St. Joseph Cemetery, Lafayette, Indiana

Several small cast-iron markers can be found in the St. Joseph Cemetery at Lafayette, Indiana.  These tiny headstones mark the graves of young children and are characterized by a cross and a winged cherub.  The cross, of course, is a universal symbol of Christianity.  The image of a cherub’s face with curled wings circling downward forming a circle is a winged cherub, a symbol that became popular in the 18^th Century.  The winged cherubs replaced the stark and morbid flying death’s heads from our Puritan forefathers.  The cherubs have a childlike countenance of innocence.  The iconography represents the flight of the soul from the body upward to Heaven and the hope of the resurrection.

Frank X. Thoma

Born Dec. 11,

1889

Died Aug. 19, 1891