This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: cathabes1 Surnames: Classification: death Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.vermont.counties.rutland/4808/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I found the following to provide some "colorful" insight into a local "character" in the 1880s who may have employed many local workman in the building of his expensive and elaborate mausoleum. The following articles are about the John P. Bowman Mausoleum in Laurel Glen Cemetery in Cuttingsville. Bowman was born in Clarendon, Vermont. In 1880, about the time of these articles, he was 64 and living in Stony Creek, Warren County, New York. He had moved to Stony Creek about 1852 and opened a successful tannery. Some biography and drawings of himself, wife and daughter can be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywarren/countyhistory/smith/xxxv.htm Bowman built a mansion for himself across the road from the cemetery in Cuttingsville. He died in 1891 and is now buried in the mausoleum. The angel kneeling at the door of the mausoleum, described in the first article, was apparently scrapped at some point for a eerily realistic statue of Bowman himself kneeling at the door. Pictures can be found at http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/VTCUTmausoleum.html Spooky stories of the mausoleum and mansion can be found at http://books.google.com/books?id=X3L-D9i9BOMC&pg=PA282&lpg=PA282&dq=bowman tomb cuttingsville&source=web&ots=n-3KP0mJqf&sig=yABJazJMBpGQlsauyhPaJFGoI3M and http://books.google.com/books?id=MsJRRRtu2tIC&pg=PT8&lpg=PT8&dq=bowman tomb cuttingsville&source=web&ots=2fY38Ise9o&sig=VptjD-omX-tAlTkicKMtQoadCdk New York Times December 17, 1880 An Elaborate Tomb in Vermont A correspondent of the Montpelier (Vt.) Watchman describes at some length a tomb now nearly completed in a small rural graveyard in that state. It is situated in the little hamlet of Cuttingsville, a few miles below Rutland. The total cost of the structure will exceed $30,000 and it is being erected at the order of Mr. Beaman (sic), a wealthy resident of Chester, N.Y., and a native of Clarendon, Vt., in memory of his wife and daughter and an infant granddaughter (sic - actually it was two daughters), from whom he had been bereaved by sudden and repeated strokes, and for whom, in his own quiet language, he is building, in cost at least, the house he intended for them. Nearly one hundred men have been busy on various departments of the labor for months past. In general exterior character it is a massive granite mausoleum vestibule sheltering the vault that contains the cherished dead. The granite blocks inclosing the sides and the roof are of immense massiveness, that of t! he roof weighing nine tons. The door is a granite monolith of eight tons weight, designed to be kept closed at inclement periods of the year. At other times the entrance is kept by an open grating door of massive bronze, to cost $5,000. The whole interior is of choice white marble, not in ashlars or thin scale-work, but in massive blocks, that of the ceiling weighing five tons in a single stone, deeply wrought into a domes roof-work, with emblems and tracery of the most elaborate character. The chief features within are statuary memorials of the dead on richly wrought consoles.. At the four angles are placed mirrors, so set as to be protected from the elements. The only external statue is the angel of immortality kneeling at the door, with the key to the portal of the tomb in her hand. New York Times Aug 24, 1883 An Expensive Mausoleum Clarendon Springs (Vt.) Correspondence Troy Telegram One of the most beautiful drives in this section is to Cuttingsville, where the famous Bowman tomb, the estimated cost of which is $75,000, is situated. This elegant mausoleum, which was erected by the Hon. John P. Bowman to the memory of his wife and daughter, is one of the most beautiful pieces of mortuary architecture in the world. The general shape of the tomb is square, and its size is immense. Seven hundred and fifty tons of granite, 50 tons of marble, 20,000 bricks, 325 barrels of English Portland cement, a large quantity of calcined plaster, and 100 loads of sand were used in its construction. It is 20 feet high and 17 1/2 by 20 in length. The interior, the beauty of which will amply repay a long journey, is finished entirely in statuary and Brocadilla marbles. There are inside exquisitely finished busts of Mr. Bowman, his wife and daughter. The figure of the latter, who was but a child at the time of her death, is upon a marble pedestal resting on the floor, ! its dimpled arms outstretched beseechingly toward its mother. On either side of the mausoleum are posed in an angular juxtaposition, two French plate mirrors in elaborately engraved marble frames filling the entire space from wainscotting to cornice. By the angular posings of these mirrors and the peculiar positions of the statuary is produced a wonderful and dazzling optical illusion, presenting to the astonished observer vast marble halls and corridors stretching away in every direction as far as the eye can reach, peopled by a grand concourse of snow white figures in groups and endless lines, seen through the mystic vistas in perspective, while the interlacing columns and their flowing vaulted ceiling lines fill up in grand luxuriance the seeming endless space presented in a strange, bewildering confusion, and here and there on every hand a landscape greets the eye of a mountain, vale, and stream, reflected from the portal at the front. I have been thus minute in deta! iling the beauties of this tomb, because it is unique in the wonders o f its workmanship, and any visitors to Clarendon will be amply repaid for their trouble by visiting and inspecting it. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.