Cast Iron Grave Covers

“Just whisper my name
in your heart
and I will be there.”

Following the Civil War when people were looking for inexpensive-yet-durable burial markers for their relatives, a civil engineer who tinkered as an inventor got a patent for his grave coverings, which included building supports below-ground.

Joseph R. Abrams of Greenville, Alabama patented the cover design in 1873, suggesting that the mound of earth on underground supports should be covered in cockleshells to prevent erosion and a frame of "any suitable material, separate for convenience in handling and transportation, and may be fitted together like the plates of a stove."

When put into practice, that suitable material turned out to be cast-iron. Soon, the covers, which look something like intricate roasting-pan tops or large oblong gelatin molds, dotted cemeteries across the country. They were made from pouring molten iron into decorative molds and cooling them. Although the inventor thought they would be durable, and they proved successful in preventing erosion and collapse, people soon found they rusted and turned brittle, causing the name plates and decorations to break. They could also break in freezing weather.

In 1875, Egbert Sipes of Pennsylvania for filed a patent for an improved design, stating: "This invention has relation to cast-iron grave-covers; and it consists in making the cover open at the sides, with four supporting legs of sufficient length to elevate the cover to the height of the mound of the grave. In this construction the grave-cover, being open at the sides and ends, cannot become broken by the effect of freezing, an accident which is apt to occur in cold climates."

Today, relatively few of the cast-iron covers survive.