Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Revolutionary War

  • Gillfillan Family, Bethel Cemetery

    Gilfillan family plot

    The old Bethel Cemetery is full of Gillfillans (or Gilfillans), whose memorials are in all styles from the early settlers’ handmade tombstones to elaborate marble monuments from the middle 1800s.

    Sarah Gillfillan

    IN

    memory of

    SARAH GILLFILLAN

    Who departed this Life

    March the 2nd 1818 aged

    20 years.

    Alexander Gillfillan Jr.

    IN
    Memory of
    ALEXANDER GILLFILLAN
    Who departed this Life
    Agust the 11th 1821 in the 27th
    year of his age.

    Alexander Gillfillan Sr.

    SACRED
    to the memory of
    ALEX’R GILLFILLAN
    who departed this life
    Sep. 6th, 1836
    in the 91st year of his
    AGE.

    PVT 4 CO 2 PA BN
    WASHINGTON COUNTY MILITIA
    REVOLUTIONARY WAR
    1745–1836

    Martha Gilfillan

    SACRED
    TO THE MEMORY OF
    MARTHA, Wife of
    ALEXANDER GILFILLAN
    who departed this life
    February 19th, 1840
    In the 81st year of her age.

    John Gillfillan

    JOHN GILLFILLAN
    BORN JUNE 21, 1784
    DIED JUNE 20, 1859.
    —
    “For if we believe that Jesus died
    and rose again, even so them also
    which sleep in Jesus will God bring
    with him.”

    Alexander Gillfillan

    ALEXANDER
    SON OF
    JOHN & MARGARET
    GILLFILLAN
    Who died in Philada.
    Dec. 7, 1845
    Reinterred in this place
    Jan 1, 1846
    in the 26 year of his age.
    Resident[?] of Jefferson Medical
    College Philadelphia

    John Gilfillan
    John Gilfillan inscription

    IN MEMORY OF
    JOHN SON OF
    ANDREW B. AND ANN GILFILLAN
    WHO VOLUNTEERED IN THE SERVICE
    OF HIS COUNTRY SEPT. 1861.
    IN CO. E. 101ST REGT. PA. VOL.
    WAS WOUNDED AT THE
    BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS
    AND DIED JULY 1ST
    1862,
    AGED 23 YEARS
    AND 11 DAYS.

    These pictures were taken in 2015.

  • Thomas and Jennet McNary Grave, Oak Spring Cemetery

    An elevated slab for a Revolutionary War veteran and his wife. The two inscriptions were certainly done by the same craftsman, but from subtle differences in the thicknesses and forms of the letters it looks as though they may have been done at different times, suggesting that Jennet’s was added to Thomas’ already existing stone.

    IN
    Memory of
    THOMAS Mc NARY Esqr.
    Who departed this life on the
    9th of July A.D. 1820 in the 76th
    year of his age.
    —
    IN
    Memory of
    JENNET Mc NARY
    Consort of
    THOMAS Mc NARY
    Who departed this life on the
    15th of April A.D. 1828 in the 84th
    year of her age.

  • White Family Plot, Oak Spring Cemetery

    Oak Spring Cemetery in Canonsburg has a number of slab stones elevated into table-like structures—an arrangement common in some old cemeteries. Obviously the props under these stones are newer than the stones, but they may have replaced older ones that were original. Old Pa Pitt simply doesn’t know whether these slab stones were always elevated or whether graveyard caretakers elevated them later, when they began to vanish under the ground.

    SACRED
    to the
    MEMORY OF
    SAMUEL WHITE
    Who departed this life
    May 12th 1837, In the
    82nd year of his
    age.

    Samuel White, Sr. was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. He married a considerably younger woman named Mary:

    SACRED
    to the
    MEMORY
    of
    MARY WHITE
    wife of
    SAMUEL WHITE
    DIED
    JUNE 12th, 1841 in the
    76th year of her age.

    In the short time between the death of Samuel in 1837 and the death of Mary in 1841, a new fashion in tombstones had swept over Western Pennsylvania. Samuel’s is a simple slab stone of the sort that had been made here since the late 1700s, but Mary’s is in what Father Pitt calls the “poster style,” with each line in a different style of lettering, like an advertising poster of the same era.

  • Master of the Curly G in Union Cemetery

    We have already met the Master of the Curly G in Robinson Run Cemetery. Union Cemetery, the burying ground of the adjacent Union Church, is only a few miles away, and we find the same readily identifiable craftsman active here, too. Above, the grave of a Revolutionary War veteran who died in 1807 (spelled “John Nicle” here and “John Nickle” on a modern bronze plaque next to the stone).

    This stone is no longer completely legible, but its few distinct features mark it as obviously the work of the same artist. It is interesting to note that (if Father Pitt reads the remains of the inscription correctly) it begins with “Here lies the body of,” like a New England tombstone, rather than the far more usual “In memory of.” Father Pitt’s best effort at a transcription follows; unfortunately, the two data we should most like to have—the surname and the date of death—seem to be irretrievably obscured.

    Here lies the body of Matth.
    —— who departed this
    life ———— in the 27th
    year of his age.

    Only a small part of the inscription on Mary Morgan’s tombstone is visible above ground, but again it is enough for us to recognize the craftsman instantly.