A stroll through Silverbrook Cemetery is more than a relaxing walk. It is an education.

We meet those we feature in this column and are inspired to learn more about the area's history. Often such research leads us to knowing more about the region, country and even the world during their lifetimes, just as we do through our stories on local veterans.

Inscriptions tell us the details of their birth and death. We learn something of their relations and perhaps how they were thought of by the poetry or scripture chosen for the stone.

Sometimes we learn of their association with a particular organization or group as was the case with the story of the Woodsmen of the World and their members' tree trunk markers.

Now we take a look at other gravestone symbols and what the choice of these carvings might suggest.
For instance; what might the person who chose the hands shaking on the stone of Christian Nieb, who died June 6 of 1889, have been thinking?

Click here for the full article on the Niles Daily Star website

Published April 2nd, 2008