Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Relief

  • Robert Long Tombstone, Bethel Cemetery

    IN MEMORY OF
    ROBERT LONG
    Who departed this life
    August 1st 1832 aged 60
    years.
    Go home dear friends
    And cease from tears.
    Here I must lie
    Till Christ appears.
    —
    W. Savage, Sculptor, Williamsport.

    We have seen another pair of tombstones in a similar style in the Bethany Cemetery near Bridgeville: the tombstones of Billingsley Morgan and his (illegible) wife, which were signed by H. Savage. Was H. Savage a brother or other relative of W. Savage? And if “Williamsport” means the only Williamsport Father Pitt knows of in Pennsylvania, then this stone was hauled across the mountains, which must have been quite expensive. Perhaps there was no one in the immediate area who could carve a stone of this quality in 1832—for it certainly is a splendid piece of folk art, well worth the trouble of hauling in from Williamsport. —Update: “Williamsport” was the former name of Monongahela, which is considerably closer than the Williamsport in central Pennsylvania.

  • 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.

  • McKee Monument, Homewood Cemetery

    “Youth and Age at the Tree of Life” is the title of this relief. It is rare to find a work of art with a title in a cemetery; we wish the artist had signed it as well.

  • Jane Brown Monument, Homewood Cemetery

    An exceptional Gothic monument with beautiful foliage-and-flower reliefs. The inscription is also exceptional, with a wide variety of different lettering styles.

  • Master of the Robinson Run Reliefs

    This particular craftsman, active in Robinson Run Cemetery in the 1830s, sticks to one particular symbol, which Father Pitt interprets as a stylized thistle—emblematic of sorrow, but also emblematic of Scotland, perhaps the homeland of most of his patrons. Fan ornaments decorate the corners of all his stones.

    Alexander and Isabella McClean’s headstones are good and well-preserved examples of his work. He also gave them footstones, which seem to have migrated a little from their original positions, but are still fairly close to the headstones they go with. The carving on the footstones looks a little hastier, although some of that may just be the smaller size.

    The same artist made this stone for Elisabeth Moss. “The grave of,” incidentally, is a very unusual way to introduce a tombstone inscription around here, but it was obviously a family preference: Elisabeth Moss is buried in the same plot as the McBurneys, who, though their stones were cut by a different craftsman, both have inscriptions that begin with “The grave of…”