Gravely Speaking

The Mentzer Family gravestone, in the Forest Home Cemetery also known as Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, is a square column with a number of symbols carved into the polished red granite—oak leaves and acorns, palms leaves, and topped with a fully sculptured owl resting on a torch and sword. 

The acorn, seed of the mighty oak, is a symbol of prosperity and fruitfulness.  When the acorn is paired with oak leaves it is seen as a traditional symbol of strength.  The single acorn can represent a kernel of truth born into spiritual growth.  Two acorns can represent truth and power of the Holy Spirit. The former is revealed in the Earthly realm and the later after entering the Heavenly realm.

The palm frond is an ancient symbol of victory, dating back to Roman times when victors were presented with palm fronds. The palm fronds were also laid in the path of Jesus as He entered Jerusalem. So, for many Christians, the palm represents righteousness, resurrection, and martyrdom, symbolizing the spiritual victory over death associated with the Easter story.

The owl is often seen as wise, possibly because of its impressive bright and alert eyes, and is sometimes depicted costumed with a mortar board complete with a tassel.  Since ancient Greece, the owl was associated with Athena—the Greek Goddess of wisdom.  In funerary symbolism the owl also represents wisdom and watchfulness.  As a nocturnal bird, the owl is master of the night, and Christians regard it as a reminder that Christ has the ability to guide the soul through the darkest of times.

Here the owl is depicted with a torch seen as an instrument that illuminates the darkness representing enlightenment.  It can symbolize zeal, liberty, and immortality. Crossed with the torch is a sheathed sword.  Typically, the sheathed sword would represent temperance and restraint.  The owl sits with its watchful eyes looking straight ahead. Carved into the block below the owl is the German word “FREI” translated into English meaning “FREE.”

The rusted metal marker in the Woodland Cemetery in Jackson, Michigan, seen next to a gravestone denotes that the deceased was a member of the fraternal organization of Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge 29. 

Many fraternal organizations and membership societies were founded in the mid and later part of the 19th Century. Some of the organizations, such as, the Sons of the American Revolution (1889), The Daughters of the American Revolution (1890), The Daughters of the War of 1812 (1892), The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (1896), The National Society, Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century (1896), The Mayflower Society (1897), and The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America XVII (1915) required the prospective members to demonstrate their ancestors had been in the United States before a certain date or that their ancestors had served in an American war.  Other fraternal organizations arose as well, such as the Knights of Pythias (1864), the Patrons of Husbandry (the Grange, 1867), The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (1868), The Knights of Columbus (1882), The Loyal Order of the Moose (1888), and the Woodmen of the World (1890). The time between about 1860 and 1915 is often referred to as The Golden Age of Fraternalism.

Two organizations pre-date that time in origin—The Freemasons and the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows. Both saw surges of membership during that period. The Odd Fellows is a fraternal organization that formed in England in the 1700s as a service organization.  The American association was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 26, 1819.  According to the I.O.O.F. Website, “Thomas Wildey and four members of the Order from England instituted Washington Lodge No. 1.  This lodge received its charter from Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows in England.” The Odd Fellows membership rose to its peak in 1915 at about 3.5 million members.

This marker has four different symbols contained on it.  The main symbol of the Odd Fellows is the three links of chain. Within the three links are three letters,  F  L  T, which signify the organization’s motto: Friendship, Love, and Truth. 

This marker also features a shepherd’s crook and battle axe crossed atop a heart.  In 2016, the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, exhibited a number of artifacts related to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows titled, Mystery and Benevolence: Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art from the Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection. The exhibit was curated by Stacy C. Hollander and displayed two golden shepherd’s crooks.  According to the exhibition label, “The crook, as the “staff of the shepherd,” is associated with the Odd Fellows Encampment Degrees. These degrees have rituals that tell stories of a shepherd’s life. The curved head is used to reach after and draw a member back to safety as part of the ritual. The members recognize the crook as a symbol of watchful care, which they are expected to exhibit toward other members, family, friends, and their community.”

The battle axe is about the struggle within and is a call to the members to cut away selfish desires and shun negative influences so they can focus on helping others.

The heart symbol is often depicted inside a hand—here, however, it is shown alone as the main part of the metal marker with the other symbols laced through.  The heart represents the values of candor and sincerity and is a call for charity given with an open heart. 

HENRY KAU

OCTOBER 18, 1863 – AUGUST 7, 1943

KATHERINA KAU

BORN OHIO, ILLINOIS

JUNE 15, 1867 – DECEMBER 6, 1933

Elisabeth L. Roark wrote an article about angels titled, “Embodying Immortality: Angels in America’s Rural Garden Cemeteries, 1850—1900”, pages 56 – 111, 2007 edition of Markers, XXIV, in which she wrote that in the second half of the 19^th Century. there was an “invasion” of angels in rural garden cemeteries, which were for the most part Protestant graveyards. Roark explains in the article that Protestants accepted the concept of angels because they not only expressed a message of consolation but were also utilitarian—these angels performed tasks.

According the article, angels come onto the scene in rural garden cemeteries in a big way starting in 1850 and then throughout the rest of the century. Though angels come in many variations and forms, in her study of 14 rural cemeteries from each region of America, Roark found that the majority of angels fall into the following eight categories:

In this example, in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, the Kau monument depicts a classically dressed soul-bearing angel standing in front of a seated woman.  The angel, a messenger of God, in a comforting moment touches the woman’s shoulder while offering her an olive sprig.  This seems to be the moment just before the angel and the woman ascend to Heaven. Here the olive branch likely symbolizes that the soul of the soon-to-be departed woman will leave in peace with God.  The olive sprig can also represent a desire for peace and harmony for the loved ones who are left behind.

Saturday August 30th from 10am – 2pm is the next headstone restoration work date at Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Indiana.

Come help wash and re-set gravestones.  Stay as long as you can and help out.  As you all know, volunteers play a vital role in the maintenance of our local cemetery.  Bring some work gloves and join in!

If you don’t live in Bloomington, volunteer in your own local cemetery.  If it doesn’t have a volunteer group—start one! 

Michael “Mike” Benedum

Born: July 16, 1869, Bridgeport, West Virginia

Died: July 30, 1959, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sarah Nancy Lantz Benedum

Born: September 22, 1872, Blacksville, West Virginia

Died: August 11, 1951 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Lieutenant Claude Worthington Benedum

Born January 13, 1898, Cameron, West Virginia

Died October 17, 1918, Washington, DC

The rounded arched stained-glass window in the back of the Renaissance Palazzo-style Benedum Family mausoleum at the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, likely depicts St. Michael, as he is shown wearing a sword.  Like much symbolism found in cemeteries, however, this could have a more personal meaning.  The Benedum’s only son was serving in Washington DC as a chemical warfare specialist when he contracted the influenza and died. This scene could possibly depict Lieutenant Claude Benedum, the Benedum’s only child, as a soldier being lifted to Heaven by the two winged angels flanking the figure. 

But the message on the bottom of the window, partly obscured, quotes the Biblical passage Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” This passage calls on Christians to live lives dedicated to service rather than be served.  Even though, Jesus was the son of God, he demonstrated servant leadership and called on others to do the same with humility and selflessness.

Cemeteries, large and small, urban and rural, often need volunteers to help maintain them.  That help can range anywhere from volunteers planting flowers in cradle gravestones, washing grave markers, resetting gravestones, mending fences, trimming trees, and even lawn care. 

For instance, every year for the past several a group of volunteers led by Jaclyn and Scott have dedicated 5 or 6 Saturday mornings during the summer months to wash and reset fallen and broken gravestones.  Jaclyn is a grant writer who solicits different groups for funding to buy the materials needed for gravestone repair and reconstruction.  Scott, the onsite limestone cutter and specialist purchases the gravel, prepares limestone bases, and other materials needed for the proposed projects.  On any given Saturday morning, Jaclyn and Scott direct the volunteers to various sections in Rose Hill Cemetery to clear debris, wash gravestones, and reset them.

In addition to grant money, sometimes volunteers also help raise money for costly projects that cemeteries don’t have the budget to complete.  In Bloomington, Indiana, for instance, a group of actors dress in period costumes to play Bloomington residents who passed away and were buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery.  As they stand next to the gravestone, they retell the dramatic stories of the lives of people within the cemetery walls.  Of course, this takes place in October with all proceeds going to projects for the cemetery!

Volunteers can play a vital role in the maintenance of local cemeteries.  Support your local cemetery and volunteer today!  If your local cemetery doesn’t have a volunteer group—start one! 

The next Rose Hill Cemetery volunteer day in Bloomington, Indiana, is August 30th! Bring some work gloves and join in.

The stained-glass window in the back of the Wittmer Family Mausoleum in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh is a montage of symbolism.  Like many such displays the meaning of the symbolism is not always straight forward—that is, it is subject to interpretation.  The window could be a bucolic landscape with the dove gently descending on the Earth bringing peace.  Or it could be a scene imbued with meaning, with each element adding to the interpretation.

At the top of the window is a dove.  It is surrounded by a halo suggesting it is holy. There are several references in the Bible that refer to the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3:16 reads, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.” In Mark 1:10 the Bible says, “And Straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.” Again in John 1:32, the Bible reads, “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” 

However, the dove is also closely associated with peace, often depicted with a sprig of an olive in its beak, as is the case here. This, too, originated in the Bible. After the waters receded in the story of Noah, the dove appears. Genesis 8:11, “And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.”  It was viewed as a sign of God’s forgiveness. 

The landscape has a river running through it.  In Greek mythology, the River Styx wrapped its way around Hades (the Underworld) nine times.  To cross from this life to the next, the dead had to pay with a coin to be ferried from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead.  The toll was placed in the mouth of the deceased to pay Charon, the ferryman.  It was said that if the dead person did not have the coin, he was destined to wander the shores of the River Styx for a century.  The “boat” was one of the images found on Victorian graves to represent the crossing from one world to the next.  Leaving a coin on a gravestone, then, becomes a way to pay the ferryman and saving the spirit of the dead from the fate of wandering in the depths for a hundred years.

In the foreground of the scene are two plants—cattails tulips.  Cattails are found in marshes and at the pond’s edge.  The cattail is a plain plant, a common plant that flourishes next to the water.  In Christianity, the great prophet—the infant Moses—was found floating in a tiny basket woven of bulrushes and among the cattails.  Cattails, therefore, became connected to a place of Salvation.  And because cattails only thrive with “wet feet” faithful Christians see it as a plant that is connected to the source of living waters—the teachings of the Church.  Cattails are a metaphor for the humble servants of the Lord who live a life of humble obedience.

In Victorian times, flowers took on significance as a way to send coded messages; this was known as floriography from the Latin combining flora—“goddess of flowers”—and graphein—“writing.”  In 1878, Kate Greenaway, a popular author and illustrator, gained fame for an illustrated children’s book of verse she wrote titled Under the Window, which delighted children.  Just six short years later, Greenaway published the Language of Flowers.  Tulips have a secular meaning—a symbol of love and passion but in funerary art it most likely represents eternal life.

John Lupher Porter

July 1, 1868, Meadville, Pennsylvania

January 18, 1896, Oil City, Pennsylvania

Augusta Marlin Fisher Porter

October 2, 1868, Oil City, Pennsylvania

July 8, 1939, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

John Lupher Porter was a Pennsylvania native and except for a short stint in London, spent most of his life in his native state.  He graduated from Allegheny College.  After his marriage to Augusta Fisher, he joined his father-in-law’s business as President of the Union Storage Company.  He was successful in business and spent much of his time engaged, when not working, supporting the arts, a member of various clubs, and philanthropy.  He was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Fox Chapel Country Clubs.  According to the November 1937 issue of the Sheild of Phi Kappa PSI, pages 34 – 37, “Shortly after receiving his A. B. degree from Allegheny College, Brother Porter went to work for the Miller Pipe Line Company, at Oil City, Pennsylvania….

“[Porter] was a director of the Enlow OU Co., and of the Pittsburg Oil & Gas Co.; a director and secretary treasurer of the Hazleton Land Co.; chairman of the Bondholders’ Protective Committee, Boise & Interurban Railway Co. Ltd.; vice president and a member of the fine arts committee of the Carnegie Institute; vice chairman of the board of trustees and chairman of the trustees’ committee of Carnegie Institute of Technology, serving in the latter capacities for a period of sixteen years.  

“In civil life his activities were many and varied. Perhaps he was best known in Pittsburgh as the founder and moving spirit of the “One Hundred Friends of Pittsburgh Art”, an organization he established in 1916 to encourage Pittsburgh artists by buying outstanding examples of their work at their annual exhibition and presenting them to public schools to foster an appreciation of art among school children.

The pointed arch stained-glass window in the back of the Porter Mausoleum at the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, displays a flower in the center, which could possibly be a mayflower and a nod to his membership in the Society of Mayflower Descendants—Mr. Porter was an avid genealogist and descended from Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton.

The top center depicts a figure holding a chalice in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other with a ribbon behind spelling CHARITY indicating his participation in many of Pittsburgh’s charities. The bottom of the window depicts an actor, a musician, and an artist which pay homage to Mr. Porter’s membership in the Fine Arts Committee at the Carnegie Museum and his chairmanship on the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institute of Technology. One of the windows depicts a building at Allegheny College, his alma mater and the other the main building at Carnegie University, both learning institutions he left large endowments.

The pointed arch stained-glass window nearly reads like a resume for John Porter’s life.

An oil lamp is the centerpiece of the stained-glass window in the Fisher Family Mausoleum in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The oil lamp hangs from the ceiling and is flanked by fluted Neo-classic pilasters.  A flickering flame billowing shades of blue and gray smoke provides hues of yellow to the window.

The oil lamp is not an uncommon symbol found in cemeteries and is recreated as bas-relief sculptures in stone, bronze sculptures, and here in stained glass.  For Christians meaning is found in many Bible verses:

II Samuel: Chapter 22, verse 29, says, “For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.”

Psalms 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

John 8:12: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

The light emanating from the lamp represents the pathway to Truth and to Knowledge and also represents Christ as the Light of the World.

The long slender stained-glass window in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, displays a crown and cross in a purple quatrefoil. The quatrefoil in Christian symbolism represents the four evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and is often found in the tracery of Gothic Churches. 

Even the color of the glass surrounding the motif is significant.  Purple was the color that signified royal authority.  It also represents the suffering and mourning associated with the Passion of Christ. During the Passion of Christ, Roman soldiers placed a purple robe around Jesus and crowned him with thorns mocking Him. The color purple is also a reminder to Christians of Jesus’s suffering and their need to confess their sins and seek forgiveness.

The crown is a symbol of glory and victory over death.  The reward awaits in Heaven where the victor will receive a crown of victory. The cross represents the suffering of Christ and is a universal symbol of Christianity.