In Friendship Cemetery, nearly hidden from view from the nearby highway passing through Nile Township, Scioto County, Ohio, lies the grave of Mary E. Davis, an infant whose life was measured in months rather than years. Her monument, however, speaks with the voice of a family’s grief and the artistry of 19th-century funerary symbolism.
📜 A Brief Life
Mary E. Davis was the daughter of John M. Davis and Julia A. Earley. She was born in the spring of 1876 and lived only three months and eight days before passing away on June 11, 1876.
At a time when infant mortality was heartbreakingly common, marble monuments such as Mary’s became a way for families to express both their sorrow and their faith in eternal reunion.
🪞 A Monument of Memory
The Davis monument is a large rectangular white marble marker bearing a deeply touching image: a small girl, peacefully asleep in a canopy bed. The bed’s drapes are carved as though pulled aside, revealing the child in eternal rest.
This imagery bridges the earthly and the divine:
The Sleeping Child represents innocence and the belief that death was but a form of sleep before awakening in Heaven.
The Canopy Bed with Drapes echoes the Victorian-era practice of framing the child’s death as a transition; a tender pause rather than a final end.
Beneath the carving is inscribed the verse:
“Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
This biblical quotation (Mark 10:14) was a common epitaph for children in the 19th century, a reminder of Christ’s love for the young and innocent.
🧼 Preservation and Change
By the early 21st century, the once-white marble stone had darkened, its surface obscured by biological growth that left it nearly black. In September 2021, the marker was carefully cleaned using D/2 Biological Solution, a conservation-grade cleaner often used on historic stone.
When revisited in May 2025, the monument showed continued improvement, the surface had lightened further as the D/2 treatment continued to work gradually with the elements. This ongoing change demonstrates not only the durability of the stone, but also the importance of preservation efforts in keeping these memorials legible for future generations.
🧭 Cultural Context
Mary’s monument is a fine example of Victorian funerary art in marble, popular among families of means during the mid to late 19th century. Unlike folk-carved sandstone or limestone markers found elsewhere in Scioto County, these polished marble stones were often ordered from monument dealers who supplied intricate designs catalogued for grieving families to choose from.
The motif of a sleeping child reflected not only the high child mortality rates of the era, but also a cultural emphasis on Christian consolation framing infant death as a heavenly gain, even as it remained an earthly heartbreak.
That Mary’s family chose such an elaborate and symbolic marker demonstrates both their grief and their desire for her memory to endure within the cemetery landscape of Friendship.
🧱 3D Capture
Captured using Polycam in May 2025, this high-resolution 3D model documents the Davis monument as it continues to recover from biological staining. The imagery of the child in her canopy bed is visible in fine detail, allowing the artistry of the stonecarver to be appreciated in ways that photographs alone cannot capture.
🔚 Conclusion
Though Mary E. Davis’s life spanned only a few short months, her monument continues to speak more than a century later. The image of a child asleep in her marble bed reminds us of the fragility of life in 19th-century Scioto County and the ways in which families sought comfort in faith and artistry. Thanks to preservation efforts, her stone is once again visible in the landscape, its beauty and symbolism no longer hidden by time. In documenting and caring for it, we ensure that Mary’s story, and her family’s expression of love, endures for generations to come.
