Electa Pond
1812-1841

Bryant Number(s): 689
Type of Memorial: Sandstone headstone
Stonecarver: White

Inscription:
Memento
Mori.
Electa
Wife of
Aaron Pond
Died Sept. 19th
1841 aged 28 Y
10 M. 1 d.

There is a home for weary souls
By sins and sorrows driven
When tossed on lifes tempestuous shoals
Where storms arrive and ocean rolls
And all is drear but heaven.

Commentary: Electa Bigelow Pond was a young Granville wife and mother when she died in 1841 at the early age of 28. The cause of her death is not known. She was likely the daughter of Marshall and Elizabeth Bigelow, who were also buried in the Old Colony Burying Ground (Bryant #s 583 & 584) several years after Electa’s death. Electa married a man named Aaron Pond, an émigré from New York to Ohio who was employed in the construction of the Ohio Canal before settling in Granville. There he became active in business (including cabinetmaking) and civic affairs, holding various elective offices. He also served in a military capacity, presumably in the local militia, and used the title “Major” with his name.

Aaron’s obituary in the Granville Times noted that his bride Electa Bigelow was “a young woman of personal beauty and christian propriety.” The couple had three children (two daughters and a son), who must have been still quite young at the time of their mother’s passing. Aaron was subsequently married to a lady named Lydia Handle, whom he outlived by three years. By the time he died in 1884, both fashion and custom were directing burials to Granville’s relatively new Maple Grove Cemetery, so he was not buried with Electa in the Old Colony. While there is no evidence that Electa’s grave was moved to Maple Grove, her name nonetheless appears with his on his memorial stone there.

Electa’s imposing sandstone memorial in the Old Colony is beautifully rendered to show off the stonecarver’s skills in both incised and relief lettering, and in multiple-sized block- and script-style fonts. The inscription begins with the familiar Latin admonition, Memento mori (“Remember you must die").

Find a Grave link: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19772916/electa-pond