Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Robert and Sarah Johnston had two daughters who died within weeks of each other in 1848, doubtless of the same disease. Each was given a splendid tombstone in the engraved-title-page style that was popular for expensive tombstones in the 1840s.

Robert and Sarah themselves got this rich pink obelisk. Their son Robert and his wife are buried next to them.

A typical Doric cube of the early twentieth century. The stained glass is rather good. Charles A. Brooks was interred here in 1906, and Anna Cloyde Woodward Brooks in 1931; according to cemetery records, they are the only residents.

A particularly splendid zinc shaft, well preserved even by zinc standards. This is Style no. 234 from the Monumental Bronze Company.

MARIA
Wife
of
JOHN GARRARD
DIED
Aug 2, 1848(?)
Aged ? Yrs.

A good example of what old Pa Pitt calls the “poster style,” with each line in a different style of lettering. The limestone has softened too much for us to read the whole inscription. It looks as though there may have been a second name below the main inscription—perhaps an infant child.

Father Pitt usually makes legibility his priority in photographing old tombstones, but the situation of this one, with the fallen tree behind it, demanded a more artistic treatment.

IN
Memory of
W.H. CRAWFORD,
Who departed this life
July 29, 1846,
Aged 22 Yrs. 6 mos. 5 ds.

A tombstone in the “poster style,” as Father Pitt likes to call it; this is probably one of the ones moved here from older graveyards.

A tasteful Art Deco stele with a flame pattern from the middle twentieth century.

A pair of matched urn-topped ,marble monuments—matched, but not quite. It looks as though Robert’s heirs could not get exactly the same design when he died three and a half years after his wife. The epitaphs were clearly inscribed by different artists. (The tree in the background had just fallen the night before Father Pitt visited, fortunately doing no damage to the monuments.)

The epitaph:

Dearest Mother, thou hast left us,
And thy loss we deeply feel;
But ’tis God that hast [sic] bereft us.
He can all our sorrows heal.

The epitaph:

It is not death to die,
To leave this weary road,
And midst the brotherhood on high
To be at home with God.

JOSEPH
McMURRAY
D i e d
Sept. 16, 1839
Aged 46 years
10 mo. & 11 day

An early example of the “poster style,” with each line in a different style of lettering.