Pittsburgh Cemeteries

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.

A particularly well-preserved monument in the romantic style of the 1860s, with two poetic epitaphs.

She was a mother good and kind
While she with us did stay
Life is short to all mankind
God’s call we must obey

Come, children, to my tomb and see
My name engraved here.
Remember, you must come to me.
Be like your mother dear.

In Memory of
HENRY POMERENE SR.
Born
Jan.(?) 22, 1789
Died
March 17(?), 1855

A restrained example of the middle-1800s poster style, with fewer than the usual riot of lettering styles. Father Pitt was not able to read the epitaph.

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.

Since Roman times, the inverted torch has been a symbol of death. Here are two examples from the Smithfield East End Cemetery, in both of which we note that the torch keeps burning upside-down in a most unlikely manner. Both couples have German names, both were probably members of the same Reformed congregation, and the stones are nearly contemporary and side by side; but we note that one of them is English and one is German—an indication of how thoroughly bilingual the more prosperous parts of the German community in Pittsburgh were at the beginning of the twentieth century.

A standard Egyptian-style mausoleum with lotus-flower bronze doors and a matching stained-glass window.

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.

In memory of
JAMES McKNIGHT
Who departed this life
August 22, 1844
In the 51 Year
of his age

This eroded tombstone in the mid-nineteenth-century poster style is almost illegible most of the day; but if you catch it just as the sun is hitting at its most oblique angle, you can just about read the inscription.