Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Category: St. Clair Cemetery

  • 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.

  • Gutbub Monument, St. Clair Cemetery

    Gutbub monument

    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.

  • Master of the Italic Dates

    Father Pitt is being a little facetious in bestowing the title “master” on this particular craftsman. He is not exceptionally good. We name him, as usual, from a readily identified feature of his style: he always carves the date in italic letters. And it is interesting to see his work in two different cemeteries, fairly far apart. Above, John Frew’s tombstone in the St. Clair Cemetery, Mount Lebanon. The unusual inset name is unique in what Father Pitt has seen of this craftsman’s work, and he suspects it represents, not an aesthetic decision, but an embarrassing correction of the deceased’s name. William Frew‘s, below, is more typical.

    Now here are several tombstones in Hiland Cemetery, north of West View. Note that the name “Richey” or “Ritchey” is spelled two different ways, suggesting that John Frew’s tombstone is not the only one in his career where our artist misspelled a name.

  • James McKnight Tombstone, St. Clair Cemetery

    In memory of
    JAMES McKNIGHT
    Who departed this life
    August 22, 1844
    In the 51 Year
    of his age

    This eroded tombstone in the mid-nineteenth-century poster style is almost illegible most of the day; but if you catch it just as the sun is hitting at its most oblique angle, you can just about read the inscription.

  • Ross Foster Tombstone, St. Clair Cemetery

    A well-preserved tombstone in the “poster style,” as Father Pitt calls it, that was popular in the 1840s and 1850s. This one adds a very woodcutty weeping willow.