Graveyard Christmas

Geese with a monument of the Evangelists. Old Brooklyn (Cleveland), Ohio.

Bases alone

The ravages of time, neglect, and malice cause ruins. People bury their loved ones with a thought of dignity, and remembrance. That dignity, and remembrance is meant to last for more than a moment; often it is meant to outlast all the survivors of those whom are buried. That is why the date of death is recorded with the name.

These stones have only the bases remaining. So, we see the construction. The left one is for a stone that is slotted into a base. That stone is tabbed on its bottom. The right one has two posts, or spikes that connect marker stone with the base.

Handshakers

Again, certain visual symbols are seen upon stones. In certain time periods, some have a greater frequency. The period (1865-1914), i address, is that of the post War for Union, and ante the War to end all Wars. One is that of two hands shaking. Hand shaking is a visible sign of greeting by friends, or those wish to be seen as such.

Now, some hand shaking shows up with fraternal organisations. This is one on a married couple. The clothing cuffs are different to suggest one is feminine, and one masculine. Now, in some churches a sign of peace is exchanged; often it is a hand shake with strangers. Somehow a handshake does not seem the sign of affection for a married couple. Well, perhaps we are fortunate that here it is an euphemistic symbol, and not anatomical accuracy that is portrayed.

By the fence

This grave has a newborn babe, and her newborn kid brother. The stone came two (?) years after the first child's death. It is a small, dignified stone sitting for almost a century.

Grand funerals are not had by all. The poor die too. This foto tells us several things, some by reconfirmation: by the fence is not a good spot; sometimes, it is less maintained; the property next to it may not be so good. It is no surprise to see the the poor are buried by the fence.

This spot is in the southeast corner of Cleveland's Monroe Street Cemetery. The ground slopes downward to railroad tracks. The tracks are the southern property line, and they make almost a 'v', so that the line is not parallel to Monroe Street. Along this fence, there are several gaps. Over the years, children and bums have made their way through. Next to this stone, there is an animal hole. The southern third, or fourth of the graveyard is almost riddled with such burrows.

Replacing an elk at an Elks Rest

the old elk statue stares over a maintenance building

W. H. Mullins Company of Salem, Ohio made this first statue. In a 1993 Ohio outdoor sculpture survey, given to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, it was noted that the legs had split and were patched with cement; also an antler repair was made. Since then the legs split again, revealing the pipe skeleton. In a ceremony, at Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery, a new bronze elk was dedicated on Memorial Day 2010.

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge 18 Willoughby-Cleveland communal graves are marked with a new bronze elk

slabstone with the elk's logo making the hour of recollection (11 p.m.)

The Elks formed in the US in 1868 in New York City mostly of actors. The club came from the previous Jolly Corks. One legacy is the 11th hour toast, "To our absent Brothers". The last hour of the day, is the hour before midnight. They often sing 'Auld Lang Syne' after the toast.

Perhaps this poetic melancholy within a fraternity inspired the community's burial spots within cemeteries. There are four in Ohio (one in Cleveland at Lake View Cemetery) and several more throughout the country. In these spots, it is common for the members to have an elk statue.

Joseph, vandalised

This statue is beheaded. It is not St. Denis. In one hand a square is held. He is a workman, builder. The other a lily, symbol of purity and chastity. This is a statue of St. Joseph, the spouse of Mary, Mother of God. Joseph was a carpenter. Cleveland's Cavalry has little vandalism. This is one of the exceptions.

Saint Joseph is also the patron of a good death. It should be no surprise to see him represented in a graveyard. There are several prayers for this.

O blessed Joseph, who yielded up thy last breath in the arms of Jesus and Mary, obtain for me this grace, O holy Joseph, that I may breathe forth my soul in praise, saying in spirit, if I am unable to do so in words: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give Thee my heart and my soul.” Amen.

Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. Denis is third from the left.

Gabriel and his horn

Saint Gabriel the Archangel who will summon the whole world to the last judgement with the trumpet pray for us

An angel with a horn unaccompanied is usually Gabriel. It is he who made the announcement of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Angel is from the Greek for 'messenger', from Greek it came to the other european languages.

In cemeteries, it is not unusual to find angel statues. Most are anonymous. This one is scripted twice, and is shown with his heraldic trumpet.

American Fraternals

The Odd Fellows are recognised by three links of chain; or the colors white, blue, and red; the letters, FLT which stand for Friendship, Love, Truth. This is a stained glass window in an Elmwood [Lorain,O.] mausoleum. It is made to be viewed from the outside.

Approaching the year 1900, both the Odd Fellows, and the Free Masons in the United States were approaching one million members. The Odd Fellows, the more numerous; some people had dual memberships. The country's population was 76 million in 1900. The country has passed 300 million. There are less than 1.4 mil lion Masons, and maybe less than 50,000 Odd Fellows to-day. The Masons from 1955 to 1964 had over 4 million members. The US population was 179 million in 1960.

this part of an obelisk marble monument in Cleveland's Woodland Cemetery has a combined Mason and Odd Fellow mark
The Masons metamorphised from mediæval laboring organisations; so did the Odd Fellows. Masons worked as builders in stone. Odd Fellows, well the certain etymological derivation is lost, might be termed as laborers of several types, or iregular tradesmen. In England they formed into social clubs about the same time [prior 1750]. This was just before the twin risings of industrialisation, and capitalism; and well after the consolidation of the modern state. The nobility and the monarchs crushed the mediæval guild system. The property and rights of laboring classes were appropriated or demolished.

'Secret societies' brought fear to the ruling classes. The Masons worked to include the highest ranking nobility as members. The Odd Fellows and others were far less bourgeois, and more proletarian.

In the United States, after the War for Union, was an age of robber barons and unrestrained capitalism. Government was controlled by business interests, fascism before the term was known. The War for Union abolished chattel slavery; but until Franklin Roosevelt, labor was not free. Also, until Roosevelt's 'New Deal', the government did not serve the masses. These brotherhoods filled the vacuum.

Fraternal benefit societies were many. They stared with some communality of members. Sometimes it was social, occupational, religious, national, and so on. The Masons came to the US first, the Odd Fellows later. The latter split completely from England.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen 1883, a protective and insurance organization, merged with three other railroad labor unions in 1969. supra, bottom of grave stone Lake View

Many acted as trade unions, especially since such an organisation was often illegal and met with violent suppression. Whether they had that character or not, they aided members. Before banks took over life insurance, these organisations provided members the surface. Some had 'secret rituals', most of these were modeled after freemasonry. Some organisations operated cemeteries. So, in cemeteries it is very common to see insignia of such groups. The first to add these benefits was the Ancient Order of United Workmen [1868].

Knights of Maccabees 1878 [Maccabees after 1914] London, Ontario; most numerous in Michigan; called groups 'tents'; supra Elmwood Cemetery, Lorain, Ohio.

Graveyard deer

supra: Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights
infra: Calvary Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio

eat and rest

Some graveyards are of goodly acreage. Many are the largest 'green space' islands in an urban area. Of the 168 hours of the week, many of those hours there are no people around; the older parts of cemetery usage more so. It should be no surprise, that, animals are to be found.

one buck
two bucks

Marry Mason

Fred *1868, ? †. Anna*1870, 1927†.

Seemingly, Fred outlived his spouse. Fred is not 143 years old. One could check records.

It is possible, he left the area and is buried elsewhere. It is possible he had no one to take care of the detail to mark the date. Such occurrences are not rare. Was this one?

We see they were a masonic couple. On Fred's side is the common masonic symbol. The star pentagon on Anna's side is the emblem of the Order of the Eastern Star, a sister organisation open to Masons and, more so, their female relatives. It was created by Rob Morris, a masonic poet and teacher.

Now, it must be agreed that, the masons have an interest in things funereal and morbid. About the star is the word 'FATAL'. It is maintained that it is an anagram for 'Fairest Among Ten-thousand Altogether Lovely', which is supposedly derived from two lines in Scripture:

What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. — Song of Solomon v. 9-10. (KJV)

That is a clumsy derivation. Rob Morris*1818, 1888†, who if not for his extensive masonic activities would be virtually unknown today, created the OES and wrote their rituals.

Grave bird

This turkey vulture at Lake View was not soaring and circling. He was hopping into flight, resting and hopping. Perhaps he was mouse hunting. Ironic thoughts rush to the mind when the eyes see a vulture in graveyard.
Some goofy, third age paganism, will give an absurd, abstract interpretation for a vulture. It is a bird that rips the flesh of the already dead. It is a scavenger. It is nature's consumer of death and rot. When a person is compared to a vulture, he is a remorseless opportunist. It is difficult to be cheery about the sight of this bird. His featherless head allows him to delve into the corpse with little gore to adhere. As a defense he pukes. His digestive slobber adds to the stench.

Fancifully, the bird can be taken as an undertaker's companion. Somewhere there are sketches of a gravedigger holding a shovel, and the bird perched on his shoulder like the parrot on Long John Silver; but that was meant as gruesome humour.
One walking through a graveyard one doesn't usually smell the decay of flesh. On this day, there was a dead buzzard on the ground. Some creature did dig in his carcass [note the disturbed feathers]. Considering that his food is carrion and putrid flesh, it would seem to poison one would not be easy. He could have been shot.

John Paul II

Did not expect to see the last pope in the graveyard either.

Woodmen

This stone from Woodland, its logo is clear. Many are thinly inscribed, or badly incised and barely legible.

Now, you walk through a few established cemeteries (graveyards) and you will see some things again in grave monuments and markers: masonic symbols, tree stones, zinkers, lambs, angels, crosses. Woodmen memorial insignia is one.

It has a skyscraper in Omaha. The other well known insurance company in Omaha used to have a television show with Marlon Perkins, an old, thin man with white moustaches. He ran the St. Louis Zoo. Years before he used to be their snake man, and before that laborer. In between he ran Buffalo's, and then Chicago's zoos.

All those years on television, he had the much younger (27 years) Jim Fowler wrestling gators, and being chased on the savannah. He would introduce the segments and break into a commercial, "While Jim is counting his fingers after being badgered by a surprised badger who was still in his burrow, you can count easy and contentedly while Mutual of O**** protects your burrow..."

Woodmen of the World began in 1890, an earlier Modern Woodmen of America began by the same man in 1883. Things happened, and he left the first one. They were fraternal benefit societies. They were life insurance outfits with burial benefits.

Before the Depression they provided gravestones of various designs. Some were tree stones, some carried just the logo. The logo had variety: some had the ancient tools of wood cutters (the founder had been a free mason), maul (combination sledge and axe), wedge, axe, beetle (heavy hammer); sometimes a dove of peace; sometimes the latin phrase, 'Dum Tacet Clamat, (though silent he speaks loudly). Woodmen Circle was the women's auxiliary.

For a time they had a radio, and television stations with the call letters WOW. They once employed Johnny Carson on air.

at St. Joseph Cleveland, cross substitutes for the tools; several others in Catholic graveyards with only the scripted circle, and bare cross
one face of a family monument at Woodland, inside of WOW circle almost gone; this is also a cenotaph (monument without corpse)

Pilgrim knocking

Perhaps Dylan's tune, 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' is even more appropriate here. Lake View in Cleveland has several monuments by the top rank of American sculptors. Albin Polasek *1879, 1965† was Moravian born. He went on to Vienna, Philadelphia, Rome and New York City. He settled in Chicago and led the sculpture department at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1916-43. In 1950, he went to retire in Winter Park, Florida. He became paralyzed on his left side and sculpted with his right hand alone. There is a museum and sculpture gardens in Winter Park, Florida with some two hundred of his statues. On his own gravestone there is a bronze rondel of the XIIth Station of the Cross, the rood scene. He did many distinctly 'Catholic' sculptures. He sculpted in bronze the brother Saints Cyril and Methodius on the mountain top at Roznov pod Radhostem in eastern Moravia, where paganism was defeated by the Apostles to the Slavs.

He also did funeral monuments in Chicago, and this one in Cleveland for Webster Clay (Webb C) Ball *1847, 1922†. Ball was a jeweler who was consulted in the trials following the collision of two trains in Kipton, Ohio 1891. Eight people died. Ball became Chief Time Inspector of the rail roads. In 1893 standards were increased for railroad chronometers. His company became successful in making railroad watches. The phrase 'get on the Ball' may have come from that.

Albín Polášek. Pilgrim at the Eternal Gate. 1924. Cleveland.

Do you think he was a mason?

Silas E. Sheldon M.D. *1837, 1900† was born in Lorain County. The family moved to Berea, and he went to Baldwin-Wallace College, then the Univ. of Michigan. He was a surgeon in the War for the Union from 1862-64, just recently have become a physician in Cleveland. He went to Topeka, Kansas and became a State Senator immediately. For years he was chief surgeon for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. His wife was a Clevelander, she remained in Kansas till her death, too. All in all, he spent very little time in Cleveland alive. Jeremy Cross *1783, 1861† was a masonic lecturer, ritualist and writer. In a book published in 1819, he has a drawing by a copper engraver, Amos Doolittle, much like supra. They brought together the following: broken column, evergreen [acacia] branch of burial and immortality, scroll, weeping woman, Saturn/father time/reaper with harvesting scythe, sand glass of time. And this broken column (and chorus) is meant to be the proper monument to an important, dead free mason.

'lambskin' apron with the all seeing eye, and the tools of the Geometer

Oh, i can't go without comment. He became the grand commander of the Knights Templar of
Kansas in 1876. And it is an ugly monument. The cluttered design of the central motif has no appeal outside of masonry. It is everything but the handshake.

Masonic symbols

Tools of the Grand Geometer, square and compass. This is zinc (Birmingham Cemetery, Erie Co., O.).

In pre-capitalist Europe, trades of workers formed guilds (unions). These mediæval guilds were also social units, often with festivals, group benefits and ceremonies. Stone masons build stone walls.

'Free and Accepted Masons' became a fraternity, and a secret society that used mason guilds/lodges as a model. Their evidence of their existence before 1717 is scanty. Many masons are often touchy about their 'craft' membership. They believe in their metaphors. And how are these metaphors created? By members with fanciful imaginations who write poems, scripts, rituals and such. They are then taught in lectures. Over time members accept them as history.

These creations include the role of masons in the building of King Solomon's Temple (c. 1000 BC). Masons work in stone. Solomon's Temple, had some stone, but was largely built in wood. The Crusades in the Holy Land were c. aD 1096-1292. Certain christian military orders were created. The Knights Templar were, perhaps, the most famous. They were extinguished by the french King Philip IV, and a french pope Clement V, from 1307-1314.

Records begin to start from 1717 from a coming together of four pre-existing lodges. I would start looking from that point backwards, not from four hundred, or twenty-seven hundred, or for some the pyramid builders of seven thousand years ago.

A starting point to go forward in time would be when did stone cutting, and building slow down in Britain? or pick up? There was civil and religious war and military dictatorship from 1639 to 1660. A Restoration of monarchy then came. In 1666 London burned, its cathedral and eighty-eight parish churches went.

If one wants to find a real origin of 'freemasonry', one needs to find when did laboring organisations transform (or was borrowed) into an organisation that did not labor, but used metaphors. Clearly real masons, and those we call speculative 'freemasons' are different. In 1717 the latter emerged in London, in Scotland in 1736 (but the Scots have records from real masons to just before 1600).

From fanciful and occupational sources symbols were borrowed. The tools of the trade are few. The borrowings from religious iconography are many. What a symbol means in religion, and what it means in masonry are often different. So is a particular symbol religious or masonic? In isolation one doesn't know. Also, so many organisations that came after the success of masonry took masonic signs for their own, e.g. the Orange Order, and Mormonism. Some are easily defined as masonic:

32nd degree scottish rite mason

he was crowned a 33° mason

Knock, knock, knocking

This is an interesting monument for a graveyard. Who would be knocking on a gravestone? There's no door. How many wish entry?

Willie Shakespeare in MacBeth has knock, knock jokes. The hungover, or drunk, porter of the MacBeth's castle hears knocking.

Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell Gate, he should have old turning the key.
[Knocking from inside the castle]
[first of three jokes] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' th' name of Belzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty. Come in time, have napkins enough about you, here you’ll sweat for ’t. ...

Bob Dylan wrote, Knockin' on Heaven's Door for the movie Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. It begins:

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark to see
I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door (4x)

Knocking on heaven's door (or gate) is a common allusion. People were familiar with the phrase, Bobby put a song around it.

Both poets were borrowers. Hell-gate was a feature in mediæval mystery plays. It has to be assumed Shakespeare, and his audience accepted humour with death and fate. In Hamlet there is a gravedigger's scene. The gravediggers (listed as clowns) begin their discussion on whether the suicide, Ophelia, should receive Christian burial. They then riddle jokes:

1st Clown: What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
2nd Clown: The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

After a bit, he first clown asks the question again. The second can't dig up an answer.

1st Clown: ... when you are ask’d this question next, say “a grave-maker”; the houses that he makes lasts till doomsday.

Two Saint Johns

John the Evangelist iconic and heraldic companion is an eagle. Here he has eagle, and to further complement his identification is a pen and paper to show he was a writer. John was an apostle, the youngest and is usually portrayed in that manner. He was also the longest lived.

Now who is this Castle fellow? William Bainbridge Castle *1814, 1872† was born in Vermont, and lived in Canada a couple times. He and his father had the first lumberyard in Cleveland. When he returned he came to Ohio City, which was across the river from Cleveland. The east side, west side rivalry began at this time when the two cities were separate. He became a councilman, and the mayor in 1853. In 1854 he was involved in the absorption of Ohio City by Cleveland. In 1855 he was mayor of the combined Cleveland. He was a Whig at this time.

He was also a vestryman and senior warden at St. John's Anglican/Episcopal church. This is why he has St. John as his memorial.
This is a much younger John, also with pen and paper. He is the patron of George Beckwith Ely *1817, 1877†. He was born out east, came to Cleveland, then to Milan, O., and back to Cleveland. He was in the pursuit of business, in the 1850s it was coal and railroads. In 1856 he became Cleveland and Erie Railroad's treasurer.

The pedestal has what looks like a variety of fig leaves, a triad of fig leaves. Sometimes it represents fecundity, and prosperity. A triad suggests the Trinity. I realise now, i need to walk about the statue in order to confirm.

Saint John Nepomucene

Saint John Nepomuk was a Bohemian priest thrown into the river to drown, the river Vltava in Prague, 20 March 1393 on the orders of the emperor and king, Wenceslaus. He is the saint of the seal of confession. That is why he is holding a finger to his lips. That is not his only iconic posture, but it is readily identifiable. Did not expect to see him in a cemetery. There are Czechs in Lorain, Ohio.

cemetery building

Since this is not near the entrance, this is not a gatehouse, although it may have served similar purposes. It is not an office. It is not decorated as a chapel. It is currently locked, and unused. It was suitable for services and viewing.

Before earth moving equipment, manual labor alone dug graves. When the ground froze, and it could freeze for months, bodies were not buried. Bodies and coffins were kept in winter storage. They would be brought up the steps, shown, and sent below floor for the season.

rails to hold coffins, and trap door

Saint Michael

Now, Catholics are not iconophobes and iconoclasts. It is not unusual to see statues in a Catholic cemetery. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are prominent. Anonymous angels appear too. Supra, is a statue of Michael the Archangel defeating the dragon (the devil). Now, Calvary is the largest graveyard around Cleveland; Lake View is far more celebrated. There is a St. Michael by James Earle Fraser. It is often photographed and sketched. It is not a Catholic Michael, it is not a Christian Michael at all. It is a pagan, martial, imperial, and perhaps worse. It has a biblical quotation to propagandise the deceased US Secretary of State as an instrument of peace. This statue's sculptor may not be known by the public; this Saint Michael may not be a celebrated creation; but it is a proper St. Michael. The inscription is, the humble plaint and plea, 'My Jesus Mercy',which is repeated in the Memorial Prayer for Suffering Souls in Purgatory.

Almighty God, Father of goodness and love,
have mercy on the poor suffering souls, and grant Thine aid:

To my dear parents and ancestors;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To my brothers and sisters and other near relatives;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To my benefactors, spiritual and temporal;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To my former friends and subjects;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To all for whom love or duty bids me pray;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who have suffered disadvantage or harm through me;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who have offended me;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To all those who are especially beloved by Thee;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those whose release is at hand;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who desire most to be united with Thee;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who endure the greatest suffering;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those whose release is most remote;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who are least remembered;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who are most deserving on account of their services to the Church;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the rich, who now are the most destitute;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the mighty, who now are as lowly servants;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the blind, who now see their folly;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the frivolous, who spent their time in idleness;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the poor, who did not seek the treasures of Heaven;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the tepid, who devoted little time to prayer;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the indolent, who were negligent in performing good works;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those of little faith, who neglected the frequent reception of the Sacraments;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the habitual sinners, who owe their salvation to a miracle of grace;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To parents who failed to watch over their children;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To superiors who were not solicitous for the salvation of those entrusted to them;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the souls of those who strove for hardly anything but riches and pleasures;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the worldly-minded, who failed to use their wealthand talents in the service of God;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who witnessed the death of others, but would not think of their own;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who did not provide for the great journey beyond, and the days of tribulation;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those whose judgment is so severe because of the great things entrusted to them;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the popes, rulers, kings and princes;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the bishops and their counselors;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To my teachers and spiritual advisors;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the deceased priests of this diocese;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To all the priests and religious of the whole Catholic Church;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To the defenders of the Holy Faith;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who died on the battlefield;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who are buried in the sea;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who died of stroke or heart attack;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who died without the last rites of the Church;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To those who shall die within the next twenty-four hours;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

To my own poor soul when I shall have to appear before Thy judgment seat;
Jesus, Mary, Joseph! My Jesus, mercy.

℣. O Lord, grant eternal rest to all the souls of the faithful departed,
℟. And let perpetual light shine upon them.

℣. May they rest in peace.
℟. Amen.

11.11.11

On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918, the Armistice (cessation of the use of arms and ordinance) on the Western Front took effect. Men did die in action that day. An estimate of 11,000 casualties, that day, is given by the historian Joseph Persico. French military records recorded French deaths that day as happening on the tenth. Who wants to be told their son died on the last day of the war?

That day was also St. Martin's, the Roman soldier who declared before Worms, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight." Many of the French thought he intervened.

Erich Maria Remarque wrote the novel, Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front). The hero, Paul Bäumer, dies in October 1918. Many people are now introduced to that war, by that book. The book has been occasionally banned. There are no combat veterans of that war left alive.

this soldier of the Western Front did not see the Armistice

Signalman, Third Class, Frank Elgin Alexander of Elyria

The U.S.S. Grunion SS-216 was an American naval submarine with a crew of seventy men. She was in radio communication, off Kiska Island, Alaska, on 30 July 1942. She exchanged fire with a Japanese troop transport, Kano Maru. It seems an implosion caused by an exploding torpedo she was carrying destroyed her.

On 22 August of 2007 an expedition funded by the son of her commander found the Grunion on the bottom of the Bering Sea. On 11 October 2008 a memorial service was held at the U.S.S. Cod SS-224, permanently harbored in Cleveland.

Break in

Elmwood Cemetery, Lorain, Ohio

Three of these four mausoleums, supra, were raided by scrappers on the night of 3 November. Of seven cemetery mausoleums, six had doors and some window frames stolen. Some of the buildings had single, and some had double doors. These are of goodly weight. They were of 'red brass' an alloy of generally 85% copper, now with a patina many years old. It has both tin and zinc, and therefore, is both a bronze and a brass. The scrap value was in thousands of dollars, but what scrap dealer is going to take it?
Here are some broken stained and leaded glass, among walnuts and leaves. Entry may have occurred in an instance, or two through a window. Others had screws removed to unhinge the doors. The next morning, particle board was screwed over the openings.
________________
postscriptum: partial update, some new doors donated

touching stones

Of course, there is an emotion of sadness when in a graveyard. One understands the place. A simple marker is often enough to explain. There is a section of small grave stones in Lorain's Calvary. Small children and babies were buried there in the 1930s, and '40s. There are three small angel monuments. Several markers have enameled oval photographs. It is very poignant.

This small stone is for twin babies. One boy was named after the president, Franklin Roosevelt.

Treestones

There are stones cut and shaped as tree trunks, logs and stumps. For some this is a metaphor of how a growing life may be cut short. For some it is odd juxtaposition for stone to imitate wood. For some it was a rustic theme of art, the woodlands were cleared for farms and towns. The woodlands had no civilisation [ignore the Indians], their removal was life giving to the society of men.

Logs as human bodies metaphor is not so comfortable. The Japanese during WWII (Second Sino-Japanese War) did nazi-type human experimentation, they referred to these human subjects, not as people, but as logs. This was done in Harbin, China (Manchukuo/Manchuria) by the Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731. This was not in the mind of the stone cutters, since these stones pre-date that.

The thought is earlier than that. In the Old Testament there are several prohibitions of religious activities with arbors and trees, that the modern reader ignores (mostly of lack of recognition).

Thou shalt plant no grove, nor any tree near the altar of the Lord thy God: —Deuteronomy xvi-21.

The English 'grove' [now, sometimes 'pole'] is translated from the Hebraic 'Asherah'. That term can refer to the idol, a tree, a stylized or cut tree, or idol. Asherah was a Semitic mother goddess.

at Cleveland's Calvary

bark delineated and bark stripped, branches cut off, with ivy, with scrolls attached

detail with fungi and ferns, all these at Monroe Street

This is a 'Woodmen Circle' monument, 'Woodmen Circle' was a women's auxiliary of 'Woodmen of the World' which is a fraternal benefit society (insurance company) with headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. At one time with the 'life insurance' benefit came a free stone if the company's logo was inscribed. The logo often was with wood splitting tools (maul and mallet, axe and beetle, wedge). There were many different stones. This benefit was terminated in 1920. Here, Alvina died in 1909. Her husband [we must assume] died in 1923, and his name was then on the monument.

bolster knocked off log pedestal, multi-piece monuments are tempting to mischief