they just about did at one time or another. Sad to see what they've become. @@bellakaldera3305
We even sold cars out of the catalog back then.
Sears was the Amazon of its day!
My parents house is a sears kit house
Ummm.... Those zinkers look like they are holding up really well. Can you compare them to other graves from the same era? Maybe they should make a comeback?
There's a few in my local cemetery and they're all in excellent shape over a century later. They were onto something.
For me, finding periwinkle growing in the middle of the woods always makes me search for headstones/fieldstones. 50% of the time I'll find a cemetery.
You could have said that without making it about yourself
@@juliebraden6911Lol. Wut?
@@juliebraden6911 how is that about theirselves? It doesn’t sound like you know what that means.
@@juliebraden6911are you a bot? We’re still waiting for an answer. Rude. Julie Braden is a rude person. Or a bot.
@@juliebraden6911 wtf??
Guess who drove past the Douglas Center Cemetery and geeked out because they have 2 Zinkers right in plain sight? Thoroughly embarrassed the kids. 10/10 would do it again.
Good job
Embarrassing the kids is the best. Don't they get it? The more they gripe, the more ...
Back in 1968 as part of my final high school project for US History, English and Probability and 8:05 Statistics classes I walked to several cemeteries, both public and private, and recorded the tombstones I found. These cemeteries were as old as the early 1800’s and as late as 1968. I found there were many different types of tombstones. Some had an engraving of a lamb; some had a weeping willow tree; some showed the gate to heaven; and, some had two hands joined together. I drew each tombstone and recorded the birth and death date on each, the type of material the tombstone was made of (granite, rhyolite, marble, limestone, and even sandstone); and the overall shape of the tombstone (rectangular, pillar, odd-shaped, ovals, and heart). From all this I listed the data for each shape, inscription, material, especially the death date for each. Once organized I could show the popularity of each type. Each type of tombstone would have but one or two early on, grew in popularity, and then faded out. From this I could draw “battleship” graphs (graphs that started out with a single point on the X-axis, grew upwards over time, then curved back to the X-axis. The first point started at its date and last point was on its date. All curves were superimposed on the graph. From this, one could see which types were popular over a particular time frame. I also did my best to get the history of the deceased and matched that to the time of death and the type of tombstone. It got to the point I could look over a cemetery from a distance and tell you the time frame of the burial, the profession of the deceased, if the deceased was an unmarried woman, etc. Quite a bit of history is portrayed in a cemetery. Most every cemetery had at least one Woodsman of the World tombstone if it was in use in the later part of the 1800’s. In that same time frame one found several pillars marking high ranking soldiers who fought in the Civil War (who were also well-to-do lawyers as well). To this day I still look over old cemeteries to see if my original work still holds true. For the most part I find that it does.
Fascinating!...but did you come across any zinc monuments? I was in the alps town of Merano and was impressed by the neat and tidy cemetery. The stones were beautiful with a small oval..maybe ceramic...which had imprinted on it a photograph of the deceased. Very Beautifully done. Sometimes both husband and wife. The stone was so beautifully white..they were probably marble.
@@angelicafreund8551 -Never saw a zinc monument. I did see several tombstones with a glass encased photograph, often in color, of the deceased. I also found several above ground box tombs with inscriptions on the top plate. Several lids had cracked and separated and allowed one to see the skeleton in the box. In the family cemetery in north Florida there are several box tombs well over a hundred years old and all have cracked lids, usually separated into several pieces. The bones of the deceased were easily observed.
You were an amateur anthropologist! What a fascinating project.
What an incredibly detailed and, I'm sure, painstaking project. I'm impressed! Kudos! (I hope you got an A+ 😊)
Wow ! I wish I had done a project like that ! I have always been fascinated by old cemeteries. My grandparents lived near a town in what was once a rural part of Pennsylvania. It had an old cemetery that was small, but fascinating to tour. I would’ve been happy to do a project on that in high school.
You could still get s Sears headstone into the 70s. (The BIG Sears store in Minneapolis) When my great grandfather died in 1971 we went to Sears to look at stones, and the stone display was right behind the toy department!
The dual hearts in the Sears Catalog! That's my grandparents'! : ) How cute.
I know I’ve seen that more than once.
Sears was a great store. You knew you were getting quality when you went there.
Aweee
I like those zinkers. I wish some one would bring them back. They do hold up better.
They are certainly interesting
This is one of the koolest videos of cemeteries I’ve ever seen. Those Zinkers are also easier to mold into designs I would think. I love looking at the craftsmanship of headstones some are quite beautiful. Gotta love Sears in everyone’s homes throughout America! The ads were so kool to see. In Northern California some of the more rural cemeteries still have wooden headstones or crosses. You can’t read them though. Thank you so much for the education of this. Great job!
copper is still common , get that it'll patina like the statue of liberty it's beautiful
@@snoopyshultz copper is expensive as !@#@ someone'll be stealing your tombstone every week
@@tsm688 surprisingly common in NYC cemeteries never heard of anyone ripping off plaques and markers which is also surprising
After watching this, I took a stroll through a cemetery here in Canada and found some zinkers. Quite a few actually. I thought it would be an american only thing. Was pretty cool to actually see them in the first cemetery I checked.
Was thinking the same thing…. Canada used to be close the us, now canadas not even on americas preferred immigration list, even though they’re related….
I'm from south Carolina. FYI there are many of those above ground vaults in this area with bodies in them. I've seen quite a few with bones visible through the cracked lid.
They are also in them in Louisiana and sometimes they float off during flooding.
Same here in Alabama.
The tree stump is common with Jewish headstones. Like the emerging stone you mentioned it denotes someone who died young. There’s a Jewish cemetery right by my house (in SE Massachusetts) so I researched a lot of the different symbolism.
Tree stumps are also pretty common anywhere there are usable limestone deposits. Many of the master carvers made headstones on the side, and supposedly, only the richer families could afford to have such a massive stone cut and set. They were often used as family markers as the girth and height of the stone allowed multiple panels, names, and information.
The tree stump was also offered as part of a life insurance package.
@@johngrant248 Wow! Several older male family members have these markers stating that they were Woods of the world. Some type of organization.
1884 my great uncle died in Nashville at the age of 9 months. He has a tree stump headstone that’s still standing.
Woodsman of the World stones are pretty common in Central South Carolina. I've seen tall and short stumps as well as 'fallen' ones for children.
The New England cemetery is spot on! We live in a small town in Mass and since it was built and incorporated in the 1600’s there are a dozen or more little cemeteries around. All with little fences with wrought iron gates and granite pillars on all four corners. The one on our street backs up to a Native American stone wall that also runs across the back of our property.
I have no problem with the Sears headstones, there is an infinite variety and top quality so what's not to like? Have seen some "tree stump" headstones, they are cool too.
That divot in a cemetery is more likely a burial of either just a casket, or a rough box, a vault made out of wood, that has decomposed and sunken in. That's why most places require a concrete burial vault nowadays. It's to keep the cemetery up... Hard on a lawn mower to be dropping in those divots all the time. Also you can get a truck stuck in one pretty easy in the wet time of year. I've been a vault man and done cemetery work for over 40 years. I have some experience...
That would be true if the ground was even on either side of the grave, but the raised mounds directly on either side are indicative that earth was removed from the grave and tossed immediately to the side.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of plots were reused. Not a whole lot of reason to dig another grave if one plot is already open.
Yes, exactly @@samanthac.349
So, "concrete vaults" aren't a thing where I'm from and families often use the same plot, with multiple caskets layered on top of each other, and those divots are infront of almost _every_ grave in old cemeteries.
I believe it's a result of a mix of what you're both saying; excess earth left over from filling the grave back in and older caskets in lower layers having decomposed, causing the surface to sink.
my dad makes burial vaults !
For my college photography class in the 90s I did a while serious on old cemetaries. Some of my photos were of these small field stones.
3:18, pretty interesting. I always figured they were just old collapsed coffins without vaults around them.
That can happen too! Look for raised dirt piles around the hole to tell the difference. A collapsed coffin will just produce a divot with no dirt piles.
That's what they are. Not removed remains.
What you figured is usually the case. It's why some cemeteries now require vaults.
The cemetery I worked in insisted on vaults for exactly this reason. When we moved a body the vault stayed in the ground.
i find PEACE walking thru cemeteries.. and you do a great job!
I love white bronze memorials. They have held up so well over the years and I love seeing them. It seems too bad they fell out of fashion because they look so good today.
Just a note about war monuments:
If you see a soldier mounded on a horse and the horse has all its feet on the ground it means the soldier survived the battle…
A horse with one leg off the ground means the soldier was wounded in battle but survived…
A horse reared up on only their back legs (touching the ground) means the soldier was killed in battle.
Hope this helps when you visit a military cemetery or battleground.
This is an urban legend
My understanding is that this is not true, and was never a tule used universally. Too bad, because it would be cool if true.
what if the horse is depicted mid jump?
@@rodolfobeguiristainthe soldier was taken back to his home planet, and the horse was dressed in their uniform and returned in their stead.
What would they do if the horse died?
I grew up near a very large, very old cemetery in SE Wisconsin that I walked through every single day on my way home from school. I recognize ALL of these types of headstones - there are even a few of the Sears tree stump models there! definitely want to go back one of these days and see if I can spot any zinkers.
That last tree stump one from Sears in in one of our local cemeteries. In fact our local cemeteries are pretty much all Sears models you just showed. A lot of our homes are Sears models still. Small town life
In Athol, MA there's a marker carved 'STONE" (only) that's literally just a boulder. It always gives me a laugh.
There’s a family in my hometown named Woody and their stones are all 6’ stone-carved tree stumps.
I laugh whenever I say "Athol" aloud.
would be screwed up if it was a zinker
I'm a funeral director in Canada 🇨🇦 Where I am, many of the old rural cemeteries have the 'tree stump'. I love them!
And the old children's markers are often lambs.
Never heard of Zinkers, but I'll be checking now.
The zink headstones are beautiful. They are also VERY fragile. They are usually damaged by lawnmowers. The detail on them is gorgeous!
yeah, "zinc lasts forever" LOL zinc figurines disintegrate not even touching them
To be fair, it weathers natural elements. When these were crafted, they weren't using industrial equipment to mow cemeteries.
@@tsm688 There are some standing in my families cemetery and they are gorgeous. They stand out from all the rest. They look like new and the detail is stunning.
@@kbanks5754 No. They were not subjected to power machinery. They have amazing detail and they hold up very well for 100 year old memorials.
@nnie Then they were all made with exceptional quality and purity. zinc decay is definitely a thing in cheap zinc alloy but not 99.9% zinc
I see thousands of headstones. Reconize all but two of the sears models
Lol.
Grew up next to two BIG Cemetaries.
Worked in one of them for years.
I've walked around maybe 20 cemeteries across north/central Texas and never spied a zinker. I have however seen so many Sears stones...and not known it. I won't be able to unsee it. You have a great channel by the way, I found you from Al Muqaddimah's "Best of History TH-cam" playlist.
As an amputee growing up I was always the slowest runner out of all my class mates. As such I finished every foot race in las place.
For this reason, I want my headstone to say, "I finished ahead of you in the human race.,"
But already, some of my classmates are still finishing ahead of me.
I never picked up the habit of smoking. Maybe that's why.
Few people in my family don't make it to 100 years of age.
If I may, I've actually seen a few instances of an amputated limb buried separate from the rest of the body. Stonewall Jackson's arm is probably one of the best-known examples, while another notable one is that of William Henry Holland, who lost an arm after a fall from a tree. His arm is buried near his parents in the Granbury Cemetery in Granbury, TX -- within view are the city's namesake, as well as a grandson of Davy Crockett -- while his body is buried some distance away. A few feet from his headstone is the final resting place of J. Frank Dalton, who claimed to be Jesse James, and when they exhumed Dalton in 2000 to try to put the associated controversy to rest, they inadvertently dug up Mr. Holland, realizing their mistake quickly when they noticed that an arm was missing.
Hey! I never knew that about the “unfinished” headstones! There are some of those in the cemetery that my fiancé and I frequently take walks in. I’m gonna point that out to her next time we’re there and mention that it may have likely came from a seer’s catalogue :) I also do recognize some of the other headstones shown too!
The Zinkers were popular here in the Dallas area, I see them in many cemeteries, especially in the suburbs and rural areas. They are durable, was walking in an old cemetery on a hill in Mesquite, Texas and found a Zinker that was struck by a bullet, with little damage. It’s all houses around it now, but I can imagine someone shooting in the field 50 or 80 years ago when the cemetery would’ve been far removed from any houses and accidentally striking it. Any time I’m able to travel to New England my friends are exasperated because all I want to do is explore old cemeteries, since they are ancient compared to the ones in my area, where a monument from even the 1870s is often the oldest, and rare. Excellent video.
I love checking out old cemeteries! I always look for the oldest grave, and I also read the tombstones. Sometimes there is interesting things chiseled on them. Funny sayings, etc.
Me too. I like to think about what historical events the people would have lived through.
I live in a city that was developed for trade in the early 1700s, pretty common to find 1700s stones up here. Always blows my mind that some of them are still in surprisingly okay shape
A couple of observations and a comment: the tree truck-looking headstones, common in my area, are often provided by Woodmen of the World. Sunken graves are most commonly caused by the decomposition of the coffin, especially in shallow graves. Fieldstone grave markers, instead of being rare, are the commonest type of headstone in the area where I live, a rural part of Arkansas.
The heaps at the sides is how you tell the differnce if it was dug up or simply sunken:)
*difference
My little field just outside Cabot Arkansas has a couple fieldstone graves and theres a weird divot we think might be one too. Cool seeing another person from arkansas in the wild!
Wow! Thank you. Now I'll have to go to our old cemetery and check these out.
One cool thing I noticed at the 0.34 marker was the oil lamp/ urn on top the column. Our cemetery actually has an urn with a cloth over it signifying life snuffed out.
I think I also saw at the very edge of a frame a broken column.
Unless the column has actually been broken off, it is often a symbol of a life cut short.
Going to start looking for Zinkers now.
There's actually a tree stump headstone in a cemetery near an office I used to work at. I remember sticking out that I noticed it right away when I passed it going to work
I grew up in Syracuse NY. My grandmother lived in apartment complex’s. When we went to see her we would picnic in the graveyards nearby. (They were safer than the public parks)
We were see to run between while dragging kites up.
We got more savvy and used fishing pole to flick the kite up with 15’ of space.
I did landscaping in a cemetery one summer in college. Once you get over the creep factor, it’s actually a relaxing, peaceful place to work. I actually never came across a zinker.
Another great video. The research you find about history and then present to us for free is amazing. It's better than most TV shows.
Honestly, I liked the idea of living in a house that comes with an old cemetery because, at least, it would give me something to do other than watch videos. Just keeping the old thing tidy kind of thing. Thought about trying to look some up for when my partners and I move to Europe. lol
I'm surprised you didn't cover the Woodmen of the World headstones. They're always timber/log themed and some of my favorite headstone designs from a membership society that is now an insurance group.
Almost did with the tree marker remark at the very end.
Almost did with the tree marker remark at the very end.
I've seen at least one!
I live in Timber country, so we have a LOT of WoW tree stump headstones around. I always love to show them off to people. They look so unusual, with their scrolls and ivy and little hidden animals.
I work in cemeteries, usually those sunken spots are casket collapses
Those giant pines are beautiful
There’s one of the tree stump sears stones in the Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, CO. It’s always been my favorite. There’s also one that’s just a sheet of some kind of metal marked with white paint. The metal is rusty and the paint is becoming illegible. I haven’t been in a long time but it was from the first few decades of the 20th century-I think the 1910s or 1920s, but i don’t quite remember.
In the South, cedar trees were planted in cemeteries to mark the perimeters or to mark a lone grave. We find them everywhere on our hunting lands.
The stone logs.. I've seen many when I lived in Western Kentucky. There are two located in one cemetery in Hickory. And at least one more in another, up the same road.
We visited the cemetery outside Templeton, Iowa, and found a bunch of those Zinkers. Templeton is home to Templeton rye whiskey, which was apparently a favorite of Al Capone's. We ran into a local in the cemetery who told us bootleggers would take those removable panels off to put whiskey inside for someone to pick up; the recipient would take the whiskey and leave their money in the same place. It was an interesting story, although I wouldn't be surprised if he was pulling our legs.
The tree trunk headstones are more common in some parts of the midwestern US. They seem to have some connection to "Modern Woodmen of America," which is a fraternal/insurance organization that originated in small town Iowa in the late 1800s.
I live in Canada across from NY. There are many old cemeteries along the seaway. Alot were from when the Brittish fought the Americans. I found some from 1600s.
Interesting that all the Zinkers were made in Bridgeport, Conn. I used to visit relatives there in my youth and we would explore the nearby very cool cemetery. It even had the grave of P.T. Barnum.
We have here in Greenwood cemetery (brooklyn) a figurative zink statue/marker of a twelve year old drummer boy. First casualty from brooklyn in the civil war.
Fascinating! Here in Los Angeles, we have *easy to mow* flat, embedded markers. Any trip east hopes to include a cemetery stop for hubby and I. Words, images, and choices made do elicit surprising emotions in me. RIP
Very cool. I found one of these walking through an old cemetery in northern Vermont while I was up there for work. I was actually initially drawn to it because it looked like an old stone monument but was in remarkably good condition. When I touched it I realized it was metallic. This video explains it. Considering how pristine it was, I’d say their advertising was accurate.
Sears was the Amazon of its day.
Last fall I arranged for my own monument. Wish I had known about a zinker lol. The family cemetery reflects the people and time passed. There are field stone, concrete, limestone and granite markers dating back to before the civil war. I'll look for a hollow metal one next time I visit the folks. My cousin found a product that cleans all that grimy patina off- makes the stone look new! Don't know the name of it but it exists for those interested and so inclined.
The sears tree stub stone I see a lot in Indiana grave sites.. They are super cool to admire when you see one.
Got a couple of those zinc ones in our old cemetery up here they're holding up very well and approaching a 150 years old at least . Gotta say I like the shorter videos a little bit more
I see those tree trunk ones ffrom the end quite a bit in the pnw. All beloning to loggers fro. Back in the day.
I always wanted to know about the zinckers! Thank you! I always felt like they looked more like Halloween decorations tombstones than the stone ones do. I also didn't know about Sears tombstones - and I recognize a lot of them!
Sears had it all. No crime in that. Got my first bike, Stars Wars Kenner action figure, there, first stove and fridge. Loved that store. Quite a shame it's gone.
Now where's the headstone for Sears?
I see those tree stump headstones all the time in the cemetery's near by.
There are at least 2 of the tree trunk head stones in a cemetery in my hometown. Actually there are many Sears stones there. The cemetery is beside a railroad. Sears used the railroad a lot to deliver large items.
One of my relatives who died in 1902 has that particular Sears tree stump monument at the end of your video. I have husband/wife relatives who have a 1896 zink monument. The 1896 zink monument looks absolutely brand new. The stone markers surrounding the zink marker are badly weathered. There is a 120ish year old zink monument in a cemetery where a friend of mine is buried. That zink monument also looks brand new and way better than the surrounding stone monuments. I hope someone starts making zink monuments again.
I only learned about zinkers a couple years ago during a guided tour of North Burial Ground, which it looks like some of your photos are from. If you have a chance, go on one of their Full Moon hikes.
At 5:00 - wow, instantly recognized this as the cemetery in Black Hut. I grew up on the lake so I used to wander around in these woods ALL the time. I was always impressed by those stately trees (and how I first recognized it). In recent years, the Mencuccis have done an amazing job of cleaning and maintaining the cemeteries in town, this one being no exception, despite being a bit "off the beaten trail."
I didn't know about the Sears headstones before, and I've certainly seen many of those designs.
If you want to learn more neat stuff about local cemeteries, look up Rhode Island Cemetery Weeks, which is a series of events held state-wide every spring, and don't miss the Elder Ballou Cemetery & Cumberlandite tours offered several times a year.
Wow, cool!! I thought these were aluminum, but then I questioned the capability of aluminum production in the 19th century.
I've actually seen quite a few of those tree stump ones around here in Indiana. I was told they also symbolized people who died young. And boy, do I recognize a ton of those stones...I worked in a cemetery for a few years and those Sears ones really are everywhere.
Never underestimate old cemeteries.
Ancient Order of the Woodsmen was an organization in my area in the 1800's & early 1990's, we have many Sears Log headstones in our old cemeteries. And I just want to say, I wish the Zinker was still around, it lived up to it's hype, Still a beautiful monument today!
Those Zinkers held up really well, just like the ad said. Still clear and legible after all those years. The stone ones are cracked and worn, just like the ad said. I guess we can't get any more of these these days because the entire mortuary industry is a total ripoff.
Noticed that as well - at least in New England the only stones that hold up as well are granite.
I'm a funeral director & we don't sell or make the headstones. That's a whole other thing.
@@farmersdaughter2584 The entire funeral industry is a complete rip-off that takes advantage of vulnerable people when they're grieving.
@@Heike--Tell that to the grieving parents of dead children who I've buried. Don't ever go to a funeral home then if your loved one dies. Figure it out on your own.
@@farmersdaughter2584 Yeah, we do have to figure it out on our own. We come to funeral homes when we're grief-stricken. That's how you take advantage of us and rip us off.
I've seen the tree stump one is Mitchell, SD
I used it at a marker for where to turn to get to my dads spot
Honestly, if "zinkers" lasted this long and are still in that kind of condition, I wouldn't knock the advertising. They were clearly correct.
probably depends a lot on conditions. zinc is not actually famous for its durability or longevity. look up zinc pest
@@tsm688 Yes, I am well aware of that. However, the results shown here clearly speak for themselves.
Funny talking about Sears. Yeah, they were the Amazon of their day. Sold headstones, houses, household goods, etc.
Sears sold kit houses too
I grew up in one!
Zinkers. Another strange and specific thing to come out of my local city. And you're right, there are a lot of them around here so thanks for the info!
"Next time you're walking through a cemetery..." Yeah, cause that's thing we totally just do...for fun. lmao. Never change DSA. Never change.
Don't knock it till you try it some old cemeteries are quite beautiful I walk my dog in one quite often.
Yeah, we do it all the time. Very cool areas to check out in Northern NH and Maine
Theres one of these old forgotten cemetarys by me. Its small, and isnt very minimally maintained, and really old.
The Zinkers are kinda cool. They're not THAT bad.
I’ve seen a tree stump headstone in one of the cemetery’s in my town. Pretty cool
They say you die twice. The first time when your body dies. The second time you die is when your name is spoken for the last time.
Buy yourself a zinker and you’ll never have that problem!
I'm going to the cemetery to look for these finds! thank you for sharing.
The sunken ground is actually collapsed caskets before they used vaults.
I noticed in the Sears catalog, it touting the best Barre granite at 6:44. That's my home state of Vermont!
interesting as always!
i mean it's no 2 hour retelling of a 6 day roller skate race but still good
I enjoyed your story. Thank you. I went exploying in a cemetery behind a church in Middletown, CT. I found stones of the same size and style with the carvers name on it.
Stopping by cemeteries whenever I travel is a favorite hobby of mine. I call it "visiting the locals." This gives me something to look out for. Good video!
3:45 this is a box marker, and similar types without walls are tabletop markers.
Another thing Ive seen in very old mountainside appalachian cemetaries. two long thin stones as long as a body propped up against eachother like a long shallow tent probably 1-2 feet high, may or may not have a headstone. Its put over where the body is buried.
I’ve actually seen one of the tree stump ones. I thought it was so cool and unique, so neat to think it probably actually came from Sears!
I love your channels! Entertaining and educational. You must spend hours researching the topics you bring to life, much respect, also your energy level is off the charts!! Job well done.
My dad workred at Rookwood Cemetary in Sydney. He was always left upset when tending the paupers graves.
Wow, I've seen a ton of the Sears headstones; I just never realized it.
That tree stump one is in a lot of
Old cemeterys in east Texas.
Pretty sure there's one of those tree stump ones in Enon Cemetery in Jayess, MS.
Content like this is why I love TH-cam
I always liked old cemeteries. I think it’s because I grew up about 2 blocks away from the town cemetery, which had so many old fancy statue type grave markers. The town must have had some very wealthy people prior to 1900.
Wow thanks to the algorithm, it's the first time I found cemeteries are so Kool, I can't wait to have my own stone anymore 😊
I've seen Zinkers in our town cemetery. I always thought they were very nicely done. Too bad they went out of favor.
I recognize nearly all the old Sears style headstones from seeing them down in the old River bottoms grave yard in my part of the world. Small farming towns along the Mississippi River in Minnesota
5:40 speaking of massive trees in old graveyards, I want to say the oldest tree in Arkansas is in a small family cemetery at what is now an interstate rest area
what songs did you use in this vid? I love them
Whatever those zinkers are made of must be a good alloy for weathering and most importantly not lead contaminated (zinc pest). That purification would have been an expensive process in 1912, as the distillation process of the New Jersey Zinc company was not available until 1930 or so. Unless the process was convenient to the manufacturing of the end product, it would have been expensive. Thus:
The zinc would have been produced by electrolysis, which also gives an idea of how these monuments may have been made hollow. I fully expect the process was electrolyzing crude zinc onto a graphite coated mold or similar. That skips a process step compared to casting by making the electrolysis producing pure zinc the main production step. No wonder these were well advertised, the costs associated with final production and transportation would likely have been close to the mold-making cost alone. Excellent Engineering!!!
~One Engineer
wow ive actually seen the tree stump grave marker in graveyard about 3 minutes from my house, always thought it was an odd one, crazy to know it came from sears of all places! but yeh youre right, ill never see past the fact sears made grave markers because my goodness there are a ton like that in all grave sites!