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Photographer: Craig Swain
Taken: August 5, 2007
Caption: Gath's Empty Tomb
Additional Description: About a hundred yards north stands an empty tomb, which the interpretive sign best explains, During the 19th Century few people bought burial lots in public cemeteries as we do today. Instead, a small parcel of their own land was usually set aside as a private cemetery. If enough money was available a mausoleum (tomb) was often built for certain family members.
Gath, concerned with his own burial, built this lonely tomb about 20 years before his death, which came on April 15, 1914 in New York City. By this time his great wealth had dwindled and the near penniless Gath was buried in a Philadelphia, PA. cemetery instead of his own tomb as he had desired.
Gath's empty tomb mutely symbolizes the uncertainties of Life, Fame and Fortune and the certainty of death.
Submitted: August 11, 2007, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia.
Database Locator Identification Number: p5754
File Size: 1.492 Megabytes

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