Prayer Boards Unique Way To Salute Ancestors

Prayer Boards Unique Way To Salute Ancestors AG WORLD Ag World 18-5-20 We think it might be the start of a new American folk tradition in cemeteries," says Thomas Chunn, Columbia, Tenn., who copied a European idea and adapted it for use in a local cemetery. Chunn is a member of the Old Cemeteries Society of Maury County, Tenn. He says there are more than 600 cemeteries located on family farms in the county and the group helps maintain and catalog those plots. He got the idea for his "Prayer Board" after reading an article about Bavarian "dead boards" in Europe. The idea is to commemorate a dead relative whose gravesite is unknown. Chunn's prayer board was made for a relative of his who was a Revolutionary War soldier and died about 1840. No one knows where he was buried. The board is made of 1 1/2-in. thick cedar and is 36 in. long and 9 in. wide. It's painted white, as is the treated pine post that it's mounted on. He had the sign professionally lettered and put a small cross at the top. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Thomas H. Chunn, 118 Sunnyside Lane, Columbia, Tenn. 38401 (ph 615 388-0958).

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