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.