Look closely at John A. Broadus’s grave marker: its portrait, its inscriptions, and the language chosen to preserve his memory.
These photographs bring the monument into view, from the complete marker to the words on its bronze plaques. Select any photograph to enlarge it and explore the details.
The front plaque records his birth on January 24, 1827, and death on March 16, 1895. The family name is carved into the stone below.
“On earth there is nothing great but man. In man there is nothing great but mind.”
A transcription of the inscription visible in the photograph; the monument does not identify its author in this view.
The gentleness of the lamb.
The Sampson strength of the lion.
The wisdom of Solomon.
Erudite scholar; famous preacher;
“a saint in Israel.” To him this shaft
is raised to stand while time lasts. To
mark his grave—“the last mansion of
mortality”—as a feeble token of
esteem and veneration for his memory
by the “last leaf on the tree” of the
W. F. Norton family.
Transcribed from the supplied photograph. The spelling “Sampson” follows the plaque; line breaks follow the inscription.
Compare the monument’s words—gentleness, strength, wisdom, scholarship, and preaching—with the newspaper tribute. What qualities did Broadus’s admirers most want later generations to remember?
Read the 1895 newspaper tribute ↗Three photographs supplied by Dr. Bartley Wooten and identified by him as John A. Broadus’s burial grave marker. Photographer and date have not been supplied. The images are reproduced without altering their content. The transcriptions describe what is visible on the monument; the tribute expresses the perspective of its commemorators.