Richard Wallace of Litchfield died in 1794 at age 38. There are few extant records of his life in town; he participated in land tansactions, married, and had a family. In death, however, he was remembered with a striking gravestone in the East Cemetery.

The text makes it clear how those close to him thought he should be remembered:

In him, the State lost a useful and respectable citizen, his acquaintance a man worthy of their friendship; his domestic connections, an affectionate husband and tender parent, in testimony of esteem, his surviving relatives have created this memorial.

Equally interesting is the symbolism employed on the stone. A relatively generic rendering of Wallace, with closed eyes, is surrounded by grapes and vines. The grapes are representative of the Eucharistic wine. The vine is indicative of God’s relationship with man. As is written in the Gospel of John, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing.”