Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Shafts

  • Reverend Charles Walther Monument, Smithfield East End Cemetery

    This octagonal shaft includes a very unusual portrait head of the Rev. Mr. Walther, along with an open book on which there is an inscription that Father Pitt could not quite read. The date of birth appears to be 1784, but old Pa Pitt could not make out the date of death. The style of the monument is of the 1860s or so, and one suspects that this is one of the monuments moved here when the cemetery moved from Troy Hill. (The Smithfield Cemetery was originally downtown; it moved to Troy Hill in 1860 and to its final home in 1886—thus the name “Smithfield East End Cemetery,” to distinguish this location from its former locations.)

  • Oliver Monument, Chartiers Cemetery

    This shaft or fancy obelisk has lost its top, which is lying on the ground between two Oliver tombstones. The rustic letters spelling out “Oliver” were probably rather tasteless in their time; the passing years have given them character.

  • Johnston Monument, Beulah Presbyterian Church Cemetery

    This monument was put up in 1878, but it remembers the whole Johnston clan, going back to the nearly indestructible Jane Johnston, who was born in 1700 (or possibly 1699) and died in 1806 at the age of 106. During that time she surely had many interesting adventures, including crossing the Alleghenies to settle in the frontier of Western Pennsylvania when she must have been already an old woman.

    We should note, by the way, that when a cemetery inscription says “in the 106th year of her age,” it almost always means “at the age of 106,” not (as it should) “at the age of 105.”

  • Sterrett Monuments, Chartiers Cemetery

    Robert and Rachel Sterrett have two monuments—a tall shaft and an elaborate double headstone in marble. Perhaps the plot was intended for the Sterretts and all their descendants, who would gradually grow a flourishing crop of elaborate marble headstones; but it did not happen that way.

  • Allen Shaft, Zelienople Cemetery

    A simple and tasteful marble shaft typical of the middle nineteenth century.