Obelisks in their simple form are timeless. The base may give a clue to the date, but this is a particularly simple and timeless design for a base. The obelisk stands in a plot of matched graves, of which the earliest dates from 1879; so we may take that as a rough date for the monument
This monument was probably put up in about 1880, when Henry and Sophia lost two sons within three days of each other. It continued to accumulate inscriptions until 1956, and all four surfaces of the base are filled. Henry married twice: Sophia died in 1891, and his second wife, Mary, is also remembered here.
Your obelisk has to be pretty tall to compete in the Allegheny Cemetery. This one is a serious contender. It stands in the middle of a circular plot designed to have graves arranged in an orbital fashion, though only about a quarter of the circle is filled in.
This is a fairly standard obelisk with some extra ornamentation to make sure it is not too plain for Victorian taste. There must be an interesting family story in the inscription. Alfred McKown married a woman more than thirty years younger than he was. When he died, it seems that the 29- or 30-year-old widow married a man named Clark. She did not live to see forty, and she is memorialized here. If she is buried here, one wonders what became of Mr. Clark.
The name “Blacks” appears below the inscription; is it the name of the stonecutter or monument dealer?
This would count as a splendid obelisk in most small cemeteries; and so it is here, except that, like everything else, it is overshadowed by the immense Winter Bros. obelisk nearby. Nevertheless, it has a particularly ornate base, and the cross-anchor-palm ornament is almost exuberant. The spaces for inscriptions on the base seem never to have been used.
We also have a more recent picture of the Melling obelisk, showing Charles Melling’s monogram on the other side.
