AN OLD HEADSTONE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19767, 15 February 1927, Page 6

AN OLD HEADSTONE

INTERESTING DISCOVERY EARLY DAYS OF AUCKLAND RECALLED. (Special to “Chronicle.”) AUCKLAND, Feb. 14. An historic discovery was made in the Grafton Bridge Cemetery by Mr A. Bond, the sexton, who unearthed from the thick bush of ivy creeper a headstone which dated back to 1851, a period of 75 years. The slab which measures 3 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 3 inches, is Mount Eden bluestone and the inscription was w’orked with quaint originality. It read: “Sacred to the memory of Charles Dickson, Esq., son of the late Alajor-General Sir Jeremiah Dickson K.C.8., died 6th. October, 1851, aged 28 years.”

The cemetery is 77 years old and the fact that the headstone has been in place for 75 years is taken to mean that it was probably the first monument erected over a grave in that cemetery. For many years the headstone lay on its face, inscription to the ground, and the ivy creeper in time completely covered it. It was only while cutting down the ivy that Air Bond came across the stone. He raised it and found the inscription in as good condition as if it had been completed to-day. The workmanship was crude in the sense of spacing and punctuation, but apart from that it stands as an excellent idea of what the stonemasons of early Auckland could accomplish. A well-known stonemason stated this morning that there was nothing like the stone in Auckland. It was the original Mount Eden bluestone and was in his opinion the first stone erected in the cemetery.