medical symbols

Certain typographical symbols are used only by people of a certain occupation. Elsewhere, that they occur, to others they are found in an appendice in a dictionary. Some are well defined terms.

Ben Casey was a television show on ABC in the first half of the 1960s.  Vince Edwards played a very serious, dedicated surgeon. His character was handsome, and hard headed, and a thorn to management. The show is well remembered as a favorite for many.

The show would open with the chalking of a slate board and a calm musical intro. The voice of Sam Jaffe, whose character ( Dr. David Zorba) was a mentor to Dr. Casey, would composedly name the symbols drawn, “♂ man ... ♀ woman ... * birth ... † death ... ∞ infinity”; then a wheeled gurney, with patient covered by a sheet would burst through swinging doors, followed by shots of the two leads, a large light would click on, and the operating amphitheatre would be seen all accompanied by an instrumental theme of some tension.

The intoning of the four biological terms is stark and simple. When lives are charted, those are noted. They are all bounded, definite, and finite. The last term is not. It is a term of physics, mathematics, metaphysics. The voice says all five words in the same manner, but many people remember the last word with more drama (it has four syllables, and is therefore poetically longer than the others; the others combined have five syllables). It is a brilliant, and thought producing convention, though often subconsciously.

————————————————————————

In Cleveland, a midnight competitor to Johnny Carson on Friday night was Hoolihan and Big Chuck. They did skits, and chat, between breaks of old second rate horror films. They developed several recurring bits, one was a take-off on Ben Casey, Ben Crazy. Ben Crazy added a dollar sign to the symbol list.

O, by the way, there is no Mayan apocalypse. It is just the first day of winter.

Posada's calaveras

José Guadalupe Posada *1851, 1913† was a Mexican illustrator in the time of the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911). After a time he began using calaveras (skulls, by extension--skeletons) as political and social satire. Many of these cartoons were lithographs at first. Later to produce cheaper prints he worked engravings in wood blocks, and zinc plates, and type metal with new inks in relief etchings. Some two thousand survive. Posada died in poverty, and was forgotten.


Posada was known by the then young painters Diego Rivera, and Jose Clemente Orozco. In 1921, the French born, Jean Charlot came to Mexico, the land of his mother's father. He introduced the rest of the world to Posada's works.

Porfirio Diaz

 

 

 1963 commemorative stamp of Posada's Quijote

 Posada's calaveras are now associated with Mexico's Día de los Muertos. He combined in these comic figures a mestizo blend of folkloric, allegorical death. A mocking memento mori that instructs all about the vanity of life. Pre-Columbian Mexico, and Central America portrayed death and skeletons often. The Spanish brought Christianity that shew a suffering God. The 19th century French, which were a model to Mexico, were infatuated with danse macabre. Many prints, Posada made year after year for All Saints, and All Souls, and the popular celebrations of them.

El Jarabe en Ultratumba (The Folk Dance Beyond the Grave), or 

Gran fandango y francachela de todas las calaveras (Happy Dance and Wild Party of all the Skeletons)

published as a broadside ballad/corrido

 La Calavera Catrina, colored, or black and white is from c.1910 zinc etching

The bourgeois females of Mexico emulated French fashion. 'Catrina' is American Spanish for: elegant, over-dressed, dapper, pretty. The most popular of Posada's skeletons are catrinas. They have been made into dolls, and decorations.

a beckoning skeleton

 Edmund Joseph Sullivan's 1913 illustration

Alike for those who for To-day prepare,
And those that after a To-morrow stare,
A Muezzín from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!"

—Omar Khayyam (arranged by Edward Fitzgerald) quatrain 24 of 75 in 1st edition – 1859 

 Omar Khayyám *1048, 1131† was a scholar in many fields. His thousand some Persian quatrains have been selectively translated by many over the last century and an half. Perhaps, there is a Persian scholar out there that could give them a proper Köchel number; and another to translate that opus.

Never anticipate tomorrow's sorrow:
Live always in this paradisal Now—
Fated however soon to house, instead,
With others gone these seven thousand years*:
— Robert Graves 1967 from a forged Persian version by a Sufi scholar as quatrain 21 to be equivalent of the above
*age of the world

 poster by Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse (Stanley George Miller)

This drawing was a partial impetus for the Grateful Dead's garlanded skeleton, Bertha. Now, there is some literature that has earlier presentation of the skulls of Christian martyrs with roses for viewing and veneration. There are many macabre images of skeletons from the time of the black death (post 1347). The Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) was a theme where Death called subjects, both high and low, to dance; for all are united in death.

the golden flower of the grave yard

Chrysanthemum (golden flower) path in Barberton, O.

Sunday, i bumped into a friend from Barberton. I had not seen her for a few months. I mentioned, that i enjoyed the Mums Fest. She said, she did not allow herself to ever go. In the old country it was the graveyard flower for All Saints', and All Souls. They would remind her of that.

Yes, it is true. Much, if not all of Catholic Europe, considers it such. They are beautiful flowers, and in bloom there, when so few flowers are. The dead are remembered, and people visit and take care of grave sites. People, and society together in the Church agree about this for the beginning of November. [The Orthodox and Greek Catholics have All Saints the First Sunday after Pentecost.]

Mexico had been a part of Spain. The First of  November is All Saints', the Second is All Souls.  There those two days combined with indigenous folklore, and the resultant became Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The typical flower there is the, somewhat similar, marigold. The colors of yellow, gold, and orange, and the shape of the bloom, and the smell are comparable. Traditionally, people have referred to marigolds of having the smell of death.

The government of the people dedicating...

At this moment, on local television there is being broadcast the programme: Death and the Civil War: American Experience. It is another fine programme in the series of this necessary television network. It brings up a point particular to a point being argued in this presidential contest and other political battles, between the party of the Democracy and the one of the plutocracy. Before the War for the Union, the United States of America, and during the war--the Confederacy, had no provision to provide for dead soldiers. It was not considered a government responsibility, but left to individual initiative. The war killed so many men, that, it became so.

Not until the creation of the first national cemetery at Gettysburg did the American government accept responsibility for war dead. Many children memorised the 273 words of Abraham Lincoln's address beginning, "Four score....". The battle was fought July 1, 2 and 3 in 1863. The count of dead bodies on the battlefield was 8,900. The consecration, mentioned by Lincoln, was on November 19.

In front of Cleveland's Board of Education, there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln.

his Gettysburg Address is on a bronze plaque

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Earliest Cleveland Deaths

They remained— Others fled

Lorenzo Carter *1767 came to Ohio in 1797. Cleaveland was surveyed the year before. He, and his wife Rebekah, raised a family. His tavern was a trading post on the Cuyahoga, and the only place of meeting. Carter was the chief citizen of Cleaveland. Carter died of cancer in 1814.

The swamp diseases of the river killed, or chased off other settlers. For several years the Carters were the only non-Indians in Cleaveland. Others moved to nearby Doan's Corners (to-day University Circle on the east side), or Newburgh (southeast side).
Cleaveland's first graveyard was, on Ontario Street, south of Public Square. In 1826 bodies were moved to a permanent cemetery on Erie Street (now E. 9th). This 1948 plaque notes 15 of the transferred.

Jurij

He had his name written in Cyrillic characters in Ukranian, Jurij O. Likholit. Jurij is George. The family name was changed to something similar in spelling. He was born in one country, died in another, and buried in a third.

Forethought

This fellow had this stone placed while alive, not knowing the century he would die in. If he is still alive, he has passed the century mark. He only wanted else known of his military service.[Riverside]
Fred bought the stone after his wife died. They both belonged to masonic organisations. He is dead now, and he expected to die after 1927, but before 2000. No one has cut the two digits. No family survived him? Apparently no provision was made for the inscription update.[Maple Grove]

Tas kungs ir mans Gans

Tas kungs ir mans Gans = The Lord is my Shepherd

Cleveland Riverside has a Latvian section, and a Belarus section. Cleveland has had a long standing population originating in the nations of eastern Europe.

Latvians are a Baltic people. Most of the Letts came under Swedish rule and Lutheranism in the 17th Century. The stone, supra, has folk designs and a Protestant cross.

Anna Kammel

Anna Kammel

geb. 4. Sept. 1884.
gest. 14. Jan. 1891.

Schmerzlich war dein frühes Scheiden
Ach wohl bitter war dein Tod
Doch erlost von allen Leiden,
Und befreit von aller Noth

Painful was your early separation
As well was your bitter death
But release from all sufferings,
And exempt from all trouble

This stone is shaped like a pillow. Death is symbolised as a peaceful sleep. Again, and again, one can read the sadness and longing of the loved ones who lost their loved one.

securely shut

This mausoleum door is pinned and clasped shut.

White Russians

Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in Cleveland has a section at Riverside Cleveland. In the background is the Jennings Freeway, steel mill, and a shopping center carved from the steel mills.

The current Latin spelling is 'Belarus', White Russia. There are four eastern Slavonic nations, each sometimes having a variation of 'Russian', although Ukraine isn't currently favoring the identification. Great Russia=Red Russia (this is a pre-communist era term)=the Russia everyone thinks about. Little Russia=Black Russia=Ukraine. White Russia=Belarus. Carpatho-Russia=Ruthenia.

The centerpiece is a monument recalling the discovery of a small Marian icon of stone at Zyrovicy (Жыро́вічы, Zhirovichi) in 1470. Shepherd boys found a pear tree glowing, and the glow was from the oval icon.

"More honorable than the cherubim, And more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim, In virginity you bore God the Word; True Mother of God, we magnify you."

Kasimir Reichlin

†

Rev. Casimir Reichlin
Rector of
St. Stephen's Church
Cleveland, O.
1843 — 1870 — 1917

† Requiescat in Pace †

Father Reichlin is buried in the Priests' Circle, next to Bishop Koudelka. One can see where one of Koudelka's sheep is legless.

Usually, a simple inscription on a grave marker has only two dates. This one has a birth date (1843), and a death date (1917), and one more. The middle date is 1870, when Father Reichlin became rector. Rector is equivalent to pastor, rector comes from the Latin 'regere' to rule. Now, the term used is pastor.

His pastorship ended with his death, that was not unusual. A later pastor of St. Stephen's was told, "Our pastors don't retire, they die". Reichlin was given the newly formed parish at ordination, it was the second German parish on the city's west side.

The first was St. Mary of the Assumption, who bought the land for St. Mary's Cemetery. St. Mary's was given to the Jesuits in 1945, and twinned with St. Patrick's. German born Jesuits had built St. Ignatius [Loyola] (now High School). American born Irish replaced them. The last parish Mass at St. Mary's was in 1959. It continued as the school's chapel. In 1968 the church was razed. The ethnic rivalry has really not ended. Recently, Cleveland's bishop, Richard Lennon tried to 'merge' St. Stephen's with neighboring St. Colman's at St. Stephen. This caused an uproar. Colman's was quickly saved through a heavy, and immediate campaign, as was St. Ignatius of Antioch. St. Stephen's continues to exist by the grace of God. Both parishes are officially on probation, two of three such [the third is St. Ignatius].
The Father welcoming the Prodigal Son window was created by Munich's Mayer company, and installed in 1906. The window's sponsor was the Swiss born pastor Kasimir Reichlin.

Addeline Pelton Consort

Sacred To The Memory of
Mrs. Addeline Pelton Consort
of Mr. H. Pelton who Departed
This life Oct.. 2 1827 in the
22 year of her Age
_______ . _______
Benevolent She Lived Virtuous She Died.
Now Lies at Rest Her Infant by Her Side.
_______ . _______
Yet Oh! Dear wife thy Spirit Lingering. Near,
will Listen to thy husbands lonly tread:
And watch the Silent lonly pensive tear:
which Drops to Consecrate thy Dreamless bed.

Monroe Street Cemetery was bought by Brooklyn township in 1836, it had been a graveyard since c.1818. Ohio City was incorporated in 1836, after the building of the Ohio Canal and the population was c. 2,400. In 1854 Ohio City became part of Cleveland, and the cemetery became the city's only west side cemetery until a second one opened in 1900.

Mrs. Pelton and child was one of the earlier burials. Her sandstone inscription is as clear as if it was written to-day, only the writing style is mot familiar to-day. The marble stones to the right have every letter worn, and most gone.

The top of the stone has a funeral urn, and weeping willow branches carved onto the scroll and pediment topped stele. I think this may be the only such stone in this cemetery. This style was popular for generations, but this was in the last generation they were made. The funeral poem added to the epitaph was also hearkening to an earlier age. The use of the word 'consort' is interesting instead of 'spouse'.

There are few such stones at Erie Street Cleveland, but the last is c. 1832. It is to remembered that the settlement of Cleveland, and Ohio City was initially of New Englanders. Correct me here if necessary, the entire stone is anachronistic, or perhaps, it was the acme of development for this funereal art style; and after reaching that, then ended. Some stones had just the urn, or just the willow branches. Both speak to the mourning of the survivor. Mr. Pelton appears to have grieved deeply.

gatehouse roof and door

OFFICE HOURS
8:oo A.M. To 5:oo P.M.
CLOSED
SUNDAYS & HOLIDAYS.
It has not not done been opened at all, for a long time.

it's raining and the roof is...

The gatehouse at Monroe Street Cemetery has not received much care, as of late. See.

August Birth

Birth is not the name one expects to see on a gravestone. Sometimes spouses have the same Christian names too. August & Augusta, Stanisław & Stanisława.

Ojciec=Father .... Matka=Mother
Prosza Ozdrowas Marya
Pray for us Mary

213 Franklin Street

Delamater family monument. Monroe Street Cemetery. Cleveland, O.

There are four faces inscribed with eight names. Three sides are filled. The earliest family member was born in 1819, the last one memorialised in 1876. The last died in 1943.

The face above is the most detailed in information, and reads:

Addie Hale,
Delamater
Born Aug. 8, 1865.
in Janesville Wis.
Died Mar. 15, 1872.
at 213 Franklin St.
________________
Mary Girtie,
Delamater
Born May 30, 1862.
in Janesville Wis.
Died Sept. 5, 1863.
at Amsterdam N.Y.

Now, i am not a genealogist. The Delamater surname does not have the greatest frequency in America. My guess is pre-independence New York Dutch. The paterfamilias was Edward, his son Edward was born in Cleveland on 1 January 1856. From this sketch, the family moved a few times between New York, Wisconsin, and Cleveland (at least). A poor family would not have the money for such a central monument.

Here's a point—we are born, often have family lives, and sometimes the family continues; other times, a line ends. I apologise to any Delamaters, i do not know the circumstances, i am positing an example of some familial histories. This transience is a poignant marker of our existences upon this earth. These are things to ponder as Hamlet pondered on the skull of Yorick.

But, in this stone a street address was listed. Why did they think that necessary? To-day there is both Franklin Avenue (no houses), and Franklin Boulevard. Franklin was the prestige street in Ohio City, which merged into Cleveland in 1854. In 1906, the names and numbers of streets were revised throughout the city. In recent years, several houses on Franklin Boulevard were renovated and restored.

the pastoral care of sheep

Upkeep is a term for custodial care. Some cemetery monuments decay, and erode naturally from the elements of weather. At times, the actions of men cause further decay. Sometimes, restoration occurs; other times temporary measures are instituted; sometimes they stay.

Supra, wire connects hoof and thigh. Infra, before wire insertion on the Good Shepherd grouping of Bishop Joseph Koudelka's memorial.

Sometimes pastoral care in the Cleveland diocese is lacking.

Bishop Koudelka

Joseph Maria Koudelka *1852 Chilstova, Bohemia; Superior, Wisconsin 1921†.

Between the suppressed St. Procop Catholic Church and Interstate 90 there lays St. Mary's Cemetery. When entering from West 41st there is the Priests' Circle. A dozen, mostly German, priests are buried. One was a bishop. His monument has Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The sheep on the left stands on two legs, recently twisted wire was inserted in the stump of a third leg. A plaque has been absent for awhile, scrappers? and neglect.

Koudelka's family came to America (Wisconsin) in 1869. He entered the seminary in Milwaukee and transferred to Cleveland in 1874. Koudelka was ordained a deacon in February 1875 and was given charge of St. Procop. Procop's was the first Czech (Bohemian) parish on the west side of Cleveland, founded in 1872. In October of '75, Fr. Koudelka said his first Mass. In May 1882 Koudelka went to St. Louis, Missouri to edit a Catholic Czech publication. His parish refused any other priest, and was put under an inderdict (Bishop Gilmour suspended access to sacraments) from February '84 to July '85 when an acceptable priest was named pastor.

In 1883 a mission of German speaking St. Mary Cleveland was raised to a parish. The first pastor was Joseph Koudelka, he was called back from St. Louis. Koudelka was a polyglot, a writer, and an artist and well received by the Germans. His new St. Michael's was for years the most impressive church in the city, and is still a landmark from miles away in many directions.

In 1908 [February 25], he was ordained an auxiliary bishop for special pastoral care for the Slavonic peoples. The Catholic Church in Cleveland suffered ethnic rivalries. There was a division between "the English" and "the Germans". The "English" were Irish; and "the Germans" were those whose first language was not English. There were no real English, and inside the city most of the "Germans" were not German. Cleveland's bishop was Ignatius Horstmann, *1840 Philadelphia, 1908 [May 13]†. The Irish clergy boycotted the ordination of the first auxiliary, and none signed the book of witness. This was reflected nationally too, Irish bishops were not fond of the 'new migration' from Europe.

In 1911 Koudelka was auxiliary in Milwaukee. In 1913 he became bishop of Superior, Wisconsin. When he died, his requiem was held at St. Michael's, and he was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery Cleveland.

portrait on episcopal chair at Saint Michael Cleveland

stacked stones

This type of family monument though not possibly unique, must be rare. This configuration was not successive in time. The years of death, from the top are: 1864, 1886, 1871, 1895. By age and the auxiliary stones, they are husband, wife, adult daughter, and baby.

cemetery landscapes

a section for veterans of the War for the Union at Woodland, Cleveland, O.

Cleveland's Calvary is a very large cemetery. Railroad tracks border the cemetery, and a railway bridge is a car tunnel.

Kochona Żona

Kochana Żona
Odpoczywaj w Pokoju

Darling wife
Rest in Peace

Not everything is in English. Similar situations give rise to similar words. Whatever language a person speaks, he has the same emotions.

A man lost his young wife to death. She was about 22. They could not have been married long. Her enameled photograph is of her in her wedding dress holding a large bouquet of white roses. When walking, and reading gravestones it is often easy, and quick to see the sadness that visited strangers. Helena died as a young adult, and it is easy to conjecture she remained young in the memories of those that knew her.

Rollers

These are called 'bolsters' by some as they look like a sofa pillow. Some times they are set in a cradle, or rack. Some call them 'rollers', because they roll. These did.

old names

Heinrich Kilmer
Geboren
d. 23 Feb. 1824
Gest. d. 14 Marz 1885
Christus ist mein Leben.
Sterben ist mein Gewinn.

Christ is my life.
Death is my prize.

Cunicunda Kilmer
Gest. d. 25 Marz 1904
Geb. d. 23 Dec. 1826
Der Herr ist mein Hirte

The Lord is my shepherd

Wilhelmina

Gattin von
G. H. Kilmer

Eden

Tochter von

short German vocabulary:
geboren=born
gestorben=died
Tochter=daughter
Gattin=female spouse


Heinrich is Henry. The frequency of German women born in the XIXth century named Wilhelmina is very high. Cunigunda (with some variant spelling) is now an uncommon name, so uncommon when it is encountered in a book, that many think it was invented. Eden, i was surprised to see.

Pink Shoes

I'm sorry, i just find this funny.

She lived for others

Sie lebte fuer andere
Emma Lydia
Frau von Pastor J.S. Kosower
Tochter von
J.H. und D.B. Stepler
1869 — 1910

Emma Lydia died before the 'Great War' when it was free and safe to write in German on public markers. This stone was amongst other German clerical families at Lake View, Cleveland. The epitaph translates as, "She lived for others". A modest soul is defined here in terms of her relations with others. She was a pastor's wife, and a daughter of parents, and she lived for others.

Capt. Co. K. 50th Illinois Volunteer Infantry

T. D. McGillicuddy
1835-1911
Capt. Co. K. 50th Ills.V.I
"When I have passed away I wish my monument
to be in the hearts and memories of my
comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic"

He may have wrote or said that, but it has been an hundred years since he "passed", and all those comrades have been long gone. The stone remains (on the side are the dated of his parents). On many veteran markers there is notice of their regiment. Records of muster are available now on the internet, before they were in libraries and elsewhere. They give some more detail of the men's lives that often are absent from the stone, and gives them a tiny biography that the name, and dates of birth, and death do not.

In 1884 he wrote from Akron to the National Tribune of Washington D.C. describing part of the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. After the war he became a military historian, and an officer in a military lodge.

Timothy was born in Louisville, Ky; grew up in Cleveland, O.; graduated Central High. He left for Hannibal Missouri. Fort Sumter S.C. was fired upon on April 12th, 1861. On the 17th he enlisted. The regiment was assigned to the Army of Tennessee which continued to the March to the Sea, ending in Savannah, Georgia. After the war he settled in Akron, O.

Psalm stone

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. — Ps. civ [ciii]. 33.

This is the back of the stone. Also in gold leaf, is a sketch of St. Theodosius Cathedral Cleveland. The front has the sketches of icons of Jesus as teacher, and Madonna and Infant Jesus. Other stones have those representations too.

Depression Cross

The deceased died in 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression. The cross was engraved with biographical information. The cross was steel reinforced concrete and did not stand eighty years of weathering erosion.

not the way to go

I have already complained about memorial parks. In many, there are virtually only markers flush to the ground. Which makes it easy to cut the grass. The uniform grade makes it difficult in finding graves. If it were not for veteran groups placing disposal flags at veterans' graves it would be the same vista as an empty field.
Some people call this stone 'a sinker' when it is swallowed by the ground. The ground cover edges over the stone. It needs a grass haircut and brush. If the deceased's loved one doesn't police the site, it becomes invisible. The one above is not from a stepping stone graveyard, but imagine a field of thousands like this. Fewer, and fewer people will come.
This in Cleveland's Old Brooklyn Cemetery. They have some explanatory signs that are properly descriptive (Slovak Lutheran), silly (Roselawn, Sermon on the Mount), and ones like these, which sound like warehouse utilitarian shorthand.