Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Early Settlers

  • Samuel Thompson Tombstone, Oak Spring Cemetery

    If this tombstone was erected in 1805, then it may be the oldest legible stone in this cemetery, and one of the oldest in this area. (Older stones were often of shale or other impermanent materials.) The cemetery’s Web site tells us that the oldest readable stone is the James Ross stone from 1807, but Father Pitt does not know whether that is because this stone is known to be younger than its inscribed date, or because this stone was simply missed in someone’s survey of the oldest stones in the cemetery. Oak Spring Cemetery is one of the largest early-settler burying grounds in the area, and it does not seem to have been thoroughly surveyed.

  • John and Jane McKeman Tombstone, Oak Spring Cemetery

    This is an exceptionally elaborate tombstone for 1830. As a piece of folk art, it is priceless. The stonecutter did outrun himself a bit in John’s inscription, forcing him to squeeze the date “1810” into a very small space; but on the whole, even with the damage we see here, this is one of the most attractive stones of that era Father Pitt has ever seen.

  • Rev. Wm. Jeffery Family Plot, Bethany Cemetery

    The Rev. William Jeffery, D.D., was pastor of Bethany Presbyterian Church for 34 years. He retired in 1855, as he was approaching the age of eighty; but he lived almost another seventeen years after that, dying at ninety-six in 1872. From the style, we guess that this obelisk was put up when he died.

    Pastor Jeffery’s wife is also marked by this obelisk, and so is a daughter Elizabeth, who died at not quite five years old in 1831.

    Elizabeth also has her own fine tombstone in the style of forty years earlier, which tells us that she died of that great scourge of nineteenth-century childhood, scarlet fever:

    The only proper reaction to such a loss is the one Pastor Jeffery had cut into her tombstone: to quote from the book of Job.

  • Joseph Alexander Tombstone, Bethany Cemetery

    This skillfully cut stone from 1824 is, so far, the only tombstone of its era Father Pitt has seen that is signed by the stonecutter: “J. Sumny sculpturemingo.”

    We suspect that “Mingo” (a name often used for local Indians) is the name of a settlement, now vanished; and that “sculpture” is the stonecutter’s incorrect expansion of the often-seen abbreviation “sculp.” after an artist’s name, which stands for the Latin “sculpsit.” We also suspect that this is not the only tombstone by J. Sumny in the cemetery; several others look like his work.

    Note the curious curved square cut to the right of the number 32. Father Pitt’s guess is that this is a correction: the stonecutter may have incorrectly cut “aged 32d years.”

  • Nancy McKracking Tombstone, Beulah Presbyterian Church Cemetery

    A neatly cut tombstone for a young woman who died at the age of 22; the top is damaged, but the inscription is perfect. One wonders whether “McKracking” was the true original spelling of her name, or the stonecutter’s best guess for an illiterate client.