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Silent, ghostly sentinels, these white figures In the Mt Hope cemetery* at' Hiawatha, Kansas, are the fruits of the whole life of John Milburn Davis, retired farmer. Pictured from inside the granite screen that now keeps vandals away, the figures at right depict Davis and his wife during the invalid days that preceded her death. The other figure of Davis beside the vacant chair at left symbolizes his bereavement and loneliness since the passing of his wife. Other figures show the couple at various other times of their married life.Hiawatha, Kan., Jupe 4. — John Milburn Davis is 83, and he probably hasn't many years to live.But he will not be forgotten when he has gone. He has made sure of that by sinking most of a tidy fortune into a memorial that nobody can forget.And what a memorial! Grouped beneath a 19 by 19 square granite pavilion, standing and sitting stiffly like distant relatives at a family reunion, are six marble figures of Davis, and five of his dead wife. They represent the couple at various stages of their long married life.Davis, who is believed to have put $200,000 into the strange monument, likes it. To local civic leaders who tried to get him to turn the money into a park or other public work, Davis answers only that it is his money and his memories that are being frozen Into white marble.The body of Mrs. Davis, who died in 1930, lies beneath the granite pavilion. A place waits for Davis himself.Got Started; Couldn't Stop.He began building a year after his wife’s death. His first idea was for two statues of himself and his wife, facing each other across her grave. Photographs and measurements were sent to Italy,' where sculptors produced the first figures. Davis likec them so well he soon sent for more.In one group, figures of Davis and his wife are shown facing each other on their tenth anniversary,PAFadHISogrtilinrodsbirashows Davis without a beard, as his facial adornment was burned off in a brush fire in 1898.John Milburn Davis, above, is 83. Besides the vault of his wife, his own waits for him, but ■his declining years have been occupied in transforming all his property into their joint memorial to their long life together.not long after they had settled in Hiawatha as a young farm couple. The eighteenth anniversary groupLater figures of Davis show him with only one hand, as he lost one in 1908 from a scythe-cut. But the beard returned to the later sculptures, and is evident today on the living Davis.The same progressive changes mark the figures of Mrs. Davis, including one which represents her as a kneeling angel with wings. Davis, hat in hand, stands regarding his wife on their Golden Wedding day. Davis, deserted, sits alone beside a vacant chair to portray his desolation and loneliness after his wife's death.Thousands of people visit the unique memorial, and it has been necessary to add a granite barrier directly in front of the figure to discourage vandalism. Visitors have worn a deep path along the edge of the memorial, often tramping over adjoining graves in their curiosity.Many of the visitors call on Davis. Some praise, some abuse 'him. He gets hundreds of letters, to which he pays no attention. He knows he is criticized locally for failure to devote his money to public purposes. He doesn’t care.I’ve learned the futility of trying to please everyone.” he says. So I’m trying to please myself and honor the memory of my wife, who was my helpmate for more than half a century.And so, no doubt, for many half-centuries the ghostly figures of Davis and his wife will sit and stand beneath the granite colonnade into which has been finally distilled the savings of their long life together.
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