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December 13, 2006
Feature Photo
The Seibert family tomb, St. Louis Number Three.
St. Louis Cemetery Number Three was opened in 1854, but most of the tombs date from the 1890s to 1920s. Its location, at Esplanade Avenue near Bayou St. John, illustrates how much the city had grown in the first half of the 19th century. That growth created a need for more cemeteries. The city's ethnicity had expanded as well, to the point where the German and Irish Catholics began to build cemeteries for their own. The original Creoles who founded the city started to outgrow their first two cemeteries (St. Louis #1 and #2), hence the need for a third.
Above-ground tombs in New Orleans are usually constructed of basic brick and mortar. What separates them is what's done on top of that basic structure. Most tombs are covered in plaster at that point and whitewashed, with a marble front tombstone set in place. Pricier tombs will be overlayed with other materials, such as marble, or even metals.
The Seibert family tomb is one of the more expensive type, its bricks having been overlayed with granite, and a granite tombstone set in front. The tomb is a "double," meaning it's got an upper and a lower crypt. This allows for a lot of burials, making the tomb a good family investment. The rules for re-use of an above-ground tomb is that interments must be spaced out by a year and a day. A "double" tomb expands this, allowing for two burials in the same year if necessary.
This particular tomb, while not particularly remarkable in relation to others in St. Louis #3, has personal significance for me, because it's my momma's family's tomb. My mother's mother was Anna Seibert. She's buried there, along with my momma and daddy, along with my mom's brother. This combination of families (Seibert, Finicle, Branley) makes it difficult for those doing geneaological research to hunt down burial locations.
The Seibert tomb is situated on a grassy "lane" in St. Louis Number Three, as opposed to a paved street. This makes access tricky for a burial, since the coffin has to be carried by hand.
Posted by YatPundit at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
December 6, 2006
Feature Photo
St. Roch Cemetery, New Orleans, circa 1910 (postcard):
Here's a 1905 C. Milo Williams photo of the original gate and chapel:
Located at St. Roch and Derbigny Streets, the small gothic chapel was the first thing constructed on the site. It was built in 1868 by Fr. Peter Leonard Thevis, assistant pastor of Holy Trinity Church on St. Ferdinand St. in Faubourg Marigny. The city was threatened by an outbreak of yellow fever that year, so Fr. Thevis prayed for St. Roch, a French ascetic and healer who died in 1327, to intercede for his parishoners. Legend has it that nobody from Holy Trinity died in that outbreak. To show his thanks, Fr. Thevis built the chapel. The painted wood altar in the chapel features a statue of St. Roch and his dog. Over the years, many people have left behind crutches, artificial limbs, etc., as they've experienced miraculous healings and no longer have need for those devices.
Additional property was acquired and a cemetery built around the chapel, which was formally opened and dedicated to St. Roch in 1874. The cemetery was modeled after the "Campo Santo dei Tedeschi" in the Vatican (hence the words "Campo Santo" on the gate).
A further expansion of the cemetery opened in 1895. A chapel dedicated to St. Michael was built in the second section. Over the years, a number of modern mausoleums have been added to the property to increase capacity.
The postcard is from the Detroit Publishing Company. The photo is from the New Orleans Public Library's Williams folios.
Posted by YatPundit at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)