MR. SIZEMORE’S TOMBSTONE PART 1
Ann S. Brown © 2025
Mr. Ezekiel Sizemore lived in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. There he owned a large boundary of timber, mostly oak and chestnut. The American chestnut trees were admired for their beauty, often towering over other trees at heights of up to one hundred feet and widths of up to nine feet. They were desired for their fine quality of wood, which was strong and rot resistant. The nuts they produced were food for animals such as deer and squirrel. In the fall of the year farmers let their hogs run loose to fatten up on chestnuts before hog killing time. People gathered chestnuts to eat and also roasted them to sell.
Mr. Sizemore was a bachelor and a good man. He was well past middle age, but still able to continue the work he loved. As a youth he learned to work with wood and was a skilled craftsman. Chestnut was his favorite wood to work with. Mr. Sizemore received many orders for furniture of different kinds. He made wooden shingles for roofing, split rails for fencing and cut chestnut logs for building. He also made coffins as they were needed.
When the chestnut blight of 1904 struck Mr. Sizemore’s chestnut trees, he cut the big chestnut near his house first. Knowing he would need a coffin for himself someday, he made a fine coffin out of the big chestnut he had just cut. He also made a grave marker out of the tree stump. He carved “Mr. Ezekiel Sizemore Born 1835 Died ____ REST IN PEACE” into the wood. These items were stored in his barn until needed. Mr. Sizemore had no immediate family, but his friends and neighbors knew his wishes. He wanted to be buried in the old cemetery on the mountain. The seasons passed and time slowed down for Mr. Sizemore. He died in 1920. He was buried according to his wishes in the old cemetery on the mountain. There he rested in peace until that fall night in 1950, when there was some kind of commotion in the old graveyard with enough noise to wake the dead.
To be continued next week.