Woodmen of the World: An Old Insurance Policy for Woodmen

 I’ve discovered some of my family’s membership in the Modern Woodmen of the World. Many of my ancestors are buried at the Owsley Union Cemetery, located south of Longview, Missouri, and north of Powell on 76 Highway in McDonald County. One day while there, I noticed a unique headstone for Walter E. Utter, a brother to my great-grandfather. Walter died two days before Christmas in 1908.   

 Walter’s headstone is a rectangular smooth piece of gray stone that sets on a large base.  It measures five feet tall. His date of birth and date of death is on the front of the stone. An inscription reads, “left a wife and five children.” At the top of the rectangle on both sides, are engraved upside-down lilies. Four large, engraved stone logs are stacked on top of the headstone.   Beneath the lilies and logs is a large square emblem marked with a shield, an ax, and an aul, with the letters M, W, and A. 

I had no idea what Walter’s headstone represented, but I noticed other ornate headstones in the cemetery that resembled Walter’s stone. They mark the graves of Jerry H. Clapper and Lee R. Owsley. Owsley’s stone resembles a tree trunk with the same emblem, but his states “Erected by the Woodmen of the World.”  From that, I had the information I needed to do research. 

Joseph Cullen Root started the Modern Woodmen of the World around 1883 to honor the pioneer woodsmen who cleared the land for developing our roads, and communities, and building homes. Woodmen of the World, later changed to Modern Woodmen of America, began as a fraternal benefit society that protected families and their financial futures by offering insurance protection. In the early days, certificates provided a death and a monument benefit to its members, furnishing free gravestones when they died. Eventually, the elaborate gravestones became obsolete due to the cost of materials and cemetery regulations.    

 Originally, all of the Woodmen gravestones were to be identical in size and design, but the result varied across the nation as local stonecutters used a wide variety of designs. What evolved are beautiful, elaborate, and precious works of art marking woodmen’s graves. There is the answer to the question of why all of the headstones are different, except for the Society’s emblem. 

Woodmen’s gravestones are scattered across the nation and is a fascination for many people who want to document the elaborate stones found in cemeteries. The USGenWeb Archive Project does have some photos of gravestones in our area, but not of the Owsley Union Cemetery. You can access the website at USGenWeb Project to see the photos.  

 Cynthia Ann Utter, my great, great-grandfather’s sister, married Lewis Fulweiler Houser. They lived in the Rocky Comfort area all their married lives. Lewis Houser is distinguished as being a charter member of the local Modern Woodmen of America in Rocky Comfort. I have a picture of the Rocky Comfort Citizen’s Bank building, provided by L. Bennett, of Rocky. Banking occurred on the lower level, while the Modern Woodmen met on the upper level of the building.

 After finding the wonderful Woodmen's headstones in cemeteries, now I search in other cemeteries to find more. As of this writing, I have seen many Woodmen stones dispersed throughout our Missouri counties. All are ornate and display some type of woodsy details.   

I am proud to have Modern Woodmen of America in my family. That information gives me more interesting stories to add to my family history.