This photograph shows John Alexander Tyler’s gravestone in the South End Burying Ground. Tyler (1848-1883), a son of the East Hampton-born first lady Julia Gardiner Tyler (1820-1889) and President John Tyler (1790-1862), was born at the family’s Sherwood Forest plantation on the James River in Virginia, as his monument notes.
This broken-column style of gravestone was typically used to commemorate someone whose life was cut short, which makes sense for a man who died at 35 years old.
As a young man, Tyler was sent to Germany to finish his education, and there he served in the German Army during the Franco-Prussian War. He later studied mining before returning to the United States, where he worked as a surveyor for the federal government in western lands. On Sept. 18, 1874, he married a cousin, Sarah Griswold Gardiner (1848-1927), in Manhattan. She was a daughter of Samuel Buell Gardiner (1815-1882) and the former Mary Thompson (1807-1887).
In May of 1883, The Sag Harbor Corrector reported that Tyler was in New Mexico, and he remained there until September, when he died of dysentery in Santa Fe. After his death, Sarah Gardiner Tyler stayed active in East Hampton social life, joining the Maidstone Club and serving as the first president of the Old East Hampton Society.
Gravestones of varying designs appear in the background of this photo, including an obelisk and one with a Celtic cross. The Celtic cross also bears a Chi-Rho, a Christogram that was often used as an emblem of resurrection. For those interested in gravestones, the Long Island Collection will be celebrating Halloween at the East Hampton Library on Saturday with an activity during which participants can decorate a gravestone and learn about some of the symbols and designs used in old cemeteries here.
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Andrea Meyer, a librarian and archivist, is the Long Island Collection’s head of collection.
