Gravely Speaking

CONRAD WINDISCH

1825 – 1887

SOPHIE WINDISCH

1827 – 1901

A passerby in the Spring Grove Cemetery strolling past the gravestone of Conrad Windisch might mistake it for a ruin—which was the whole idea. The white-marble marker carved to look like an English abbey ruin has a gothic pointed-arched window with a tree stump leaning across the face of the stone signifying a life cut short. Above the window is a winged hourglass. The soap opera, Days of Our Lives, has as their catchphrase, “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”  The meaning of that catchphrase is clear–life passes by very quickly.  Life measured by the grains of sand slip through one side of the hourglass to the other in a flash.  The hourglass symbol on a gravestone, represents the same thought of time fleeting by quickly. All of this sits on a large base with a large oval convex cartouche with “Conrad Windisch” carved into it.

The gravestone marks the graves of Conrad and Sophie Windisch. Conrad was a German immigrant from Munich who settled in the United States in the mid-19^th Century. After working for several brewers Windisch founded his own brewery with his business partner and brother-in law, Gottlieb Mulhauser. The building that housed the enormous brewery had two large stone lions in the gables on top leading to the brewery’s unofficial name—Lion Brewery. Windisch and Mulhauser were very successful and became the largest brewer in Ohio.

The Windisch gravestone harkens back to the 18^th Century when English gardens were quite often landscaped to feature faux Roman temples and decaying English castles and abbeys. These became known as Victorian follies—that is a building or structure that was built first and foremost as decoration but suggested some other high purpose or former use.

One of the most interesting monuments in the Metarie Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, was built for Henry J. Egan, a Confederate Lieutenant Colonel, who was killed April 6, 1865, at Amelia Springs, Virginia, during General Robert E. Lee’s retreat. The monument was built to appear like a ramshackle Gothic Revival-style Church. It is a sham, however. The ruin was designed by Charles A. Orleans, one of the leading monument builders in New Orleans at the time, who was at the height of his fame when it was built in 1881. The Victorian folly, built to look like one thing when it is actually another, is a marble monument complete with mock cracks and crumbling stone to deceive the passerby. Carved above the arched doorway into the tomb are the words, “Sic itur ad astra” – Latin which translates to “Thus to the stars”.

As author Phil Nuxhull writes in his book, Beauty in the Grove: Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, the Windisch gravestone, like the Egan monument, conveys the “transitory nature of all earthly things.”

(Inscription on the back wall of the church)

In Memory of

Bentinck Egan

Who died Dec. 27, 1881

And his brothers

Walter

Frederock

Yelverton

Henry

Augustus

The Good Sons of

Dr. J. S. Egan and I. M. Yelverton

Mother died 1884

Father died 1891

(on the floor )

Lieutenant Colonel Henry I. Egan

Killed at Amelia Springs, Va.

While in command of

Sharpshooters, Gordon’s Division,

Covering Retreat of Lee’s Army

April 6, 1865, Aged 24 years.

Dr. Yelverton B. Egan

Killed at the Battle of Sharpsburg

September 17, 1863, aged 24 years.

Letitia M. Yelverton Egan

Their mother

Died in London England 1884

Mary Louisa Egan

Only daughter of

James and Letitia Egan

Died Dec. 26, 1920

Buried with them in

Fulham Cemetery, London

Cecilia Maria Egan

Died Jan. 2, 1941

Frederick Egan and his wife

Julia Wilkinson Egan

(inscription on the back of the building)

 BENTINCK

The gravestone in the St. Adalbert Catholic Cemetery in Chicago depicts Christ on the cross. The gravestone is a moving and expressive representation demonstrating the pain and the suffering of Christ on the cross. The symbol of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross is called a crucifix. The word crucifix is from Latin and is the combination of two words—cruci and fixus—which translates to one fixed to a cross.

The Latin cross is universally recognized as the symbol of Christianity. Though it may look simple to the eye, the symbol is imbued with deep meaning to all Christians. William Henry Deacy in Memorials: To-Day for To-Morrow published by Georgia Marble Company of Tate, describes the symbolism of the Latin cross: “Faith had brought Him to Calvary. The Betrayal, the Trial, the piercing Crown of Thorns, the tortuous road to Golgotha, the cruel weight of the Cross, the hour of Crucifixion—through all these Faith had led Him on. …the Cross of Calvary, instrument of the Passion… a memorial of the Faith, the Chosen Symbol…”

In the gravestone below from the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Chicago, the image of Jesus is depicted standing on a cloud as risen from the dead. On this gravestone the body of Christ forms the cross. In that way the figure of Christ becomes one with the most recognizable symbol of Christianity morphing one into the other.

The window in the St. Adalbert Catholic Cemetery at Chicago, Illinois, displays a radiant crown and crown in a stained-glass cartouche. 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.

Here lies the body of

Miss RUTH HUNT

Who departed this life

Oct. 19^th, 1792.

in the 87^th Year of her age

The gray slate gravestone in the Burying Point, the oldest burying ground in the City of Salem, Massachusetts, features the incised design of a sun. The anthropomorphic sun in this case has two eyes peeking forward.

It is always difficult to look at a design like this and know whether the sun is setting or rising. The setting sun represents death—darkness. If the sun is a rising sun it represents Christ’s resurrection.

LEVI BUCKINGHAM

BORN DEC. 15. 1795.

DIED SEPT. 26. 1857.

ELIZA BUCKINGHAM

BORN APRIL 17. 1802

DIED AUG. 20. 1865.

PETER A. BUCKINGHAM

BORN OCT. 26. 1831.

DIED NOV. 16. 1835.

SALINA BUCKINGHAM

BORN MARCH 13. 1829

DIED AUG. 6. 1836.

MARGARET A. KENDALL

BORN JULY 2. 1819

DIED MARCH 31. 1860.

MATILDA BUCKINGHAM

BORN MARCH 9. 1833.

DIED MARCH 7. 1854.

The white marble gravestone of Levi and Eliza Buckingham in the Spring Grove Cemetery at Cincinnati, Ohio, prominently displays their names and birth and death dates on the front of the stone in an elaborate cartouche. Carved into two of the sides of the marker have other names of fallen family members. The cartouche has wheat tucked into the top and the bottom of the stone is adorned with ivy leaves twinning around the gravestone. The ivy traditionally represents friendship.

Wheat’s origins are unknown but is the basis of basic food and a staple in many cultures. Because of wheat’s exalted position as a mainstay foodstuff, it is viewed as a gift from Heaven. Wheat symbolizes immortality and resurrection.  But, like many symbols found on gravestones, they can have more than one meaning.  For instance, because wheat is the main ingredient of bread, the sheaf of wheat can represent the Body of Christ.  Wheat can also represent a long life, usually more than three score and ten, or seventy years.

WILLIAM EVANS CHAPIN

AUG. 15, 1856 – JAN. 25, 1936

NANNIE NICOLSON CHAPIN

MAY 19, 1880 – APRIL 29, 1912

The Chapin monument in the Westview Cemetery at Atlanta, Georgia, is a neo-classical design. Many ancient classical designs are replicated in modern graveyards based on the designs of Greek and Roman temples.  The canopy on the Chapin monument is modeled after the Roman tomb of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus.

Scipio’s tomb

The Scipio sarcophagus was erected around 150 BC.  Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus (died c. 280 BC) was one of the two elected Roman consuls in 298 BC. His tomb is an example of classical Greek design based on the same design principles used for the Parthenon.  The scroll work, at the top of the canopy represents the Heavens, and also represented a bed. In an article written for “Design Hints” by John Cargill, a designer from the Chicago design firm of Chas. G. Blake & Company, describes the meaning of the scrolls writing, “The scrolls represent a bed; the bed refers to sleep and sleep is a type of death; and to the righteous death is but glorious transport to Paradise.

Cargill described the evolution of the classical architectural design principles, which he writes were conceived from the order that the ancients found in nature, primarily astrological, that were used in Greek architecture to imbue harmony into their structures.

The sarcophagus, as does the Chapin monument, has three distinct planes representing the universe—the base, the middle, and the top. The base is symbolic of the Earth, the middle represented man and the gods, and the top of the sarcophagus where the scroll rests represents the Heavens. In this case, the angel, as the messenger of God, clearly stands in that middle land. An angels stands holding a bouquet of Easter lilies in one arm and a single blossom in the other.

The lily, as a funerary symbol, has many meanings including purity, innocence, virginity, heavenly bliss, majestic beauty, and Christ’s resurrection.  Christians believe that the trumpet-shaped blossoms announce the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. If the lilies are white they symbolize the hope of eternal life. The Easter lily has long been associated with the Christian religion, commonly referred to as “White-Robed Apostles of Christ.” Early Christians believed that lilies sprouted where Jesus Christ’s sweat fell to the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane.

White has typically been a color associated with virtues of purity and innocence.  Often the lily can be found on the grave of a child, the epitome of purity and innocence.  The white lily is also associated with virginity and marriage, in particular relationship to women.  On one hand, the lily represents virginity and innocence, which is an appropriate symbol for a young unmarried woman.  On the other hand, it is symbolic of majestic beauty and marriage, which makes it an appropriate symbol for all married women regardless of their age.