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The two brick grave houses shown in the May 23, 2025, “Flashback” article are by no means the only uncommon grave covers in the Manchester City Cemetery. In fact, that cemetery possibly has more unusual graves than any other in the Coffee County area.

As mentioned last week when introducing comb graves, all grave covers served multiple related purposes, which was to protect the grave from various intrusions. Those intrusions could be by weather, nefarious people, or animals. Secondary, but related to protection, could be the family’s desire to honor the deceased with a special grave. The materials and methods employed to protect the early graves varied in style, decoration (or lack of), and expense. In many cases, expense was probably the limiting factor. If the main purpose was weather protection, deterioration of some very old grave coverings, especially ones made partially of wood, has defeated that intended purpose. Stones, rocks, and concrete still protect somewhat, to varying degrees.

Strolling through the eastern half of Manchester’s City Cemetery, one cannot help but notice several different styles of covered graves, which truly stand out in comparison to the more standard monolith vertical headstones throughout the cemetery, which was at least part of the purpose all along.

There are several box or chest tombs, some being single and covering one grave, while others are larger and cover two or three. Even these are present in different styles: cast concrete without a base, brick with concrete base, brick with no visible base. Some concrete ones have sloped tops while others have flat tops. The brick ones all have flat concrete slab tops, but some have engraved markers added to the tops while others have them on the ends. Note that these boxes or chests do not contain the remains of the deceased. Those are buried beneath the ground.

There is at least one ledger grave, a large, engraved marker covering the grave, flat and at ground level. This one is for a person with the last name of Price, born in 1875. It is broken, the center having caved in, but all of the pieces are still present.

Especially interesting are the two adjacent tabletop graves, which are exactly what their name suggests, a flat stone “tabletop” resting on four legs. The sighting of those sparked some further research which revealed that it was sometimes customary for families to gather at a dearly departed loved one’s grave and share a meal, picnic style, especially in the Victorian era and preceding the creation of public city parks.

One more grave marker of note is actually a combination of a couple types. The large gateway headstone of the Alfred Moore May family is over three graves wide and towers over five individual raised, slightly domed ledger markers on the ground. A.M. May was a lumber dealer in Manchester and the five graves are for Mr. May, his wife Adelaide, his daughter Clarrine King, and son-in-law Dave King, and Dave’s German shepherd. Usually a gateway headstone is for a married couple and has two columns joined by an arch. This one for the May family consists of four columns for two married couples and appropriate arches, two smaller ones and the top large one.

Though not grave covers, one more interesting section of the Manchester City Cemetery is a small section bearing graves of Confederate Civil War veterans. Among them are several members of the Kentucky Orphan Brigade (nickname of the First Kentucky Brigade), plus some unidentified.

Resources: Coffee County Then & Now by Basil B. McMahon; A Grave Interest (https://agraveinterest.blogspot.com); Cemetery Symbolism (https://symbolism.magnoliasandpeaches.com); and Wikipedia “Kentucky Orphan Brigade.”