A Friends' Cemetery
Posted: Sunday, February 05, 2012
by Jack H. Schick
I was dressed up like William Penn and giving an historic chat in the Meetinghouse library to a surprisingly large and interested groups of people during the big gala we put on to celebrate the Quakers' 300th year in our Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania community, when an older, scruffy looking fellow walked up and, without saying a word, handed me a slip of paper. I was still blathering in response to some question about Quaker practice. I just stuck it in my pocket and nodded to him. I looked at it a few minutes later. It had a couple of names and a phone number on it. After I was done with another jabbering confabulation about some obscure detail of Quakertown history, I stepped out from behind the glass display case where we had ancient tomes exhibited, pulled from vaults just for the day, and spoke to the guy.
"Maybe, but not necessarily," I told him. Earlier in the day another fellow had told me the story of a young black boy who had lived somewhere nearby with white, foster parents. He died in a fire. The parents' church did not accept the boy for burial in their cemetery because he was not a member, and, the fellow believed, because he was black. The Quakers, of course, didn't care what color he was or what church he belonged to. He, too, was buried somewhere in our cemetery, though his grave was not marked with a stone and no one remembers his name.
Having only recently assumed the role of Meeting historian--all that really means is I read, write and talk a lot--I decided it might be time to take a look around the 285 year old, three acre cemetery that adjoins our Meetinghouse. There are some records and a general plot map, but they don't extend all the way back to 1725, when they first started burying Friends there. Old time Quakers (and contemporary ones), had a thing about pride, and an attitude about life and death. They believed they were simply shucking their mortal shell and moving on to a separate reality when they died. They believed in simplicity and total equality, so few even bothered with grave stones. It would be too ostentatious. We know there are people buried in those first couple of rows by the stone wall, but, it's just grass.
As time went by, most Friends did have stones erected. Some are ornate, some are chunks of woods-rocks with initials etched into them, some are crumbling pieces of red shale that soon will be nothing more than stains in the soil. Considering that Quakers have attempted to adhere to the Peace Testimony for over 350 years, I was surprised to see so many veteran markers in the cemetery. There were Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI, WWII veterans buried there. Ornamentation is discouraged, so I was also surprised that some of the more conservative members had not protested the brass military plaques and American flags. But, then again, several graves had plastic flowers, which is certainly discouraged. However, who will protest remembrance? Tolerance for the beliefs and practices of others is also an important aspect of Quakerism.
Friends denounce war. In 1660, Society of Friends founder, George Fox issued a declaration to British King Charles II. In part, it said: "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatsoever; this is our testimony to the whole world…the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with any outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of Christ nor for the Kingdoms of this world…Therefore, we cannot learn war any more." Yet, some Quakers chose to go to war. Their opinions were tolerated by other friends. They were forgiven and buried alongside the others in our cemetery.
Warfare has existed since pre-historic times. War is defined as "an organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict that is carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and unusually high mortality." Some scholars believe warfare it an integral part of human culture, others argue that it only occurs under certain socio-cultural or ecological circumstances. There is evidence (fortifications and mass graves), that indicate that war was endemic in the Stone Age. Whenever two ancient tribes or family groups met, they almost always brought out the clubs and sharp rocks and tried to kill each other. After civilization emerged warfare was more organized, but not as constant.
An indication that warfare has plagued mankind since before the dawn of civilization is Cemetery 117. It was discovered in 1964, by Fred Wendorf on the northern border of Sudan -not far from the area anthropologists believe man first evolved. The remains in the cemetery have been determined to be 13,140 to 14,340 years old. It is believed to be the oldest evidence of warfare. 59 bodies were recovered as well as many other fragmented remains. There were twenty-four females and nineteen males over eighteen years old. There were thirteen children ranging from infants to fifteen year olds.
Forty percent of the bodies found in cemetery 117 died from violent wounds. Projectile points from arrows or spears were found in the bodies in areas that suggest they were attacked, not killed by accident. Wounds were located around the sternum (breast bone), the abdomen, back and skull (through the lower jaw or neck). There were no signs of bone calluses forming indicating that the wounds were most likely fatal.
One source claims 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace, but actually, warfare is less endemic than it was in prehistoric times. We are less likely to kill any strangers we meet, but our weapons and ability to exterminate large numbers has increased. Four of the most costly wars in history have occurred in the past 100 years.
The ten most costly wars-in human deaths
-60,000,000-72,000,000 – World War II (1939-1945)
-36,000,000-An Shi Rebellion (China, 755-763)
-30,000,000-60,000,000 – Mongol Conquests (13th century)
-25,000,000-Qing dynasty conquest of Ming dynansty (1616-1662)
-20,000,000-World War I (1914-1918)
-20,000,000-Taiping Rebellion (China, 1850-1864)
-20,000,000-Second Sino-Jananese War (1937-1945)
-8,000,000-12,000,000 – Dungan Revolt (China, 1863-1877)
-7,000,000-9,000,000 Conquests of Tamerlane (1370-1405)
-5,000,000-9,000,000 – Russian Civil War and Foreign Intervention (1917-1922)
I found the graves of thirteen war veterans in our Friends' Cemetery of several hundred stones and many more unmarked graves. I touched each of the stones, wrote down every inscription. We can only guess what their motivation was, what inspired them to take up arms against fellow men. Quaker Faith and Practice suggests that, in our individual lives, we should “accept conflict as an opportunity for loving engagement with those with whom we disagree. We must honor that of God in every person and avoid not only physical violence but also more subtle forms-psychological, economical ad systemic.” It is often a hard Testimony to live by. Friends must accept the individual beliefs of Members who are unable to achieve the perfection we all seek. We might disagree with those who choose a path other than the one we have chosen to follow, but that disagreement can be an ‘opportunity for loving engagement’ among us. That truly is the Quaker Way.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Nice article Jack. I enjoy walking through old cemetery's and looking at the names and dates.Thanks, Sean, for reading and commenting
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