IN MEMORIAM

OLIVE BELDEN

WIFE OF

HENRY WIGGLESWORTH

Born Jan. 5, 1874

Died April 26, 1909

HENRY WIGGLESWORTH

Born Nov. 2, 1866

Died March 19, 1945

SYLVIA WIGGLESWORTH

BELOVED WIFE OF

JAMES W. MAITLAND

Born July 8, 1897

Died May 8, 1957

The soaring monument in the Oakwood Cemetery at Syracuse, New York, memorializes Olive and Henry Wigglesworth and James and Sylvia Wigglesworth Maitland. 

Henry Wigglesworth was the son of Alfred and Selina Hardy and born in Belfast. Ireland.  Their imposing marble monument as described by the National Park Service, American Monuments and Outdoor Sculpture Database, “contains a relief of a full-length female figure in a long, billowy dress. She holds a baby in the crook of her proper left arm, and a branch in her proper right hand. Behind the woman’s head is laurel in low relief.”  The laurel symbol dates back to Roman times when soldiers wore them as triumphal signs of glory.  In funerary art the laurel, often depicted in a wreath, is seen as a symbol of victory over death.  

The sculpture was created by John Massey Rhind (July 9,1860 – January 1, 1936) a Scottish-born sculptor who lived and worked in the United States creating private and public works. His most famous work is the marble statue of Dr. Crawford W. Long which is located in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C.  Another example of his work can be found on the East side of the Philadelphia City Hall of Sam Wannamaker.