Saturday, March 9, 2013

GUAM'S SMALLEST CEMETERY?

 
Four graves.  That's it.

I know of individual graves, and also graves of two, perhaps three, individuals buried right next to a private residence.  But I wouldn't consider those cemeteries but rather private graves, instead.

But this site, not connected to any private residence, could be the smallest cemetery in all the Marianas.  Four graves.

It's found in Humåtak, just outside the large Catholic cemetery.  These four graves belong to four Baptists in Humåtak, who could not be buried in the Catholic cemetery for obvious reasons.



Juan Aguon Quinata, born in 1883, was baptized a Catholic, as they all were during Spanish times.  Later, during American times, he became a Baptist.  He died in 1953.  Two other graves are of people who died in 1925 and 1934.  So this small area was designated for the Humåtak Baptists in the 1920s.

I have to investigate further, but I think the Baptist connection came about through marriage with one of the Hagåtña Baptists.  These graves are basically of people within one family.

The gravestones all include at the bottom the opening lines of one of the most famous English Protestant hymns :  Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee!

It's amazing what you find hidden in some of the small villages and isolated locations in our islands - if you just look hard enough.

No comments:

Post a Comment