DRAFT

The Columbia Cemetery was founded in 1820. 

It is the oldest cemetery and the oldest business in Columbia.

The cemetery is over 34 acres, with a black section and a Jewish section. 

"Its monuments are a roll call of Boone County’s pioneer and influential families. Among them are Barr, Bowling, Bradford, Camplin, Cochran, Conley, Dorsey, Douglass, Garth, Gentry, Guitar, Hickman, Horner, Keene, Lenoir, McAlester, Maupin, Moss, Phillips, Prewitt, Price, Rollins, Schwabe, Stephens, Todd and Wilson" (Columbia Cemetery).

The cemetery is owned and operated by the Columbia Cemetery Association, a non-profit organization responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery. The Columbia Cemetery Association was founded in 1853.

In 2007, the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Within the Columbia Cemetery there is the Black section and the Jewish section.  The Jewish section is called the Beth Olem, or Beth Olam, Cemetery.  Beth Olam is Hebrew for "Home of Eternity".  In 1974, they changed the name to Beth Shalom, which translates to "Home of Peace".  A home of peace is a divided section of a whole, indicating a lack of unity.  The Black section is also a separate entity in the Columbia Cemetery.  It was not until this year that James T. Scott, a black man who was lynched in 1923 before he was given a trial, was given a proper headstone.  The cemetery is not only organized into three different sections, it is also still divided by religion, race and wealth. 

The Columbia Cemetery has a Jewish Section, called the Beth Olem Cemetery. My mom told me once how, technically, my father should be Jewish (he isn't), meaning I should be half Jewish (I'm not). My grandmother's mother was Jewish, but her father's family would not allow him to marry a Jewish woman unless they promised to raise their children as Catholics. If they had raised their children in the mother's religion, which is traditional, my grandmother would have been Jewish. As a result, my father would have been Jewish and then I would have been half Jewish. I wish the Jewish religion was never eradicated from my family, because I have always wanted to know more about Judaism.  Not only was the religion eradicated from my family, but it was hidden.  My grandmother and mother both do not like to talk about it and I was not made aware of it until a few years ago.  When I went to the Columbia Cemetery, I spent the most time at the Jewish section.  Unknowingly, I went to the cemetery like everyone else: with quiet questions in my mind and hopeful eyes searching for answers.

A similar situation is present in my favorite book, Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, in which the main character goes on a trip to find the town where his grandfather was from in Ukraine. His grandfather was Jewish, living in Ukraine during WWII in a forgotten town called Trachimbrod. He goes there in an attempt to find answers for his many lingering questions about his past.  The story follows the main character and how events that happened many years before his existence still affect him in the present. One of my favorite quotes from the book is "Everything is illuminated in the light of the past, it always along the side of us, on the inside, looking out".

There is lots of unique symbolism that exists universally in all cemeteries. There are many ways gravestones are designed to feature a specific religion, by adding a cross, Star of David or the symbol of a prominent organization, such as the Shriners. These symbols are high context, and represent a specific message.  As a result, they are either hidden or meaningful to a person depending if they are part of the group that would have the knowledge to understand the symbol.  For example:

One Jewish custom is when a person visits a grave, the leave a stone on it to show to the living family of the deceased that a new visitor had been there.  The stone is a symbol of love, existence and community. To a person who is not Jewish or a person that was not aware of the custom, it may appear that there are just a bunch of stones on a grave.  One has to know the custom to understand the message.  The message is hidden in this way, and the answer only exists for a specific person who goes looking for it.

Passion flowers are a prominent Christian symbol.  "The ten petals on the flower represent the ten apostles in Christianity, excluding St. Peter and Judas.  The vines of the plant symbolize the whips that were used during the flagellation of Christ. One of the major characteristics is the hundreds of filaments on the flower that symbolize the Crown of Thorns. The five anthers are associated with the five sacred wounds of Christ. The flower contains three stigmas that reflect the three nails that were used for Christ’s hands and feet during his Crucifixion. There is a floral component that resembles a chalice-like ovary that has been suggested to symbolize the Holy Grail." (passionflowershop.com) 

All of this symbolism is what makes cemeteries unique. They rely on the unspoken to communicate. What I like about that idea is that a person who died long before a person who was recently buried in the Columbia Cemetery is not going to be forgotten because we are all reduced to a piece of stone. There is a built in equality to cemeteries that make them a very peaceful place. Cemeteries speak through things that last and affect multiple generations. They speak through plants, engravings, memories and cultural customs. All of these things are passed down through the Earth, family members or are literally set in stone. They are all very cyclical. In this way, cemeteries are a larger symbol of how the past is just the present in a different form: we rely so much on technology and like to acknowledge how far we have advanced, but we cannot advance past death. We often idealize the past, but in actuality prior generations were dealing with the same issues we were, death being one of them.

Cedar trees serve to mark a place as a cemetery.  Weeping Willows are a common cemetery tree.  Floyd Strader explained one popular belief that Weeping Willows are in cemeteries because they need lots of water, which is provided by tears shed by cemetery visitors.