One has the impression that there is a sort of obelisk underneath here, but it has become encrusted with ornamentation, like a saint’s relic from the Middle Ages. It certainly serves its purpose of leaving a distinctive mark on the cemetery skyline to guide Baums and Roups to their ancestors’ graves. The Baums and Roups intersected in life by marriage, and the streets named after them intersect in Friendship.

There is an absolutely identical shaft in the Chartiers Cemetery for the Gormley family. Was this some monument-dealer’s most extravagant standard-order item?