Death of Matilda Joslyn Gage

Matilda Joslyn Gage died on March 18, 1898, at son-in-law L. Frank Baum and daughter Maud’s Chicago home. She was cremated, a radical option at a time when most American Christians insisted on burial, fearful that if their bodies were burned they might be unable to participate in the Last Judgment. Gage's ashes were buried in the Fayetteville Cemetery beneath a rough-hewn headstone inscribed with her best-remembered saying: "There is a word sweeter than mother, home, or heaven. That word is Liberty."