little lamb

at Wellington's Greenwood Cemetery

In the late XIXth century many marble lambs were placed on children's graves. Most to-day are indistinguishable lumps, they have eroded smooth. After a time, the lambs went out of fashion. This one, is not of marble, and late in the time frame.

Nebraska

                         Earlier i posted an Ontario Pierce. I thought of making a series, but no.

Pair of Hearts

When i was growing up, there were in a number of houses rooms decorated with religious pictures. Sometimes it was in the dining room, or the bedroom, or the front room. Some pictures were themed, or paired, and some were solitary. One pair that was common was the Sacred Heart of Jesus*, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. There is a mausoleum in Lorain, in which, the pair is there in stained glass in that solitary room.





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* In Cleveland there were neighboring Polish parishes, by those names. Lennon, the destroying bishop, closed that Sacred Heart, and another in Elyria, and another in Akron.

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.

John Paul II

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

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

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.
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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.