I'm a bit of a fan of the 'common' man. That the hard working lumberjack got a proper stone seems right. One thing I notice in an old cemetary is the plain, nondescript stones or markers. One was from 1782 - which is not that old for the East coast, but for the West, its pretty early
1782, living now in the east coast, i can say that stones dating back to that time are still hard to find, being lost, sunk, vandalized, or worn down to nothing and illegible. My wife liked to take big art paper and charcoal and recover some inscriptions, but even that was hit and miss. NJ has plenty of history that goes back to the late 17th century, but much of the original is lost. As per my comment on ColColt's, it is nice to see these woodman markers being found. I have never seen one.
I'll bet ones intact are few, Michael. I saw a photo of one from 1698. I never thought I'd see 1700s this far west.
Sometimes the stones are a poignant contact w/ life past. The prose, the art/ornamentation, mindset as shown by the language. I like the perspective it drives for noticing one's place in time.