Little Jimmie Stetson: "It is Well with the Boy" (Tombstone Tuesday)

Originally posted at the Southern Graves blog.

Our first born
JIMMIE
Son of J. D. & E. S. Stetson
Born May 25, 1873
Died Sep 10, 1885

"It is well with the boy."

Rose Hill Cemetery
Macon, Georgia

Photo © 2012 S. Lincecum

Young Jimmie Stetson's tombstone is fashioned after a broken column. This often represents a life cut short. Dying at the young age of twelve years, as did Jimmie, would be an example of just that. A poignant Our first born is inscribed above Jimmie's name on the scroll that bears his epitaph, and at the base of the broken column is "It is well with the boy."

I took this latter phrase as a play on "It is well with my soul," a hymn written by Horatio Spafford about 1873.

...No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.