A matched pair of monuments in a late version of the romantic style that was popular in the middle 1800s. August Abbott was born in Saxony, but his inscription is in English, suggesting that his family—unlike many German immigrant families—Americanized in one generation.
The monuments are signed by the stonecutters, and the signatures are different.
Boggs & Lindsey, if we read correctly.
Alex. Boggs—again if we read correctly. Perhaps Lindsey retired or died.
William Sheraden was the founder of the Sheraden borough that later became the Sheraden neighborhood of Pittsburgh. We have featured this monument before, but not with such fine fall colors in the background.
Old Pa Pitt hates to throw up his hands and declare a monument “illegible.” It is especially frustrating with this monument, where on one side he can read almost everything but the last name—John something, who died August 16, 1847. That date seems about right for this style of monument, which was quite fashionably artistic for its time. On another face is an even more eroded inscription for someone whose given name was Lizzie, and another name that Father Pitt has not been able to decipher. Perhaps in different light the inscriptions will become clear, and Father Pitt promises to update this article if he succeeds in reading them.
This unusual round Doric temple, unlike a closed mausoleum, invites cemetery visitors to step up and under the roof. There the names of the Baum family members interred here are inscribed in an open stone book on a lectern.
A typical Victorian shaft topped with equally typical shrouded urn. The name Gutbub is unusual, but we have run across it elsewhere: in Zion Cemetery, on a very similar (but not quite identical) monument. That family later changed its name to Goodboy, which is even more unusual.
