Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Blood-Stained Mausoleum and Other Oddities

Nina Craigmiles died in 1871 when she was only seven years old. She was riding in a buggy with her grandfather who was on his doctor’s rounds when the horse was frightened by a train. The horse reared up and threw her little body on the train tracks in front of the oncoming train. In memory of their daughter, her rich parents built a church in their town of Cleveland Tennessee. Behind the church they built a marble mausoleum with Nina remains contained inside a sarcophagus. Later, a baby brother was interred here followed by her father when he died from blood poisoning and her mother when she was killed by an automobile.

Soon after Nina was buried here, red stains began to appear on the white marble walls. After each tragic death, the stains grew darker and larger. It’s said that all types of cleaning methods were used and sections of the marble was even replaced, but the ‘blood’ stains returned. There’s a continuing tragic story that the plan was to display a bust of Nina within the church. The European artist shipped the completed bust to America on the Titanic, where it now sits on the ocean floor.
 



On a lighter note, John saw this copperhead (I think that’s what it is) at one of the RV parks in Virginia. Cool!


On an even lighter note, here’s an interesting place we saw in the Chattanooga area.


No comments: