fratricide

Pvt. George A. Stanley Jr.
Oct. 2, 1911 — Aug. 16, 1943

87th Mt. Inf.
Killed in Action at Kiska,
Aleutian Islands.

Gravestones, sometimes, tell history.  Sometimes a history hinted at, and known to only a few.

Kiska has no permanent population.  To divert attention from Midway, the Japanese captured the island June 6, 1942.  A naval weather detachment of ten men were captured.  The next day the island of Attu was taken.  In '43 Attu was retaken.   July 28th the Japanese deserted Kiska during fog.  August 15th 34,000 American, and Canadian troops  came to an empty island.  Some men died from booby traps left behind. 'Friendly fire' [a God awful euphemism for fratricide] saw 28 Americans, and 4 Canadians killed. 

The two islands (the only American territory occupied) has remnants of the occupation, and the bombings. Live ammunition remains.

The 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment returned to leave a plaque:  

"To the men of Amphibious Task Force 9 who fell here August 1943 placed here August 1983 by 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment."

war burials

 

"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row" 

from  Lt. Col. Dr. John McRae's poem of 1915

Marine Sergeant with horn at graveside service

grave marker for a veteran of the Spanish War 1898-1902

Church Lion

  

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them.” — Isaias xi. 6.

Henry Church Jr. was the second child born in Chagrin Falls, and became a blacksmith as was his father.  He was a self taught artist, who painted, sculpted, and forged.  This lion came and went.  Carved from sandstone by Henry Church in 1887.  Originally meant for the Triangle Park of Chagrin Falls Ohio.  Sometime around 1905 it came to the cemetery for the family's plot.

There was more to this statue. Thieves stole the child that led the lion by a chain. The chain was stolen too, and the glass eyes were taken.

 

Cleveland Art Museum was having an exhibit for the bicentennial of Cleveland, Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. They requested this statue. The museum gave the statue plexiglass eyes. It stayed in the museum's courtyard for a number of years, then put in storage, and then decided not to have it on display. In 2014 the museum returned the statue to the cemetery.

 foto of  Henry Church Jr. & his funeral monument

Evergreen Hill — Chagrin Falls

Evergreen Hill Cemetery is a very well maintained municipal graveyard.  Waste baskets and watering cans were available throughout.

A khachkar is a decoratively carved Armenian cross stele.  This one is not very old, and it has already become quite weathered.

Motif of time

Grief is a form of love for those deceased.

One mausoleum had three stained glass windows.  One directly in line with the glass door was a cross.  There were two to the left, they could not be seen on account of bars on the door.  One was the familiar Jesus praying at Gethsemane. The other was of the Last Supper, Jesus with John...

...and Peter. 

Malachi House

Malachi House monument dedicated 28 June 2025 during yearly internment ceremony at Lake View Cemetery Cleveland.  Beneath the upraised hands it reads, "We are held by many hands".  Malachi House is a hospice for the indigent.