erie street vandals

Cleveland's oldest cemetery is Erie Street Cemetery. 'Erie Street' is the 19th century name for 'East Ninth'. The arched entrance is across the street from the Indians' baseball park. The back entrance is on E. 14th. People jog through, and use the path that bisects the rectangular plot as a path between the two streets. Sometime during the Labor Day weekend, many headstones and monuments were toppled, some next to the fence at E.14th.

Some only fell, others broke. One can see how they were laid in place. Most of the stones were pushed so the inscriptions hit the grass and ground.

The hole in the foreground is a rabbit hole. I saw the rabbit, he retreated before i could photograph him.

urban graveyard

near Prospect

birds at erie street

I have been checking a bird watchers' page on daily sightings [click].  There are many sparrow sized birds, and if they are active in fidgeting movement, it is not always easy to get a clear glimpse, nor a foto snap. A few of the recent postings concerns a clay colored sparrow at Erie Street Cemetery Cleveland. How big a deal is this amongst local birders, i don't know. 

Well, that cemetery is directly opposite the Cleveland Indians ball park. Now, this is the oldest extant cemetery in the city. Early last century the street which it sits on was re-named, 'East Ninth'. Also, this is one of the streets that has been in the process of resurfacing, this year; as are several nearby streets, and the big innerbelt highway bridge.

Wednesday, i got around to visit again. That night Cleveland was to host a playoff game with Tampa Bay. Also, the gate house to the cemetery was being put up again, after disassembly.

The cemetery is a green island in this part of downtown Cleveland, that has various trees and shrubbery, and regular grass cutting. The care of the gravestones and grounds is uneven. Bums overnight under the greenery, and next to walls. They leave debris. What looked like, to me, a raccoon skeleton is weathering away.

Infra, are a few of the fotos i took. I also took pictures of branches, and patches that had a bird or birds in that spot a second or two before; and what i thought was the subject for the camera to focus upon, was not always what the camera decided upon. Please correct any misidentified birds. I am posting this on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who famously spoke to birds.

 gray catbird

 acadian flycatcher

white throated sparrow

Memorial Day

Memorial Day Association

stone line up

George W.

At the time, might the initial have been for  'Washington'?  He is listed as "Son", well we certainly do not know [in this fellow's case], but no one would have put "Idiot Son". O look, there is bird crap on the stone.                                        

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.

Erie Street Squirrel

Red squirrel in a saucer magnolia tree

Erie Street (East Ninth) Cemetery Cleveland, O., is a green space between asphalt, brick, and cement. There are relatively few monuments, and burials remaining. It is a quiet spot just south of Cleveland's financial district, and across the street from the new base ball park.
There is one drive that splits the long rectangle of a graveyard, betwixt East 14th and 9th, in twain. The building in the background is the home field of the Indians of the American League.
The stone on the left is the same in two photographs. It is pitted plaque on multi-cracked cement. It is a Memorial Day Association veterans' commemoration for the Grand Army of the Republic (Union troops).

Masonic incision

Lawrence monument with fallen obelisk
JAMES LAWRENCE
Born to spirit life
SEPT. 28, 1880.
AGED 88 YRS.
Sacred to the Memory of
SARAH. WIFE OF
JAMES LAWRENCE.
Who passed into spirit life.
AUG, 1842. AGED 52 YS.
There is no death.

The first photograph was taken on a sunny morning, the incisions on the pillar are not very distinct. The third photograph was taken on a misty, cloud filled morning, and rotated 90°. What one sees is an eye, with rays descending and a book and a square and compass superimposed. This is a masonic sign.

Now, first, masonic lore is open to interpretation. Accretions were made for many years (mostly during the 19th century), and were vague enough to both allow, and encourage different readings. And it is semi-philosophical fiction. Secondly, in part because the main ritual of freemasonry is a re-enactment of a resurrection of a fictive master mason, Hiram Abiff, it is considered a blasphemy to many Christians, and membership is not permitted for many Christians. When one finishes this third degree of masonry, he marks this as the date of his raising. Funeral orations, and references to death, and dying, are common speeches in meetings; and masonic burials have their own rituals. Masonic markings are found on many gravestones of Masons. Some are borrowings from Christianity, or Judaism, or other religious systems.

The square and compass are measurement tools of the trade for ancient stone masons. The book can be of belief, or knowledge. The eye (sun), may be a representation of the eye of Horus (Egyptian sky god), which also represented fractions the 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64. Some masonic writers added elements to suggest affinity to Egyptian mystery religions. Rays of illumination emanate from the eye/sun. The eye may also be seen as the Eye of God, or the eye of Providence.

'...Spirit life' is a rare phrase. My understanding, is that this, is a 19th century 'spiritualist' phrase, and a rather rare one.
_____________
nota bene: there is some speculation in this essay

Gothic Revival entrances

1870 Erie Street Cemetery, East Ninth Street, Cleveland, Ohio (after sandblasting)

1874 Monroe Street Cemetery, Monroe Street closed entrance, Cleveland, Ohio with 137 years of soot.

Joseph Ireland *1843, † 1905 was a New Yorker who came to Cleveland in 1865, and returned in 1885. A lot of his work has been demolished. The Chardon (Geauga County) Courthouse is still extant. Ireland designed the 1874 gothic revival Monroe Street Cemetery entrance. The Erie Street Cemetery entrance was built in 1870. The two are twins, but i have not seen a reference to an architect for Erie Street. Somewhere, there should be a reference. It is obvious that the second is a copy of the first, and both properties belonged to the city.

Mutter und Vater

Mother and Father and a rolling stone

three on top at Monroe street;

pair of Pelz at Erie Street Cemetery

In Cleveland, there had been many people German born. German is a nationality, not a state; for depending on the time there were several German states. In the United States, the most common ethnic heritage is German. Now, for some people these German immigrants arrived in America long enough ago, that there is little self-identification with that past to-day. But, at one time it was the most taught and spoken non-English language in the United States. There were neighborhoods in many cities, and also farming communities which were mono-lingual teutonic. Pennsylvania Dutch was a misunderstanding of 'Deutsch', what the Germans call German.

at Riverside

The Germans came from eastern France, from Austria, several states (Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hanover, Hesse and others) that were incorporated into Prussian Germany, and elsewhere. On some stones these birth lands are listed.

A mile south of Monroe Street Cemetery is Riverside Cemetery. It was opened some years after the War for the Union. The west side robber barons were buried there. At that point, the clientele at Monroe skewed poorer. Riverside has many impressive monuments.

The inscription, supra, is in Riverside. This couple was born in the, then, independent Hessen-Darmstadt, he from Bingen-am-Rhein. Caroline Norton wrote a poem, "Bingen on the Rhein", published in 1847. It was set to music, a few times. It was rewritten a few times. One short rewrite is the 'Legend of the Rebel Soldier', where the hero dies in a "dreary Yankee prison". It was a rewrite of an Irish version, to the tune of "Rolling Home to Dear Old Ireland".

In a dreary British prison where an Irish rebel lay,
By his side a priest was standing ere his soul should pass away,
And he faintly murmured "Father" as he clasped him by the hand,
"Tell me this before I die: shall my soul pass through Ireland?

The original Norton ballade had seven stanzas of eight lines, each one ending "...Bingen on the Rhein".

A SOLDIER of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,
There was a lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's tears;
But a comrade stood beside him, while his lifeblood ebbed away,
And bent with pitying glances, to hear what he might say.
The dying soldier faltered, and he took that comrade's hand,
And he said, "I nevermore shall see my own, my native land:
Take a message, and a token, to some distant friends of mine,
For I was born at Bingen, -- at Bingen on the Rhine. ...

in Monroe Street Cemetery

Some stones say 'Mutter' (Mother) und 'Vater' (Father). Here there are two pair. A double pedestal with bolster stones, and a twin pair (one knocked off). They were laid out almost as pillows upon beds. The first pair is of Muellers, (Miller in English, very common Surname in both languages). Other common markings on these stones are the abbreviations 'geb.' and 'gest.' for geboren (born) and gestorben for died. They also say 'ruhe sanft' (rest gently).
After 1918 (WWI) the German inscriptions become rare. In this pair at Monroe Street, die Mutter war im Jahre 1960 geboren und gestorben im Jahre 1916; the Father was born in 1844 and died in 1928.

Relict

Here are two sandstone stelae tablets of soot covered sandstone. This layer of industrial grime has flaked off of many of the markers and monuments at Cleveland's Erie Street Cemetery. The one on the right is illegible. On top there is a carving of an urn, and a weeping willow. These two are the most common ornaments of the first half of the XIXth century America.

The stone on the left has an urn and, perhaps laurel leaves. The laurel is a symbol of victory, or accomplishment for completing a course. It reads:

In memory of
FANNY,
Relict of the late
Jewel Prime,
who died June 20,
1832
aged 31 years
2 months
& 9 days.

The only word that may be unfamiliar is 'relict'. It is Latin for surviving. Here it means widow. In some legal documents there was the habit of repeating the same concept in different words, and you could read "widow and relict". English has more words than any other language, and is continually assimilating words. Nearly a thousand years ago english legal documents would have the saxon term, the norman french term, and the latin term. This is not redundancy, so much as accuracy, universality and rhetorical flourish.

To-day, relict is not used on grave markers. It still means survivor. In biology, it refers to a species, or local population that is current, when the rest of the kind are extinct. In geology, it is a feature that remains after the others of its kind are gone.

Erie's Indians

George Caitlin. Joc-O-Sot (The Walking Bear), a Sauk Chief from the Upper Missouri. 1844.

left boulder is of Chief Thunderwater, stone on right and broken slab is for Joc-o-sot

Joc-O-Sot *1810, 1844† was born in Iowa. He fought and was wounded in the Black Hawk War 1832. He went east to Cleveland and became a hunting guide. He joined a traveling actor's, Dan Marble, troupe. In England he became sick, and returned to America and died. His original stone was broken in vandalism. A new gravestone was added in 1907. His grave may have been long empty, a victim of resurrection men (corpse thieves that sold to the medical trade).

Visitors left tokens (stones, coins and a post card) on top of his marker. Now, that the redman is gone it safe to show him some respect and fondness.

Next to his grave is that of another Indian, Oghema Niagara, Chief Thunderwater *1865, 1950†. He was born near Lewiston New York. He toured in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show beginning with the centennial. After 1900 he lived in Cleveland, and ran a business selling cleaning products, and herbal 'medicines'. He promoted Indian rights, and was considered a 'militant' by the Canadian government.

In 1917 he helped revive the Iroquois Confederacy. He became the 'official' Indian of Cleveland. Oghema Niagara was involved in saving Erie Street Cemetery from developers. Once a year he led ceremonies at Joc-O-Sot's grave site. He is now buried adjacent.

Erie Street Cemetery

1921 the archway is black from soot

2011 some years ago, the stone was cleaned

preventive landscaping ignored here too

They removed most of the aggregated grime from Erie Street's arch, but maintenance, as in Monroe Street's arch is not current. Little trees will grow in the chinks between the stones, and each advance of the roots weakens the structure. Construction is work, so is maintenance. Labor has its value. Meteorology and biology erode geology, certainly man made structures are not immune.

central arch had two metal plaques, they have been scrapped

This is the oldest surviving burial grounds in Cleveland. An earlier city graveyard, Ontario Street (and Prospect) was a block from Public Square. Some of those burials were moved to Erie Street. The former graveyard was used for building.

Erie Street opened up in 1826/7 while the Ohio Canal was reaching toward Lake Erie. The first boat left Akron 3 July 1827, and reached Cleveland the next day. The entire canal was completed in 1832. Cleveland was still a village, and far from being a town. The census needs 5,000 to become a town. In 1840 that was achieved with 6,000.

Some of Cleveland's first residents are there now, or had been. Two Indian chiefs, and a newsboy suicide were burials of note. The grand arch came in 1870. Erie Street was one of the many streets to have its name changed in 1905. It is now East Ninth Street. The stone archway was not going to be changed, but would it have stayed?

Into the twentieth century Cleveland became a very large city. Money was not being made in a mostly sold out cemetery. Several designs were made on Erie Street Cemetery. Public opinion stopped this on each occasion, in the mean time many burials were removed elsewhere (some prominent internments went to Lake View; many to the new and 200 blocks distant Highland which has some 18x the acreage of Erie Street). The once full cemetery was being vacated. From 1937 to 1940 ceremonies, and a stone wall building project raised favorable attention towards the cemetery. In time between then, and now, a lot of vandalism and neglect has hit the cemetery (could one expect it to have been immune to the rest of the city's and country's situation).

a century of polluted weather has washed away the print of the paper boy's legend

Alfred Williams, He was a newsboy without father mother or home who was buried by his newsboy comrades. So read his stone before acid rain began melting the stone. He was eleven years old in 1900, when he took poison to end his life.

The unionists and progressives, in those years, were trying to pass child labor restrictions, later a constitutional amendment was proposed in 1924. Twenty-eight states have passed it. Ohio with 13 other states passed it in 1933 at the beginning of the New Deal, no state has passed it since 1937. The first state to pass it was Arkansas in 1924. No other former confederate state ever passed it, the tradition in the right to work remains strong, even a century and more after they lost the war.

view inside the cemetery looking west and seeing the light stanchions of the new base ball park