The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 405
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Collection
Mrs. Eleanor Damon Pace of Wichita Falls received her Ph.D.
degree in history in August, 1944, at The University of Texas.
Her thesis was entitled: Roumania and the Balkan Wars.
The following contribution was sent to the Texas Collection
by Judge Walter W. Fair, Franklin, Tennessee. The epitaph is
on the headstone of Colonel Ezekiel Polk's grave in Hardeman
County, Tennessee. Except for the vital statistics, the epitaph
was written by the Colonel in his seventy-fourth year. Thomas
J. Hardeman, prominent in early Texas history, married a
daughter of the Colonel.
Readers must recall that in 1822, about the time of the
writing, the frontier revivals made a good many persons who
aspired to intellectual pursuits rather unhappy. Also every
Quarterly issued since its beginning in 1897 has carried the
statement, "the editors disclaim responsibility for views ex-
pressed by contributors." The conclusions are the Colonel's.
Sacred to the memory of Col Ezekiel Polk
Born 7th Dec. 1747 and died 31st of Aug. 1824,
Aged 76 years 8 months and 24 days.
Here lies the dust of old E. P.,
One instance of mortality,
Pennsylvania born,
Car'lina bred,
In Tennessee died on his bed.
His youthful days he spent in pleasure,
His latter days in gathering treasure,
From superstition he lived quite free
And practiced strict morality.
To holy cheats was never willing
To give one solitary shilling.
He can forsee, and foreseeing
He equals most of men in being;
That church and state will join their power
And misery on this country shower;
And Methodists with their camp bawling
Will be the cause of this downfalling.
An era not destined to see
It waits for poor posterity.
First fruits and tithes are odious things,
And so are Bishops, Priests and Kings.
My personal favorite of all epitaphs, quite uncharacteristically,
comes from New England.405
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/449/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.