Treestones: The Cemetery boasts a large collection of "treestones,"
monuments carved to resemble the severed
trunk of shattered oak trees. The stone usually signifiies the end of the family tree.
In 1866, frinds of Andrew H. Ernst (1796-1860) commissioned Leopold Fettweis to sculpt a treestone, a shattered, severed oak stump resting on the rubble of rock adorned by ferns, Virginia creeper, lilies of the valley, and sprays of ivy. It is fitting not only because Ernst's wife and children predeceased him but because Ernst was a nationally known horticulturist and Cemetery founder who came from Germany with his father, a poor man, at age ten. He established a fortune and lived on an estate, "Spring Garden." Ernst personally favored plant symbolism. The German inscription on the stone scroll translates, "Through Death to Life." The Ernsts moved family gravstones to Spring Grove from an urban graveyard and now lie horizontally in the grass around the monument.
The entire Eighth and Tenth grade classes getting a group photo.
Cedar Lake: The roots you along the waters edge are called "Cypress knees".