Joseph Hancock

Title: Joseph Hancock's Tombstone
Type: Object
Date: 1907
Source: Oakwood Cemetery, Red Wing

Description: Joseph Hancock is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Red Wing near his wives and two children.
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Activities:

1. What in this photograph might suggest to you that the tombstone is very old?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The faded engraving or carving of the script and the basic rounded shape of the tombstone are both signs that it may be very old. There are not many tombstones today that have this shape or that are made in the same kind of white stone. Inscriptions on tombstones today are also not usually as detailed as they were in earlier years.
2. What can we learn about Hancock from reading the inscription on his tombstone?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: We can learn his dates of birth and death, when he came to Red Wing, and what he did for a living. Most tombstones today only tell us the name and dates of the person who died.
3. The letters A.B.C.F.M. on the tombstone stand for the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missionaries. Why do you think they might have used the initials of the organization on the tombstone instead of the actual name? How can initials like these make our work as researchers more difficult?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The name was probably too long (and thus too expensive) to fit on the tombstone. As researchers, initials can complicate our work because the organizations or groups represented may no longer exist, and it requires extra research to know which organization is being referenced.
4. This tombstone stands in Oakwood Cemetery in Red Wing, Minnesota. What information might we learn from other tombstones around Hancock's if we visited the cemetery?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Often people are buried next to their spouses and children, so information about Hancock's family relationships might be found on tombstones near his. We might learn that hewas married more than once, or that one or more of his children died young.