Stories behind the Stones:
“ Everything that human love could do was done”
By Brian A. Sullivan, Archivist
A cluster of humble sandstone monuments in the Eliot family lot on Pyrola Path features simple inscriptions that provide us with clues about the lives of the individuals who rest there. But the diary of one— educator Samuel Eliot( 1821-1898)— tells us more about the poignant story behind two of the stones: those of his sons, George Otis Eliot, who died at the age of two, and William Samuel Eliot, who died at twenty.
On December 26, 1863, as Eliot left on a journey to Europe with his wife Emily( 1832-1906), for health reasons, he wrote,“ She must be taken to warmer latitudes … God keep us, and those we leave behind us, and reunite us in good time.”
But a reunion was not to be. On April 1, 1864, while in Spain, the Eliots received heartbreaking news about one of their sons. Samuel wrote in his diary,“ George died on the night of the 11-12 of March, aged 2 years, 6 months and 10 days, a life of joy, and beauty, and purity, one for which we are very thankful. Everything that human love could do was done— but God saw fit to take him to Himself …”
Months before, George had accompanied his parents on a visit to upstate New York.“ His next journey,” his father wrote,“ was to Heaven in the spirit, and the silent, deserted body, to Mount Auburn … Little recollections throng the memory … I hope I shall never forget the sight— I so often saw with love and joy— his beautiful face, at the window— radiant with pleasure as he saw me coming to the house … It will be so [ again ] if I am worthy to follow him to Paradise.”
Under doctor’ s orders, Samuel and Emily continued their journey and returned to Boston on September 2, 1864— George’ s third birthday.“ We keep remembering and loving him here,” Eliot wrote that day.“ Are we to wish him back again?… No, but the heart bends, though breaks not, [ and ] is yearning after the welcome that his sweet face and voice and love would have given us today, had he been spared.”
A decade later, George’ s brother, William Samuel Eliot, a senior at Harvard College, was rapidly succumbing to tuberculosis. He managed, however, to complete his degree requirements and, on Class Day— through the kindness of his classmates— was carried to a window in Harvard Hall so that he could observe their traditional dance around the Class Day elm.
That summer, William’ s decline was precipitous, compelling his father to confide to his diary on September 2, 1874:“[ He ] is very ill, more ill than he was last year, and it may be that the time when the two [ brothers ] are to be together again, is very near.”
On November 15, 1874, William died, and was laid to rest at Mount Auburn next to his younger brother. The following March— on the anniversary of the death of little George— his father wrote:“ Eleven years and the first of these days when the brothers are together. What a fair light, and hope, they would have been here. How much fairer, we may be sure, are they there!”
Eliot family lot on Pyrola Path
8 | Sweet Auburn