Sarah A. Haydock: saloon keeper, inventor

The bronze marker at the grave of Sarah A. Haydock (b. 1829, d. 1890) is small and simple with a lovely grapevine border.

Sarah A. Haydock
1829 – 1890
Grapevines. Surely this leads to a few words about Christian symbolism on gravestones, right?

Not so fast.

A FamilySearch death index reveals that Sarah’s occupation at the time of her death was saloon keeper. If the grapevines are a reference to Christ (the standard interpretation on gravestones), the grapevine’s symbolic reference to her occupation becomes a smile-worthy coincidence.

A bit more Google sleuthing turns up a short reference to the Haydock business from the Delaware Gazette in May, 1879. It appears to be announcing a new business in Ostrander, Ohio:

The Haydock House in Ostrander is large, convenient, in good hands, airy, handy to the railway, and should be largely patronized.

That’s not all: Sarah Haydock was an inventor who was awarded two patents in the late 1870s. Did the fact that Haydock House was “handy to the railway” contribute in any way to her patents for improvements in (railway) car couplings?

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Oak Grove Cemetery, Delaware County, Ohio