Hearthside - The House That Love Built

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: 1873 FUNERAL TO BE RECREATED AT HEARTHSIDE

The question, "Did anyone ever die here?" is asked all the time on tours of Hearthside. The answer is, "Of course!" People were born at home and died at home and were buried most times in a family plot on the property. But after the Civil War, funeral practices really got started and with it came a whole set of customs. It is quite a fascinating history and that is why Hearthside will devote the month of October to a special exhibit, "Gone But Not Forgotten" to help promote a better understanding of how our ancestors handled death and mourning.

The popular Victorian epitaph, Gone But Not Forgotten, captures our theme well...while many of today's funeral practices came from the Victorian era, many don't know that or are aware of some of the other practices that are no longer done.

Black draping will adorn both the outside and inside of Hearthside, covering windows, mirrors and pictures, giving all who pass by the message that this is a house in mourning. The occasion will be the funeral of former Hearthside owner, Simon E. Thornton, who died on May 2, 1873. His body was prepared at the house by the undertaker, who came with his equipment and a portable embalming table. The coffin was displayed in the Drawing Room where visitors would come and pay their respects. Following the ceremony(which in this case will be throughout the month), the coffin would be carried out of the house and into a waiting hearse to bring it to the gravesite for burial.

Our partner in this event is Bellows-Falso Funeral Home of Lincoln. As the oldest operating funeral home in New England, there was a good chance that they had handled Mr. Thornton's service, and sure enough, a review of their records from 1873 shows they did! And the coincidences don't stop there Hearthside's event will include a realistic depiction of Simon Thornton's funeral, with a complete set up of coffin, funeral lamps, and embalming table. Our docents will be dressed in mourning attire, and all guests will receive a traditional funeral biscuit, wrapped in white paper and sealed with black wax, as a favor for attending. Exhibits will also include hair and mourning jewelry, post-mortem photography, mourning art, mourning clothing and the stages of mourning, memoriam cards and poetry.

There are plenty of opportunities to come to the wake, as both candlelight tours and daytime tours are on the schedule. A demonstration of gravestone carving will show the art and symbolism used during the Victorian era on headstones. At the end of the month, the "mock funeral" of Simon will be held, complete with a horse-drawn hearse. And finally, a seance will be held on the following day, October 30th to see if we can communicate with Simon Thornton. Spiritualism was widely practiced during the mid- to late 1800s, and included such respected believers such as Queen Victoria and Mary Todd Lincoln, both of whom attended seances often.

Today, the ritual of mourning may be considered ghoulish and morbid, but in Victorian America, death was discussed open and honestly. After all, it was ever present, with high infant mortality and risk in childbirth, disease and warfare. Queen Victoria's influence on weddings and funerals had a major impact on the world. While her white wedding dress tradition carries on today, many of the mourning customs slowly died out when she passed away in 1901 so that by the 1920s, most of these rituals had vanished.

The dates for the Victorian Funeral and Mourning Customs are:

Saturday, October 1 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 96:30, 7:30, 8:30 p.m. Candlelight
Saturday, October 15 1:00-5:00 p.m. Gravestone Demonstration
Saturday, October 22 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 p.m. Candlelight
Saturday, October 29 1:00-5:00 p.m. Mock Funeral
Sunday, October 30 7:00 or 9:00 p.m. Séance

The seance, conducted by psychic medium and spiritualist Lynn Kent (http://www.lynnkent.com), will be limited to 25 guests per seating, and two seatings will be held. Tickets are $50 each.

For reservations for candlelight tours and ticket sales for the séance, call Hearthside at (401) 726-0597 or email info@hearthsidehouse.org. Admission to all of the openings, with the exception of the séance, is $10/person; children under 12 free. Cash or checks only. Don’t delay….spots will surely go quickly!

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