The Good Wife

Click on an underlined name to read about the individual honored with verse.

THE CULTURE OF DOMESTICITY

In the 19th century, the roles of wife and motherhood were deeply revered and central to societal expectations. Women were primarily seen as the moral and emotional anchors of the family, responsible for nurturing their children and supporting their husbands. The ideal wife was expected to embody virtues such as piety, purity, submission, and domesticity, often referred to by historians as the "Cult of True Womanhood".

The characteristics of "True Womanhood" were depicted in sermons, literature, religious texts, and women's magazines. Here are a few of the gravestones indicative of these 19th century cultural norms:

“Wife”
Mamie O. Johnson Allen [1879-1929]
Izola Bass Flint [1900-1953]
“His wife”
Eliza Stokes [1800-1888]
Minnie E. Evans Few [1855-1921]
“West Virginia, Beloved wife.”
Virginia L. Tuell [1913-1978]
“Beloved wife of Chas W. Richter, III”
Hattie Black Baker Richter [1927-2004]

“Beloved wife. As one candle lights another so nobleness enkindleth nobleness.”
Emily Reid Hill [1820-1889]
“Sleep on dear wife and take thy rest, for God in heaven knoweth best.”
Albert Cleora Winburn [1852-1894]
“His Wife. Humane, benevolent, and just; admired by those who knew them best. Their lives are worthy of imitation.”
Ann "Nancy" Clowers Kolb [1802-1868]
“His wife. Her absence mourned by the good on earth, her presence welcomed by the pure in heaven.”
Antoinette E. Mitchell Broughton [1824-1863]
“Erected in memory of my wife. Whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge, thy people shall be my people and thy God my God, and where thou diest will I die and there will I be.”
Susan Stringfellow Thomason [1808-1874]
“Wife, Mother”
Elizabeth Cruise Martin [1817-1898]
“Beloved Wife & Mother.”
Corine Wyatt Bass [1899-1962]
Peggy Kate Copelan Rosencrance [1932-1994]
Thelma Bone Conner [1921-1996]
Mary Newton Mason Thompson [1913-2002]
Nellie Louise Jones Johnson [1930-2003]
Mary Agnes P. Reynolds [1933-2023]

“A loving wife and mother”
Joyce Taldo Morris [1925-2001]
“A devoted wife and mother.”
Dora Stovall Watkins [1853-1914]
“A faithful wife and mother.”
Elizabeth Tinsley Powell Ballard [1826-1882]
“A faithful wife and fond mother.”
Emma J. Heard Ballard [1861-1896]
“An inestimable wife and praying mother.”
Lydia A. Robertson [1826-1856]
“Our precious mother. My darling wife.”
Ouida Horton Harwell [1914-1949]
“A wife and mother ‘till the end.”
Sarah Ann Peters Davis [1902-1960]
“She was a kind and affectionate wife, a fond mother and a friend to all.”
Elizabeth Tinsley Ballard Clark [1867-1915]
“She was a faithful wife and kind mother and a devoted Christian, and died praising God and said let my epitaph be ‘Not dead but sleepeth’.” Caroline M. C. Burnett [1820-1864]
“Not changed but glorified! Wife, Mother Oh beauteous language, for those who weep, mourning the loss of some dear face departed, fallen asleep, hushed into silence, never more to comfort, the hearts of men; gone like the sunshine of another country, beyond our ken. But we shall see once more, beyond earth’s sorrows, beyond these skies, in the fair city of the ‘sure foundations’, those heavenly eyes, with the same welcome shining through their sweetness, that met us here; eyes from whose beauty God has vanished weeping, and wiped away the tear.”
Lucie Cantrell Pye Beckham [1865-1898]
“Affection’s offering. The loving confiding wife, the tender mother, the devout Christian, whose trust in God marked her daily walk. In her were modesty, integrity, charity. She was the soul of noble rectitude. And all wept and bewailed her but he said ‘Weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth.’ So sleeps the dead who trust in Jesus. The flower that expanded into beauty here, still lives and blooms in Heaven. Dear one, we hope to meet thee on the happy shores of eternity.”
Frances Cornelia Bryan Martin [1829-1855]

A MOST EFFUSIVE MONUMENT
In 1821, a bereft Robert Taylor erected a monument to honor his wife, Harriot Caroline Jones Taylor [1798-1921]. Harriot is remembered for her many virtues: she was a devoted wife, an exemplary mother, a dutiful daughter, a loving sister, a generous friend, and a kind mistress. Her husband, deeply grieved by her loss, highlighted her noble character and the profound impact she had on those around her. The epitaph reflects his deep sorrow and love, expressing hope of reuniting in the afterlife and emphasizing the importance of their children emulating her virtues.

Monumental to the memory of Harriot Caroline consort of Robert Taylor of Savannah
and daughter of the late I. B. Jones, Esq. of Beaufort District, S. Carolina who died at Innisfail, Morgan County 7th Sept. 1821, age 22 years, 9 months, & 7 days

“With an easy dignity of deportment, She was sincere and constant in all her professions; An adoring and devoted wife, a mother exemplary and tenderly solicitous; an obedient and dutiful daughter; an affectionate and loving sister; a noble and generous friend; she was honorable, benevolent, and humane; a mistress kind and condescending; a sincere and resigned Christian.”

“So may kind Heaven ordain my latest breath! Be hers my virtues and be hers my death.”

THIS MONUMENT is erected By her adoring, devoted, and disconsolate HUSBAND; to whose sedulous care this heavenly, this dear and most excellent woman has left two darling boys; the tenderest pledges conjugal endearment. Cut off from them while surrounded by every earthly enjoyment; encircled by every tie that was calculated to endear her to life; encompassed by a world of fascinating charms; in the midst of her usefulness – in the fragrance of her youth – in the pride of her angelic loveliness, this amiable and accomplished female was torn from the embraces of her agonizing husband of whose love, she was the idol – of whose happiness – the total scar. Released from the manacles of death, her soul has passed into the regions of undisturbed repose, where every virtue is perceived and crowned. Let us be ready also and we shall meet again where hallowed love burns with unvarying perpetual flame, and death and disappointment never enter. HER CHILDREN can raise no monument to her memory equal to their emulation of her exalted WORTH. Preserve O sacred TOMB! Thy trust consigned, Dust that imprisoned once an angel mind. Nor let one atom of this sacred clay, Be from its kindred dust conveyed away. Such were the features of my HARRIOT’S face, Her hands were formed with such harmonious grace. So faultless was the frame, as if the whole, Had been an emanation of the soul. And yet nor form, nor youth, nor angel grace, Could shield my HARRIOT from DEATH’S cold embrace.

Farewell, thou sweet companion of my soul! Farewell, thou sun of happiness – the whole – Farewell, and yet I still must tell, Thy dust the painful, hopeless, long farewell! But no, there’s light, and hope, and joy divine, Breaks thro’ the cloud that veils thy soul from mine. Tired with vain life, I’ll close the willing eye, (‘Tis the great birthright of mankind to die.) Blessed be the BARK! that wafts me to the shore, Where death departed friends shall part no more. To join thee there – here with thy dust repose, Is all the hope a helpless husband knows. Meet our sweet infants in your world of rest, And with them mingle in the transports of the blest. In one unvarying scene of rapture prove, The joys of free, unchanging, deathless love.