The Schwilk gravestone, a white marble that appears to have been recently restored, features a willow tree above which are inscribed the words Hier ruht in Gottes Frieden (Here rests in God’s Peace).
SCHWILK,
Geboren d.1.Dec.
1804,
Gestorben d.12.Aug.
1856.
Nur seleig! Ps. 71, 20.
Obviously, Geboren is Born, Gestorben is Died. Nur seleig (selig?), according to Google Translate, is Only blessed.
The referenced Bible verse is “Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.”
According to the church website,
The St. James Lutheran congregation was formed in 1847 by nine German settler families and was originally named St. Jakobus Gemeinde (“St. Jacob’s parish”). … Originally all services were in German but English was adopted in the early 1900s and eventually replaced German as the standard language of worship at St. James Lutheran.
Fascinating tombstone and background on it; I enjoyed reading! Wish we had more German cemeteries around here for me to read - I can't read all the Chinese ones! ;)
ReplyDeleteChinese! Now that's something I haven't seen around here.
ReplyDelete