Sisters: Prologue

The Brand and Ham monuments, Union Cemetery

Union Cemetery, founded on November 9, 1857, is the oldest public cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. In Section 56, lot 2, stand two monuments quite different in style and colour.

One stone is a large pink spire — at least ten feet tall — which seems to go on forever and is certainly taller than any other nearby monument. A mother and daughter are buried here together under one stone:

On one side:

On the other side:

Beside the mother-and-daughter Sarahs is another monument, a grey stone sarcophagus with large letters — HAM — on both sides. At one end, the inscription reads:

Their deaths are separated by 37 years, but despite marriages or other relationships, they chose to lie here together. A mother and two of her daughters: Sarah Ann Brand, Sarah Etta Brand, and Julia Harriet Brand. Together for eternity, but they surely miss Clarinda.