Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio
BENEATH THIS STONE
ARE INTERRED THE REMAINS
MATT’W LAWLER Esq.
OF PHILADELPHIA
BORN JANUARY 1ST 1755
DIED JULY 14TH 1831
MRS ANN LAWLER
HIS CONSORT
BORN JUNE 5TH 1761
DIED MARCH 25TH 1835
THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED TO THEIR MEMORY
BY THEIR SON DAVIS B. LAWLER IN JUNE 1850
When the enigmatic blue onyx-colored sphinx was installed at the Spring Grove Cemetery at Cincinnati in 1850, it caused a great stir. The “pagan” iconography of the Egyptian sphinx ruffled the Christian sensibilities of the Victorians; yet, there were those who praised the monument as a break in the monotony of the usual gravestone shapes of neoclassical columns, mourning figures, flowered-adorned markers, obelisks, and Gothic pinnacles.
In the Egyptian tradition the benevolent mythological creature has the head of a man grafted to the body of a lion. In this example, a couchant sphinx rests atop the Lawler family monument.
The Lawler sphinx was an inspiration to the related Peaslee Family of Louisville, Kentucky. They were so taken with the monument in the Spring Grove Cemetery that they commissioned a look-alike sphinx for the Cave Hill Cemetery at Louisville.
ELLA HARPER HARBESON PEASLEE
JANUARY 30, 1903
ELEANORA HARBESON PEASLEE
MARCH 5, 1904
CHARLES ROWLAND PEASLEE
NOVEMBER 24, 1905
Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky
Gravely Speaking 