Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Author: Father Pitt

  • Elizabeth Henry Tombstone, St. Clair Cemetery

    Elizabeth Henry tombstone

    Broken but still mostly legible, except where the stone has flaked away toward the right. We are almost certain of the surname “Henry,” because the stone lies near several other members of the Henry family. Here is how we reconstruct the inscription:

    [In]
    MEMORY OF
    Elizabeth Hen[ry]
    who departed t[his life]
    June 10th 1839 in t[he –]
    Year of her a[ge.]

    —

    Esteemed Deaugh[ter,]
    this silent grave
    Love and respect [?]
    shall ever have.

    This epitaph, such as it is, seems to be an original composition; Father Pitt has not found it anywhere else on the Web. The spelling “deaughter” is not unusual for Western Pennsylvania tombstones.

  • Leopold Vilsack Mausoleum, St. Mary’s Cemetery

    Leopold Vilsack mausoleum

    Leopold Vilsack was an early partner in Iron City Brewing, a wise investment that earned him this almost cartoonishly extravagant Romanesque mausoleum.

    Leopold Vilsack mausoleum

  • Stewart Monument, Chartiers Cemetery

    Stewart monument

    A typical zinc monument in most respects, except that it bears no inscriptions other than the name “STEWART” on the base. Instead, the various Stewarts have individual stone markers. Since one of the attractions of a zinc monument was that it could bear a number of inscriptions, thus saving the expense of individual markers, we suspect that there may have been a Stewart family argument over the Stewart family plot.

    Stewart monument

  • Fall in St. Mary’s Cemetery

    Landscape, St. Mary’s Cemetery

    Autumn landscapes in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Lawrenceville.

    St. Mary’s Cemetery
    St. Mary’s Cemetery

  • Gormley Shaft, Chartiers Cemetery

    Gormley family plot

    This truly monumental monument is the tallest private memorial in the cemetery; only the Civil War monument is taller. It is nevertheless a monument-dealer’s stock item; an identical monument can be found in Allegheny Cemetery. It marks the family plot of the Gormleys, whose patriarch was named James for several generations, until the last James Gormley was finally buried under the epitaph “THE LAST OF THE LINE.”

    Gormley family plot
    Gormley monument