“How does it happen, tell me,
That I who was most erudite of lawyers,
Who knew Blackstone and Coke
Almost by heart, who made the greatest speech
The court-house ever heard, and wrote
A brief that won the praise of Justice Breese-
How does it happen, tell me,
That I lie here unmarked, forgotten,
While Chase Henry, the town drunkard,
Has a marble block, topped by an urn,
Wherein Nature, in a mood ironical,
Has sown a flowering weed?”
- Judge Somers in Spoon River Anthology
This passage addresses one of the most common human fears: being forgotten after death. Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology is a fictional collection of poems that narrates the epitaphs of the people buried in a small town called Spoon River. The anthology includes poems about individual characters and details about their lives and deaths; but many poems branch into each other and offer a broader view of this community and the dichotomy of its diverse inhabitance. For Judge Somers, his unmarked grave does not represent the life that he lived and he feels that the more elaborate grave given to the town drunk is a misrepresentation. For many people, the way that they are remembered after death is something that they prepare for during life in order to prevent the possibility of being misunderstood or forgotten.
One business that has long assisted in these preparations are cemeteries. The Homewood Cemetery was established in 1878 to provide a resting place for residents of Pittsburgh’s East End (The Homewood Cemetery).While the Homewood Cemetery has always been non-denominational, there is not much archival proof of its multicultural appeal until 1901 when the first Chinese burial plot in an Eastern U.S state was established within The Homewood Cemetery (Benford Jennie Personal Interview).
One of the Chinese community’s biggest necessities was an area of land that could handle and allow a lot of disruption since there would be many disinterments. The hope of the Chinese community was that each burial would only be temporary, as each person buried would later be exhumed, their bones cleaned and neatly packaged, and their remains returned to China where they would join their ancestors. A newspaper article of the Pittsburgh Daily Post from October 12, 1915 describes the ceremonies that usually accompanied this process which would generally take place around five to seven years after the deceased’s initial burial. The idea was that these original burials were only meant to be temporary, but what happened if they weren’t?
The timeworn tombstones of the Chinese population in The Homewood Cemetery provide a partial answer to this question. We do not know the reason why, but many of the Chinese community were never returned to China. Tombstones that were made to last for five years had to remain much longer as burials that were only meant to be temporary became permanent. These graves were meant to be dug up and replaced with the remains of the next member of the community to die until it was their turn to travel home; but for many members of the Chinese community, this last journey never came to pass. After 117 years, many of the temporary tombstones began to crumble, and the Chinese section in The Homewood Cemetery stood in a state of disrepair. In the summer of 2018 The Homewood Cemetery received grant money which allowed them to restore much of the Chinese section. This included up righting overturned stones and finally giving these markers the foundation that would establish their permanent residence within The Homewood Cemetery (Benford Jennie Personal Interview).
The Chinese community is not the only community within Pittsburgh that had specific burial practices and who faced the reality of being forgotten. The Jewish community established itself in Pittsburgh in 1847 with the start of the burial Bes Almon society whose name can be translated to mean both House of mourners, or House of Eternity. The Bes Almon society was Western Pennsylvania’s first Jewish organization. The first act of the Bes Almon society was to purchase a 1-acre plot of land for 300 dollars in Troy Hill, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh’s north side.
Although the first designated Jewish cemetery in Troy Hill was established in 1847, it wasn’t until 1995 that we begin to see Jewish representation within The Homewood Cemetery with the start of the Star of David section. The Star of David section is not affiliated with any congregation and was started by The Homewood Cemetery. It wasn’t until 2004 that a Jewish organization bought a plot of land in The Homewood Cemetery. In 2004 the Chabad Lubavitch Yeshiva purchased a small plot of land on the edge of The Homewood Cemetery for 100,000 dollars. We can see that between 1847 and 1995 Jewish communities in Western Pennsylvania chose not to be laid to rest within The Homewood Cemetery, but did Jewish burial rituals have anything to do with this?
Every aspect of Jewish burial is governed by strict laws. From the moment a person dies, the way their body is prepared for burial, the way they are buried, and the way they are mourned after burial are all dictated by Jewish law. Because of this, the first aspect of every newly established Jewish community is to form a Jewish Burial Society, and then purchase a plot of land for a Jewish cemetery which is exactly what we see happened with the establishment of the Bes Almon Society. Aside from this, one of the most distinctive signs of a Jewish cemetery is the presence of a fence surrounding its borders. Within those borders, according to Jewish law, only Jews may be buried; they may only be buried after a purification ritual is performed, and once buried, only men and women who are related may be buried beside each other (Wasserman Daniel Personal Interview). These rituals are what separate the two Jewish sections within The Homewood Cemetery. The plot purchased by Chabad adheres to all of these strict practices, while the Star of David section does not. While the Chabad plot is considered to be Orthodox, other sects such as Reform or Conservative may choose to buried there. However, those who consider themselves to be Orthodox would not usually choose to be buried in the Star of David section.
Between 1847 and 2004 over 80 Jewish cemeteries were established within Western Pennsylvania alone, more than for any Jewish community of comparable size in the United States. Every time that a new synagogue was established, they would then form their own cemetery. Because of Pittsburgh’s geography, and the fact that it is so topographically separate, areas in close proximity to each other which would normally only be home to two or three synagogues became home to many more, and the number of cemeteries began to rise. The rugged terrain made it difficult for these Jewish communities to unite, and so instead they formed smaller, neighborhood-based communities that remained separated. Many of the 80 Jewish cemeteries that were purchased were far away from where those communities formed. They were also often on harsh, smaller pieces of land as that was what those congregations could afford. Many of these cemeteries are close to, or over a 40-minute drive away from where the majority of the Pittsburgh Jewish community now resides in Squirrel Hill. This makes it hard for members of the Jewish community to visit their loves ones, but over time an even larger issue arose. Many of these original synagogues began to dissolve, and the burial plots associated with them became orphaned.
As of now, there are nine orphaned Jewish cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania which the Jewish Federation, and the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association have taken over. According to their website, the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association (the JCBA) of Greater Pittsburgh is dedicated to preserving Jewish heritage and preventing the future abandonment of Jewish cemeteries. The JCBA was originally founded in 1992 in order to provide Jewish burials for those who could not afford it. They then began to address the need for the upkeep of cemeteries whose congregations were dealing with declining membership and implemented plans for preservation and maintenance of those cemeteries (About JCBA, 2017). However, many of these cemeteries are in extremely poor condition by the time this happens. If you were to visit the first Jewish cemetery in Troy Hill, which is still under the care of a synagogue, you would find many stones that have been destroyed by time and the elements.
The plot of land in The Homewood Cemetery purchased by the Chabad center in 2004 is the last known Jewish cemetery to be established in Western Pennsylvania. So, what led to the decision for a Jewish organization to finally buy a plot of land within The Homewood Cemetery? We can gain insight from the original deed to Bes Almon and a guidebook with rules, regulations, and tips for plot owners in The Homewood Cemetery written in 1905. In this guidebook it states that if you have purchased a plot of land in Homewood cemetery then
“You have done all you can to secure for yourself and those dear to you, a quiet, safe and decent place of sepulture forever. You have no more care and anxiety on the subject. The cemetery company, with its perpetual existence, has taken your place. It has engaged to care for your lot, and to preserve it for you and those you wish to bury in it for all time.”
While the deed to the Bes Almon cemetery specifies that its legacy will be carried on by their heirs (Allegheny County Deed Book, Bes Almon Deed 1847), the Yeshivas plot will be in the care of Homewood cemetery which will always exist. We can see through the representation of the Jewish and Chinese communities in Homewood cemetery, how the idea of having an eternal resting place which will never be forgotten is appealing. We also see that Homewood Cemetery has been able to accommodate the unique practices that both the Jewish and Chinese comminutes require for their burials. These plots will always be under the care of The Homewood Cemetery in case anything was to happen as we see is the case with the Chinese section which required repair only this past summer. The appeal of The Homewood Cemetery is not only because of its proximity to these communities, but the fact that it will always exist. The issue of representation after death which is expressed in The Spoonriver Anthology,is not relegated to any one culture, religion, or community. It is an issue that can be traced through the writings on each tombstone, or seen through the lack of a tombstone, in almost every community.
Works Cited
“About JCBA.” Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh (JCBA), 20 Mar.
2017, jcbapgh.org/about-jcba/.
Allegheny County Deed Book, Bes Almon Deed, 1847.
Benford, Jennie. Director of Programming for The Homewood Cemetery Historical Fund. Personal Interview. Mar, 2019.
“Chinese Cemetery Prep Remains”Pgh Daily Post October 12, 1915.
Crowley, Patrick. The Homewood Cemetery, www.thehomewoodcemetery.com/.
Masters, Edgar Lee. Spoon River Anthology. Macmillan, 1944.
Wasserman, Daniel, Rabbi. Shaare Torah Congregation. Personal Interview. Feb. 2019.