The Scriptures

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

MOST COMMON VERSES
Tombstones often feature references from scripture offering comfort, hope, and assurance of eternal life and reflecting the faith of the deceased or their loved ones. Popular selections promise resurrection and eternal life, reference the afterlife, highlight a life well-lived in faith, and offer solace by promising an end to earthly pain and sorrows. Such verses often provide a sense of peace, making them fitting tributes on gravestones.

Beyond the Beatitudes, these are the scriptural inscriptions, in no particular order, commonly found on 19th-century American headstones, including references from Madison's cemetery.

1 Corinthians 15:54: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Job 19:25: “I know that my Redeemer lives.”
John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

Susan Bugg Knight Dye [1800-1878]
John 14:2: “In my Father's house are many mansions.”
Awtry [1812-1881], Ladie Verona Askew Lawrence [1891-1918]
Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Lessie Rice [1891-1906]
Matthew 19:14: “Suffer little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of Heaven.”
Matthew 25:21: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”
Proverbs 31:28: “Her children rise up and call her blessed.”

Sarah Carter Hunt Harris [1782-1856], Rev. Marion H. Eakes [1839-1912] & Elmira Davis Johnston Eakes [1843-1921]
Psalm 23:1: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Edith O. Howell Wheeler [1869-1894], Sara Martha Mitchem Vaughters [1916-1960], Joe R. Cunningham [1924-1978], Velma Ruth King Adams [1920-2002]
Psalm 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 37:37: “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace."

James Edward Chiles [1842-1900], Charles Henry Dickens [1921-1997]
Psalm 112:6: “The righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance.”

Sion Boon [1760-1829], Constantine Perkins Fitzpatrick [1771-1845], Joice Harper Campbell Wittich [1782-1826]
Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Nathaniel G. Foster [1809-1869], Adelle Pennington [1888-1954], Florida Antoine Poullain Thomas [1874-1958]

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*New Cemetery

MADISON FAVORITES

Tombstones often feature references from scripture offering comfort, hope, and assurance of eternal life and reflecting the faith of the deceased or their loved ones. Popular selections promise resurrection and eternal life, reference the afterlife, highlight a life well-lived in faith, and offer solace by promising an end to earthly pain and sorrows. Such verses often provide a sense of peace, making them fitting tributes on gravestones.

Acts 13:36: “Having served their generation faithfully, by the will of God they fell asleep.” W.H. Collier [1837-1907]
1 Corinthians 15:54: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Thomas B. Baldwin [1816-1855]
2 Corinthians 5:8: “Absent from the body - now present with the Lord.”
Robert Walter Trotter, Sr. [1931-1987]
Hebrews 4:9: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Rest weary pilgrims. How precious that rest promised to the good and faithful. Loved loved ones, strive to obtain this rest."
Elizabeth Shaw [1812-1882]
Dr. Seaborn Saffold [1789-1859]
Hebrews 11:4: “She being dead yet speaketh.”;
"Tho dead, she yet speaketh.”
Mary Morton Wingfield [1798-1851]
Julia A. Burney [1809-1844]
Hebrews 11:25: “She chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.”
Frances Sturges Wingfield [1824-1846]
Isaiah 40:11: "He will carry the lambs in his bosom."
Job 14:12: “Rest, my child, in hope until the Heavens shall be no more.” Anna C. Arnold [1845-1860]
Job 16:18-19: “O earth, cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place. My witness is in Heaven, and my record is on high.”
Augustus P. Rea [xx-1851]
Job 19:26: “In my flesh shall I see God.”
Alfred Eubanks [1799-1857]
2 Kings 4:26: “It is well with the child.”
Gazaway E Crawford [1850-1853]

Luke 8:52 / Matthew 9:24: “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’.”; “She is not dead, but sleepeth.”
Frances Shields [1794-1883]
Caroline M. C. Ray Burnett [1823-1864]
Mark 11:22: “Have faith in God.”
Lillie Ackerman [1856-1893]
Mark 14:8: “She hath done what she could.”
Numbers 23:10: "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.”
Charter Campbell [xxxx-xxxx]
Proverbs 4:18: “The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Mary E. Baker [XXXX-1849], Adam G. Saffold [1784-1850]
Proverbs 16:31: “The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.”
Susanna Taylor [1768-1846]
Psalm 116:15: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.”
Joice H. Wittich [1782-1826]
Dr. John Wingfield [1791-1857]
Cynthia Killian [1807-1875]
Hawesie Vickers Moore[1893-1920]
Psalm 127:2: "In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves" or “He giveth his beloveth sleep.”
Julia S. Saffold [1799-1877]
Anna Mabel Hilsman [1868-1889]
2 Samuel 12:23: “We shall go to him but he will not return to us.”
Orrin H. Markham [1853-1853]