It looks as though the family of G. Aten could not afford to have a tombstone made by a local craftsman. But this improvised marker has lasted better than most of the professionally made stones in the cemetery, and now that it has passed the two-century mark we may pronounce it an unqualified success.
A simple and inexpensive zinc monument that has lasted much better than many of the more expensive stone monuments around it.
JANE
EATON
BORN
JULY 4,1832,
DIED
MAY 2, 1914
This was one of the last generation of zinc monuments: in three years, production would end as all the zinc was diverted to the war effort, and the industry never resumed after the First World War, although interchangeable zinc plates continued to be available for new inscriptions for some years afterward.
This monument has a zinc footstone to go with it.
The grieving husband of a wife who died far too young quotes Proverbs 31:12, translating it into Picksburgh dialect.
IN
Memory of
MARGARET McMAHAN
who departed this Life
February 17th 1828 in the 24
[year] of her age.
And she done him good and not harm all the days of her life.
A romantic rustic monument in an 1890s style, and therefore almost certainly dating from the death of Elizabeth rather than George.
