Visiting Cedar Bayou Cemetery

I went to the Cedar Bayou Cemetery for my project on a late evening Friday. It was cold, wet and getting dark as night approached. It probably wasn't the best time to go since it was getting late. I came to the cemetery with my mom, I know, it’s odd but I needed someone to go with, so why not her? We approached the oldest part of the cemetery and it was soaked in water as it had rained a day earlier. We walked and explored the area, searched the graveyard and came across many masonic lodge stones. With many conspiracies that my mom and I heard of masonic people and such we were intrigued, especially, at the amount of people who were masonic and lived in Baytown. 

We came upon some unusual stones and one that stood out was the woodmen-of-the-world stone and it was carved into the form of a tree stump, unusual, but very beautiful in my opinion. It was excellently carved and from the looks of it, it was done with much care and love. I couldn't help but think what a nice thing to memorialize a loved one’s passion by reflecting their love for wood working onto the stones with such great intricacies, or so I thought. I found through research that the stones are actually a gift for members of the organization of woodmen-of-the-world an organization that holds charity events and is active in communities. The organization used to give stones to its members that passed and purchased life insurance and mortgages through their membership. The organization still stands today and does not provided stones to all of its members, but only to those who cannot afford one of their own.

Just a stone throws away is this white colored classic church that stands across a gravel drive way that looks as if it was frozen in time. It is old and you could tell by the looks of it that it’s not from this time, that is, today not many churches are made from wood and wood siding, and being fairly modest in size is also a dead giveaway. The church although was not something I expected to see in a graveyard because I’m accustomed to the church being separate from the cemetery, at least, that’s how most modern churches are set up. I guess nowadays it’s a taboo thing because church is about life, living and not so much about death, but hope and good messages of god.

My mom and I noticed that the masonic men and women have different symbols above their names; the men have the compass and women have a star with symbols inside of the triangles. We had no idea what the women’s symbol meant and why would they add such a symbol to the women’s side in the first place. We hear from many rumors that the masonic lodge only adds men, so why add something symbolic like a star to the women’s side, and what does it even mean? As it happens there is a masonic organization for women called the order of the eastern star and it is marked on the grave stone of women who were members. The symbol itself depicts five different heroines from biblical stories in the bible, and each describe lessons that women "should" follow under the eastern star and these are duty, obedience, honor, justice, loyalty, faith, charity and hospitality.   

While walking through the cemetery I came across a grave marker that was one of the examples we went over in humanities on our trip to the Hill of Rest Cemetery in Baytown. I looked at one stone we came across and told my mom that this is a pretty neat find because I had learned from my professor that the gates open to heaven could symbolize the gates being open for a loved one to enter. However I noticed one big difference and that was that this one had a dove etched into the center of the gates being released into the gates. I got to thinking and wondered what does the dove symbolize or mean? After doing a quick search on the internet I found that Stephen F. Austin University had a web page that talks about symbols on stones and it says that doves depict the “soul winging its way to heaven” or if one wing is down as if it’s broken it means “mourning” and “sorrow.” 

Visiting Cedar Bayou Cemetery was a treat because I learned a lot from seeing the stones and examining them. I found that the markers are more than just identifying a person and that they show a history. I believe if we all slow down a little we can learn a bit more about our self and history too. I for one didn't really read into a stones context and with a bit of technology that is searching on the internet what I didn't know and then discovering answers to my questions about masons, the woodmen organization, and dove symbolism. Overall, the visit was a window into the lives and history of people and that stones capture theses to preserve them for years to come, so people like me can learn a little about them and their lives.