Pittsburgh Cemeteries

The Art and Architecture of Death

A Doric mausoleum with a wreath in the pediment. The rusticated stone gives the structure, which bears the date 1906, a richness of texture that contrasts well with its simplified Doric entablature.

A somewhat unusual shape for a classical mausoleum. The bronze door is striking, with an Art Nouveau arrangement of cross and palms.

A simple and austere Doric mausoleum whose austerity is mitigated by a fine cross-and-palms bronze door and the fairly unusual warm honey color of the stone

A typical zinc pillar with every panel filled to capacity with inscriptions. Father Pitt guesses that it was bought in about 1899 (the date of the death of Harvey Neill Reed), but the family took the opportunity to remember many other Reeds perhaps otherwise unrepresented by monuments, going all the way back to 1839. A Reed family was among the first settlers of the Canonsburg area, and some of those early settlers have tombstones very near this plot; these Reeds are probably related.

David Reed was one of the early settlers in the Canonsburg area, according to the cemetery’s Web site; we know that he was here by at least 1779. He hosted George Washington at his house, which was awfully considerate of him, considering that Washington had come to take his house away. George was a big-time real-estate speculator, and he had claimed huge tracts of land in what was, to him, Augusta County, Virginia. (The area south of the Ohio River was still fitfully disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania until after 1800.) The Reeds and many other settlers had moved here on the strength of other claims to the same land, and politely told Washington they would await the decision of the court. Courts ultimately ruled in favor of Washington, but the settlers moved only a short distance, close enough to walk to their little log church and be buried in its churchyard.

Ann’s tombstone is well preserved; David’s is damaged, but enough of the inscription remains to tell us that he died in December of 1829, fifty years after his first appearance in the records as an elder of the church.

Somehow the stonecutter managed to run out of room twice while cutting the name “Templeton” into this stone for a young wife who died at the age of twenty-eight. (“Consort” simply means “wife”; it was strongly believed among rural folk in the early nineteenth century that “consort” was a much more elegant word.) This Gothic style of tombstone became popular at about this time; there are several examples in the cemetery.

Only about half this tombstone is visible above ground—enough to tell us the name and death date (1832), and to show us that the stone itself was a very attractive piece of folk art.

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.

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.

A tombstone from 1817 remembering a father and daughter. Since they have different surnames, it seems likely that the daughter married; but perhaps her husband had no money for a tombstone, and it was not until her father died (he outlived her by eight years) that she had any memorial.

Old Pa Pitt was not able to read the last part of the inscription, but here is what he could read:

In memory of John Reed Esq. who Departed this life April 14th 1817 in the 73d year of his Age——and Cathrine McLean his daug[hter] who died in the 25th year of her Age 1807 they liv’d in peace with the world in love with their [neighbors?] death…

Note the spelling of “Cathrine.” Reeds were among the very earliest settlers in the Canonsburg area; this is probably a branch of that family.

The stonecutter was the craftsman we identify as the Master of the Curly G, who had a wide-ranging practice: stones of his also show up in Robinson Run Cemetery and Union Cemetery (Robinson Township).