Joseph, vandalised

This statue is beheaded. It is not St. Denis. In one hand a square is held. He is a workman, builder. The other a lily, symbol of purity and chastity. This is a statue of St. Joseph, the spouse of Mary, Mother of God. Joseph was a carpenter. Cleveland's Cavalry has little vandalism. This is one of the exceptions.

Saint Joseph is also the patron of a good death. It should be no surprise to see him represented in a graveyard. There are several prayers for this.

O blessed Joseph, who yielded up thy last breath in the arms of Jesus and Mary, obtain for me this grace, O holy Joseph, that I may breathe forth my soul in praise, saying in spirit, if I am unable to do so in words: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give Thee my heart and my soul.” Amen.

Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. Denis is third from the left.

Gabriel and his horn

Saint Gabriel the Archangel who will summon the whole world to the last judgement with the trumpet pray for us

An angel with a horn unaccompanied is usually Gabriel. It is he who made the announcement of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Angel is from the Greek for 'messenger', from Greek it came to the other european languages.

In cemeteries, it is not unusual to find angel statues. Most are anonymous. This one is scripted twice, and is shown with his heraldic trumpet.

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.

Graveyard deer

supra: Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights
infra: Calvary Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio

eat and rest

Some graveyards are of goodly acreage. Many are the largest 'green space' islands in an urban area. Of the 168 hours of the week, many of those hours there are no people around; the older parts of cemetery usage more so. It should be no surprise, that, animals are to be found.

one buck
two bucks

Marry Mason

Fred *1868, ? †. Anna*1870, 1927†.

Seemingly, Fred outlived his spouse. Fred is not 143 years old. One could check records.

It is possible, he left the area and is buried elsewhere. It is possible he had no one to take care of the detail to mark the date. Such occurrences are not rare. Was this one?

We see they were a masonic couple. On Fred's side is the common masonic symbol. The star pentagon on Anna's side is the emblem of the Order of the Eastern Star, a sister organisation open to Masons and, more so, their female relatives. It was created by Rob Morris, a masonic poet and teacher.

Now, it must be agreed that, the masons have an interest in things funereal and morbid. About the star is the word 'FATAL'. It is maintained that it is an anagram for 'Fairest Among Ten-thousand Altogether Lovely', which is supposedly derived from two lines in Scripture:

What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. — Song of Solomon v. 9-10. (KJV)

That is a clumsy derivation. Rob Morris*1818, 1888†, who if not for his extensive masonic activities would be virtually unknown today, created the OES and wrote their rituals.

Grave bird

This turkey vulture at Lake View was not soaring and circling. He was hopping into flight, resting and hopping. Perhaps he was mouse hunting. Ironic thoughts rush to the mind when the eyes see a vulture in graveyard.
Some goofy, third age paganism, will give an absurd, abstract interpretation for a vulture. It is a bird that rips the flesh of the already dead. It is a scavenger. It is nature's consumer of death and rot. When a person is compared to a vulture, he is a remorseless opportunist. It is difficult to be cheery about the sight of this bird. His featherless head allows him to delve into the corpse with little gore to adhere. As a defense he pukes. His digestive slobber adds to the stench.

Fancifully, the bird can be taken as an undertaker's companion. Somewhere there are sketches of a gravedigger holding a shovel, and the bird perched on his shoulder like the parrot on Long John Silver; but that was meant as gruesome humour.
One walking through a graveyard one doesn't usually smell the decay of flesh. On this day, there was a dead buzzard on the ground. Some creature did dig in his carcass [note the disturbed feathers]. Considering that his food is carrion and putrid flesh, it would seem to poison one would not be easy. He could have been shot.

John Paul II

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