Stone Cutter

On Tuesday I made a visit to the shop of talented artisan J. David Gillespie near Pickens, South Carolina. David hand carves tomb stones in slate and is one the few artisans in the country that does so. It was a bittersweet trip because I was there to pick up the stone he was carving for my late wife Dedra. He produced a simple stone that was a reproduction of the headstone of one of Dedra’s ancestors, Benjamin Hopkins, who died in 1796. I think she would approve.

(Photographs copyright 2022 by Dan Routh)