Once upon a time there was a man named John Wilburn Davis. John moved to Hiawatha, Kansas in 1879 and promptly fell in love with his boss' daughter, Sarah. Sarah loved John too, but Sarah's family did not approve. Still, true love won out, and John and Sarah were married.

Years of wedded bliss followed, in which John and Sarah started their own farm and prospered. All was well until Sarah passed away in 1930 at the age of 92 leaving John a lonely, grief-stricken, wealthy man.

John tried to settle on the best way to show his enduring love for Sarah. This was the Depression era, so local townspeople might have hoped that his memorial to Sarah might benefit the community. A memorial hospital, for instance, would be nice.

John, however, had other ideas of how to waste his money, and soon set out to create an extravagant memorial to Sarah. He commissioned a pair of statues, carved by a master Italian craftsman out of famed Carrara, Italy, marble, depicting himself and Sarah at the time of their 50th wedding anniversary. However, when he saw the statues beneath the huge marble canopy, he decided they looked too bare and started commissioning additional statues - depicting the happy couple at various stages in their lives - to keep the first two company.

By the time he finished the entire memorial consisted of 11 life-size statues - some in marble and some in granite - along with a marble canopy and wall. Davis exhausted his entire fortune in constructing the memorial... and some people think that may have been the point since he had no heirs and he hated Sarah's family and certainly didn't want any money going to them. However, this sort of backfired on him since he ended up in a poorhouse after a doctor diagnosed him with "terminal" cancer... that ended up taking 10 years to kill him. Remember, kids: don't give away *all* your money, even if the doctor says you're not going to need it!

Incidentally, the memorial has amazingly become the biggest attraction in Hiawatha. I say "amazingly" because you know how many other exciting things there are to see in Hiawatha, Kansas (population 3,417).

Of course, it comes as no surprise that when I found myself with a spare weekend to kill in Topeka, Kansas in May, 2005, I decided that instead of simply sleeping the weekend away (which I had done before), I would actually make the hour drive to the Davis Memorial. And this is what I found...

After an hour of grass and cow sightseeing, I finally found myself at the gates of the Mount Hope Cemetery in the metropolis of Hiawatha.	I drove inside and immediately saw the Davis Memorial, which dominates the cemetery. It's not the prettiest memorial I've seen, as Mr. Davis didn't plan his space out very well and ended up adding too many statues in too small of a plot. (It reminded me a bit of a rather frightening statuary lot I once stumbled across in Augusta, Georgia - and was chased out of for taking pictures.) The wall around the plot is rather cumbersome as well, and hasn't prevented vandalism to some of the statues (as we'll see).	But you don't come to a memorial like this looking for artistic balance, do you? There's a reason this memorial is featured on Roadside America, after all. It's not just every day that someone will waste so much money on such lovely overkill. These two statues depict the couple as they looked late in their life together. Notice that John is missing his left hand; he lost it to infection in 1908. (Gotta love realism!)	Here's a closer view of Sarah's full elderly statue.
And here's a closer view of John's elderly statue. He looks a bit worried, doesn't he? He must know that Sarah isn't going to be with him much longer.	Here's a granite statue depicting John at the time of his wife's demise. Again, the missing hand is rendered in great detail.	Sadly, beside John sits the Vacant Chair - the chair in which Sarah would sit had she been alive. Poignant, isn't it?	Here they are sitting side by side, waiting to die - sad John and The Vacant Chair. Tragic Granite.
Here's another view of the final set of statues from the side.	The second pair of statues that John commissioned were these beauties that depict the couple as they would have looked about 10 years after they were married. Their positioning at opposite ends of the bench, leaning away from each other, might explain why they never had any children.	Detail of young John. Nice carving, isn't it? Very dapper suit of stone!	And here's a detailed shot of young Sarah. Does anyone else see a little nip showing? Oh, BEHAVE!!!
Here's another pair of statues, showing the couple in middle age. John kinda reminds me of Thurston Howell III in this carving.	A closer view of fetching young(ish) Lovey, er, Sarah.	And heeeeeere's Johnny! Close-shaven for the last time ever...	The final two statues that John commissioned depicted himself and Sarah as angels over each other's graves. Sadly, vandals have made off with John's head. Come on, people - Isn't it bad enough that the guy lost a hand in life?
A closer view of Angel John.	Why settle for just one statue of Mr. Davis when you can have two? Looks like some plastic surgery was performed on the one on the left.	This shot was taken peering over the wall that awkwardly surrounds the memorial and looking straight down.	Here's a final shot of the angel Sarah taken from the other side of the crowded memorial. Looks like she's saying, "John, John, why did you waste all our money on these silly statues?"

After enjoying the Davis Memorial, I wandered around the rest of the cemetery, but it really isn't terribly interesting. About the only grave I found worth photographing was this nice statue memorializing someone named Pearl. Still, shames in comparison to what ol' John did!

And thus ended my trip to Hiawatha, Kansas - where even homely farmers can be memorialized in Carrara marble!