“While on the tree the summons came”

Eleven years ago, Caitlin G. DeAngelis shared images of a gravestone that was lying on the ground and slowing sinking into the soil of Bristol, Rhode Island.

It reads:

ALLEN WARDWELL
son of Mr. Peleg
Pitman & Mary his
wife; who lost his
life by a fall from
a tree April 13th
1799, in the 11th
Year of his age.
While on the tree
The summons came
And call’d me
to my GOD.

The stone includes not only a carving of a droopy tree, not unlike those one sees on mourning embroidery of this period. But in this case the art also includes a picture of young Allen falling to his death, broken branch clutched in his hand.

Photos at Find a Grave suggest that this stone has been stood up again. Let’s hope it will be looked after.