Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Old Pa Pitt hates to throw up his hands and declare a monument “illegible.” It is especially frustrating with this monument, where on one side he can read almost everything but the last name—John something, who died August 16, 1847. That date seems about right for this style of monument, which was quite fashionably artistic for its time. On another face is an even more eroded inscription for someone whose given name was Lizzie, and another name that Father Pitt has not been able to decipher. Perhaps in different light the inscriptions will become clear, and Father Pitt promises to update this article if he succeeds in reading them.

A typical Victorian shaft topped with equally typical shrouded urn. The name Gutbub is unusual, but we have run across it elsewhere: in Zion Cemetery, on a very similar (but not quite identical) monument. That family later changed its name to Goodboy, which is even more unusual.

A very Victorian towering shaft topped with an urn. It probably dates from 1891, when A. R. Sloan died.

A sort-of-classical, sort-of-medieval urn-topped monument for a clergyman (who died on a train crossing Wyoming) and his family. with an epitaph from Deuteronomy. As is almost usual for family monuments from the nineteenth century, it includes the names of several children who did not survive to adulthood.

A typical shrouded-urn shaft, this is actually one of the most expensive and elaborate monuments in this cemetery, which did not serve a wealthy congregation. It was good value for money, because its four faces (one is still blank) provided generous space for inscriptions, making further expense on individual grave markers unnecessary.

It appears that the Beckers had six children, five of whom died in childhood—three within two weeks in 1873, doubtless of the same disease. Mathilda, born in 1874, has a space left for a date of death, but it has never been filled in. Father Pitt chooses to interpret that as meaning that she lived a long and happy life and was eventually buried with her many loved ones somewhere else.

A particularly fine shrouded-urn monument, with the U. S. Steel Tower in the distance.

It appears that the Rohrkastes had six children, all of whom died before their father, though half lived into adulthood.

A big urn on a towering shaft seems like a mixed metaphor, but it certainly makes the Kloman plot easy to find. It was probably put up in about 1879, when the first Kloman buried here died. There is generous space on the base for inscriptions, but nothing has ever been inscribed.

A very respectable between-the-wars mausoleum, with the flatter top that had become fashionable on classical mausoleums in the early twentieth century. This one is made of expensive polished granite.