Mystery of gravestone symbol solved [Cleburne Times-Review, Texas]

Nov. 20--Cleburne resident Eunice Parker believes she's uncovered the meaning behind the symbols engraved on her grandfather's gravestone, but still hopes to learn more information about his life.

An Oct. 11 Times-Review story detailed Parker's search for information on her grandfather, S.B. Frost, who lies buried in Oak Glenn Cemetery in Jack County.

The same story ran subsequently in the Mineral Wells Index, Weatherford Democrat and Jacksboro Gazette-News.

Seeking information on Frost's gravestone, Parker approached both the Times-Review and the Johnson County Cemetery Association.

S.B Frost's life

According to records available to Parker at the time, Frost (1845-1901) was born in Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada and named after the Rev. Samuel Bacon, the man who wedded Frost's parents. Born April 19, Frost was baptized Nov. 4 of the same year in the Chatham Anglican Church.

Frost's father, Shepherd Johnson Frost, born in New Hampshire, listed himself as English and his occupation as millwright in the 1851 Canadian Census. Shepherd Frost died in 1853. Frost's mother, and Shepherd's third wife, Jane McRae Frost, was Scottish, Parker said.

Two of Frost's sisters later married in Boston. Daughters of the American Revolution records of one sister indicate that Jane McRae died Aug. 15, 1867, in Boston although Parker has so far been unable to locate any official documentation of such.

At least two of Frost's brothers served in the Civil War, Parker said. Prosper Frost, two years Frost's senior, joined the war in Boston while a younger brother joined in New Hampshire.

Frost apparently joined the Union Army as well -- this according to Parker's father, Sterling Johnson Frost -- although Parker has yet to find any official records of his enlistment.

Frost later married Laura Wampler in Texas, Parker said, and purchased 160 acres of land in 1873 initially granted to Mathias Caraker by Texas Gov. R.B. Hubbard. The sale of that land, since referred to as the Frost Farm, was later recorded in Jack County.

Laura Wampler Frost birthed two sons and died in childbirth in 1883, Parker said. Frost remarried in 1885 to Parker's grandmother, Martha Elizabeth "Bettie" Cooper. The couple had seven children, the youngest of which was Parker's father, Sterling Frost, born Dec. 1, 1900,

Frost had little time to enjoy his youngest son as he died several months later on May 2, 1901.

S.B. Frost along with both of his wives and his brother, Prosper, are buried in Oak Glenn Cemetery, which is near Frost Farm.

Frost's grave

The markings engraved on Frost's tombstone are what intrigued her, Parker said.

A circle within a six-point star contains what looks to be the letters M and A partially surrounded by either the letter O or an oval. The star sits in front of an open picket fence and an open Bible tops the marker. Parker said one man told her that Frost's stone is made of Vermont marble.

Unsure what the symbols meant, particularly the star, Parker turned to the Johnson County Cemetery Association and attended one of their meetings with pictures and rubbings of Frost's grave.

JCCA members present that night were intrigued as well, but unable to provide any information on the symbol's meaning.

Crosier-Pearson Cleburne Funeral Home directors Jimmy and Carol Wray, also JCCA members, searched several websites containing tombstone images without luck.

"I even did a search of Canadian gravestone emblems, which brought up some, but nothing matching this," Carol Wray said several days later. "Though Mrs. Parker said her grandfather was born there, but probably didn't grow up there."

JCCA board member Bob Force carefully studied the gravestone rubbing and swore the symbol looked familiar, possibly religious in nature, but couldn't put his finger on it.

"Somewhere I've seen this online when I was looking something else up, but I don't remember when," Force said at the time.

Force and his granddaughter continued to search for the symbol, but answers remained elusive.

"We searched through a lot, but didn't find that one," Force said. "Some people in the area kept going back to thinking it has something to do with the Masonic Lodge, or thought maybe there were other organizations like that in the area at the time."

Which wasn't too far off the mark as it turns out.

Several people chimed in after the newspaper articles were published.

Carl Cox, on the Times-Review website, wrote that the gravestone of Sterling "Lake" Tarpley (1854-86) in Waco'sOakwood Cemetery features the same symbols. Cox added that Tarpley's surviving family members said they don't know what the symbol means either.

Parker's grandson, Chase Parker, also located a picture of one James T. Gunn's tombstone in Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville, Tenn., which is similarly engraved to Frost's tombstone.

Kim G. wrote that the star is a Star of David. Parker said she does not, so far as she knows, have any Jewish heritage in her family and that S.B. Frost was not Jewish.

A poster identified simply as Davis bet money that it's a Freemason symbol.

"It could very well be something that he designed himself, or a symbol that certain ranks are privy to," Davis wrote.

The M and A might stand for MAson, Davis speculated, while at the same time suggesting it may stand for something else entirely.

A person posting as anonymous said it looks like an old Texas Rangers or police badge.

"Good luck on finding the reason for it," Anonymous wrote.

Weatherford resident Charles Roberson, after the story ran in the Weatherford Democrat, contacted that paper and suggested the symbol may be related to the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society that, among other things, allegedly worked toward restarting the Civil War with an eye toward raising the South to dominance. Jesse James, Franklin Pierce, John Wilkes Booth and Sam Houston are said to have been members.

Parker said she ran across no reference to that organization, but did find something else.

AGS

The answer, Parker said, came while she was studying her family's genealogy through Massachusetts. Parker contacted the Association for Gravestone Studies and spoke with John J. Spaulding, the research clearing house coordinator. Spaulding didn't recognize the symbol, Parker said, but promised to do more research.

Shortly after, Laurel Gabel, also with AGS, mailed Parker a letter accompanied by a photocopy of a page from an unidentified catalog. The page displays Knights of Honor pins, several of which exactly replicate the emblem on Frost's grave.

Organized in Louisville, Ky., in 1873, the Knights of Honor disbanded in 1916.

One of the organization's objectives was to "provide fraternal unity and benevolent assistance," according to the "The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Institutions."

KOH differed from most fraternal societies in that candidates did not take an oath in the initiation rite.

The organization enjoyed success for a time, boasting 90,335 members by 1898. KOH's main shield contains the letters O.M.A., according to the same book.

Another goal was to donate to charity and pay benefit certificates (insurance) to heirs of deceased members, which were distributed by the Supreme Lodge in St. Louis.

Graham resident Dorman Holub, in a letter to Parker, wrote that the picket fence with an open gate represents the gate to heaven in funeral marker art and the Bible on top of Frost's stone signifies "letting the pages be open or, in some cases, he was a faithful man of God who looked to the word of God."

Thrilled by the news, Parker searched the Internet for information on KOH and located a KOH Grand Lodge of Massachusetts envelope, the seal of which matches the emblem on Frost's tombstone.

Parker also determined that Martha Frost received a benefit of $2,000 following Frost's death.

"That gave me a lot of respect for him, knowing he took care of his family that way," Parker said. "The story goes that [Martha Frost] moved the family to Graham after that, then realized living in the city is expensive and moved back to the farm."

Parker now hopes to uncover more information about her grandfather, and KOH. She found listings of Texas KOH locations in the 1914 Texas Almanac and contacted the Missouri History Museum.

For now, however, KOH records, should they still exist, appear to be lost in time.

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