The Cache Series
The Thanatopsis series of caches celebrates a life-long interest of
mine, old rural cemeteries. I have also included an Emily Dickinson poem
with each cache, since she wrote many poems about death. The poems themselves
were taken from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by
Thomas H. Johnson. Emily Dickinson published 1,775 poems. Each poem of
the series follows the numbering of the "Harvard (variorum) edition,"
according to Thomas Johnson. As a heading to each poem, I quote Johnson
in giving the earliest known manuscript for the poem, and its earliest
publication date.
Why "Thanatopsis?" My dictionary defines it as "a meditation upon death."
A final word: All caches may be found without showing any disrespect
for our predecessors. I hope that all finders have an opportunity to pause
and consider what life (and death) must have been like in the North Woods,
more than a century ago.
The Cache
The cache is a match holder covered with camo tape.
German is the language of choice on many of these markers.
The Cemetery
Pleasant Valley Cemetery
The Lutheran Church Society of the town of Bloomer purchased one acre
of land from August and Frederica Schmock in 1879. Sometime later Christ
Schnoor deeded twenty-six feet from his farm to the north side of the cemetery.
Pleasant Valley was originally two cemeteries, Schnoor Cemetery and Schmock
Cemetery. Some of the early burials in the cemetery include Ottilie Marquardt
1879, Elisa Schmock 1880, and John Stuwe 1881. (From
the Chippewa County Cemetery Index by Donna Miller Bourget, 1998.)
The Poem
Harvard Number 583. (From The Complete Poems
of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson.)
Earliest known manuscript: c. 1862; First publication: 1929
A Toad, can die of Light –
Death is the Common Right
Of Toads and Men –
Of Earl and Midge
The privilege –
Why swagger, then?
The Gnat’s supremacy is large as Thine –
Life – is a different Thing –
So measure Wine –
Naked of Flask – Naked of Cask –
Bare Rhine –
Which Ruby’s mine?