Pittsburgh Cemeteries

The Art and Architecture of Death

John Subic tombstone

Another example of a typical Slavic tombstone with inscriptions in two languages—again, we suspect that “OUR SON” came with the stone, and the inscription in Slovenian was supplied to order. The cross was not originally blank: if we look very carefully, we can trace the faint outlines of a crucifix in shallow relief that has eroded almost completely away.

Jernej Malli tombstone

The cross has gone missing from this typical Slavic tombstone. The inscription is partly Slovenian and partly English; we suspect that “OUR FATHER” came with the stone, and the rest of the inscription was made to order.

Stanley Zaksesks cross

Stanley Zaksesks died in 1920 when he was eleven or twelve years old. Perhaps his father worked in the construction business; this monument appears to have been cast in concrete. The name and date are painted.

J. Abate Cross

A fairly large cross for a seventeen-year-old whose family perhaps could not afford a professional monument. Note the one attempt at decoration: a small sun pattern (or something) at the top.

Katherine Litwin

A monument for a girl who died at the age of fourteen. The weathered and damaged angel is probably much more picturesque in this condition than it was when it was new.

Katherine Litwin

The base includes a photograph that is badly faded, but with the help of modern image-editing software we can restore a recognizable image.

Photograph of Katherine Litwin

Marian Fabiszwski

This is almost the archetype of the Slavic tombstone, with a fine folk-art crucifix to decorate it. With the help of Google, Wiktionary, and other Internet resources, we translate the Polish inscription thus:

HERE LIES
MARIAN
FABISZEWSKI
DIED MARCH 14, 1924.

Say a Hail Mary for Me

Anton Planinsek

Google Translate identifies the epitaph “Rahla mu zemljica” as Slovenian, and translates it as “Loose earth.” Perhaps it is equivalent to “Dust thou art.” The cross-topped monuments favored by Slavs and Italians in Pittsburgh have an unfortunate habit of losing their crosses—a pity here especially, because the tombstone bears a fine folk-art relief of heavenly hands clasped.

Mathild Lalause monument

What a cosmopolitan place the little mining town of Castle Shannon must have been! We very seldom run across an inscription in French around here, but here we have one mixed in with the Italian and Polish and Slovenian tombstones. A translation:

TO OUR
LAMENTED MOTHER
HERE
RESTS
MATHILDE LALAUSE
DEPARTED
FEBRUARY 1, 1915
AT THE AGE OF 62 YEARS

Illegible monument with photographs

This husband and wife spent more money than average on this monument; it is a large variation of the cross-topped round-shouldered monument popular with Slavic and Italian immigrants, with the addition of a crucifix in relief on the cross. But the inscription has eroded so badly that Father Pitt has not been able to read it. They are buried next to a woman named Anna Scmicz, whose stone is inscribed in Polish, and sometimes old Pa Pitt thinks he can make out the same name on this stone, but he is not sure.

Anna Szmicz

The photographs, however, are still instantly recognizable, though one is damaged. It is possible that Anna Scmicz is the woman in the photograph, since this monument appears to have only one name on it, in which case this is the monument for her husband, whom she outlived and was buried next to some time later.

Mr. Szmicz

Mrs. Szmicz

Giuseppe Galie monument

An unusual Gothic monument with an Italian inscription for a “brave American soldier” in the First World War. Unfortunately the photograph that was originally set in the stone has been lost. Note that the United States government misspelled his name (“Guiseppe” for “Giuseppe”) in his government-issue bronze plaque, below.

Guiseppe Gale plaque