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by Ron Romano (Author)
Maine gravestones from the 1800s were decorated with snapped flower buds, broken tree branches, and cracked columns to reveal that those buried below died before their time. From lightning strikes to shipwrecks, accidents to disease--and even a sensational murder--there were many causes for these untimely deaths. Bessie Oliver came home to South Portland to die, bringing secrets she'd kept from her family that wouldn't be revealed for one hundred years. In Biddeford in 1878, Rose Vincent became a victim of a sensational murder perpetrated by her jealous boyfriend. Priscilla Burnham was a pauper in Scarborough who lived most of her life under town care and was buried twice without a gravestone. Award-winning cemetery historian and guide Ron Romano uncovers how mysterious symbols, epitaphs, monument forms, and cemetery landscapes tell the stories of those whose lives were cut short.
Author Biography
A native and current resident of Portland, Ron is a cemetery historian recognized as one of Maine's leading researchers of its nineteenth-century gravestones, symbolism, monument makers, and burial landscapes. He's designed walking tours of twenty historic cemeteries and offers classes in gravestone symbols, family tree research, and other related topics through Adult Ed and speakers' programs at public libraries and historical societies. Ron has served on local and national nonprofit boards for organizations that study old gravestones and cemeteries. He writes an occasional series of scholarly papers about Portland's Eastern Cemetery and is a regular guest columnist for the Scarborough Historical Society's member newsletter. This is Ron's fifth (but probably not last!) cemetery-themed book.
