Pittsburgh Cemeteries

The Art and Architecture of Death

Bethel Cemetery

The burying ground of the old Bethel Church, with many early settlers’ graves.


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Amelia Huls

An easily identified work of the Master of the Robinson Run Reliefs, whose trademarks are all present:

  • thistle decoration flanked by flowers

  • fan patterns in the corners

  • curled tail on the top of the lower-case g in age

  • “IN” in all capitals, “memory of” in all lower case, name in all upper case.

Interestingly, there is a Henry Huls buried in the Peters Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, whose tombstone is also by the Master of the Robinson Run Reliefs. We therefore know of at least three cemeteries in which this fine craftsman worked.

The inscription:

IN
memory of
AMELIA HULS
who departed this life
April 16th 1836 in the
49 year of her age

This picture was taken in 2015.

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.

William Davis

If Father Pitt reads this eroded inscription correctly, this is a tombstone for a two-year-old child named William Davis, son of James and Eliza Davis, who died in 1848. The epitaph is almost certainly a poem, but illegible in this light. The tombstone itself is a restrained example of the middle-nineteenth-century style that old Pa Pitt calls the “poster style,” because it resembles the style of printed posters of the same era.

This picture was taken in 2015.

Rev. John and Margaret Clark

Two ledgers marking the grave of a minister of the old Bethel Church and his wife. The inscriptions long ago eroded away, but fortunately the Rev. John’s was duplicated on a bronze tablet.

HERE LIES THE BODY OF THE REV. JOHN CLARK WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JULY THE 16TH, A. D. 1797 IN THE 79TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.

“IN YONDER CHURCH I SPENT MY BREATH AND NOW LIE SLUMBERING HERE IN DEATH:
THESE LIPS SHALL RISE AND THEN DECLARE AMEN TO TRUTHS THEY PUBLISHED THERE.”

DURING THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION, REV. JOHN CLARK MET WITH THE ANGRY FARMERS AT FORT COUCH ON JULY 17, 1794, IN AN EFFORT TO PREVENT AN ATTACK AT BOWER HILL, ON THE HOME OF GEN. JOHN NEVILLE, FEDERAL TAX COLLECTOR.

Addendum: Here is an account of that same incident from Hugh Henry Brackenridge, who was an eyewitness to many of the most important events of the Whiskey Rebellion:

“Great pains were taken, at Couche’s fort, by an aged and venerable clergymen, the reverend John Clark, to dissuade the people from the object they had in view. It was to no purpose. They considered him as in his dotage; or as having skill in spiritual affairs; but not in the temporal interests of the country. It may be thought from hence, that dissuasion from no one, could have had effect. That does not follow. Regard might have been paid to the representations of those who were supposed to know the law, and to be able to calculate the probable consequences of the act.”

——Incidents of the Insurrection, Chapter III.

Margaret Clark

Unfortunately the inscription for Mrs. Clark was not duplicated before it vanished, partly eroded and partly obscured by the bronze plaque that replaced it.

Margaret Clark

These pictures were taken in 2015, but have never been published here before.

EDWARD H. KELLEY,
DIED
May 27, 1849,
In the 41 year
of his age.

In the 1840s and 1850s the style of tombstone old Pa Pitt likes to call “poster style” became popular—a style that resembles printed posters of the time. The stone is usually limestone, which is soft and easily eroded; so that many of these stones are almost illegible now.

Bethel Cemetery has a good collection of poster-style tombstones, and this article will serve as a good introduction to the style.

ELIZABETH MISSKELLY
DIED
Aug. 7, 1847
in the 90th (?) year…
[the rest is buried]

HANNAH SAWYER
DIED
Nov. 2, 1849,
In the 19 year
of her age.

MARY D(?) SAWYER
DIED
March 22, 1849
In the 15 year
of her age.

ABAGAIL
Wife of
JOSEPH WOODS
died March 20, 1850,
in the 35 year of her age.

Also an Infant son…

Note the non-standard spelling “Abagail” and the stylized weeping willow.

MARY —?
daughter of
J. & A. WOODS
died Jan — 18—? Aged 1 year…

Died May 23, 1848
Mrs SARAH WOODS
WIFE OF
Mr. JOHN WOODS
in the 34 Year
of her age.

SARAH HICKMAN
DIED
Jan 18, 1848…

ANN,
wife of
THOMAS MORROW,
died July 26, 1849,
in the 37 year
of her age.

ELIZABETH, PA.

MARY,
WIFE OF
THOMAS MORROW
BORN
MAY 18, 1810,
DIED
MAY 26, 1858.

JAMES KIDDOO
DIED
Sep. 20, 1823
in the 61 Year
of his age.

We can see James’ wife Mary’s stone leaning against his; she died in 1847, and James’ stone was probably ordered at the same time as hers, since it is definitely in the style of the 1840s rather than the 1820s.

IN MEMORY OF
ROBERT LONG
Who departed this life
August 1st 1832 aged 60
years.
Go home dear friends
And cease from tears.
Here I must lie
Till Christ appears.


W. Savage, Sculptor, Williamsport.

We have seen another pair of tombstones in a similar style in the Bethany Cemetery near Bridgeville: the tombstones of Billingsley Morgan and his (illegible) wife, which were signed by H. Savage. Was H. Savage a brother or other relative of W. Savage? And if “Williamsport” means the only Williamsport Father Pitt knows of in Pennsylvania, then this stone was hauled across the mountains, which must have been quite expensive. Perhaps there was no one in the immediate area who could carve a stone of this quality in 1832—for it certainly is a splendid piece of folk art, well worth the trouble of hauling in from Williamsport.

—An update: Father Pitt has to confess his ignorance sometimes. Williamsport, he has discovered, was the name of the town that is now called Monongahela. The name is remembered in the Williamsport Road, which leaves Elizabeth and heads straight for Monongahela before changing its name to Rostosky Ridge Road, which is probably not the early settlers’ name for the trail, about two-thirds of the way along.

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