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February 25, 2008
Feature Photo - Socola Tomb in St. Louis Number Three
Socola family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery Number Three, located on Esplanade Ave. by Bayou St. John.
One of the things that will catch my eye when I'm walking through a cemetery is an anomoly. This tomb has a glaring one, a modern metal plaque on the front stone. The architecture of this particular tomb is pretty common of late-19th/early 20th Century, but the metal plaque obviously was added much later. You can see another plaque on the side of the tomb as well.
Here's a closeup of the plaque on the front. The arch at the top of the tomb has "Famille Wm. Socola" engraved on it. William Socola, Jr., is the first name on the plaque, and the 1898 date confirms the tomb's approximate construction date. Madeline M. Socola could have been William Jr.'s wife or daughter.
The later names on the list show one of the problems geneaologists have when researching burial places in New Orleans. Looks like a Socola, married a Robert at some point. Since the wives often outlive the husbands, they often bury their husbands in their family's tomb (unless husband's family has a tomb of their own). It's usually easy for the woman to go to her family's matriarch, get the deed of the tomb to the funeral home, and take care of the arrangements. To hunt down an ancestor from New Orleans, be sure to look at both paternal and maternal burial sites.
The plaque on the side of this tomb also caught my eye. I didn't know "Mr. Kenny," but I knew and still know many men who are just like him, Boy Scout leaders who touched lives. I remember my Scoutmasters just as fondly as Troop 21 remembers Mr. Robert. When I go to adult Scout meetings (I'm an Assistant Scoutmaster for my son's troop), men will come up to me and introduce themselves, telling me how they remember my dad and all the work he did with Scouting when he was alive. (I always joke that I left Scouting when I was in eighth grade, but my dad never quit.) It was nice of the Socolas and Roberts to let the boys and men whose lives this leader touched to remember him in this way.
The stone at the bottom center of the tomb is the military-issue headstone provided by the VA for deceased veterans. It's for George Robert, who was in the US Army in both World Wars, retiring as a Major. He also received the Distinguished Service Medal.
Posted by YatPundit at 9:56 AM | Comments (2)
February 18, 2008
Feature Photo: Society Tomb in St. Louis Three
Tomb of the Societe D'Assistance Mutuelle, La France. The society was founded in 1894 and the tomb constructed in 1902. The turn of the century was a very busy period of expansion for St. Louis #3, which is located on Esplanade Avenue near Bayou St. John.
Tombs were expensive propositions for many families in the city, so families would form organizations to pool their money, build, and maintain a tomb. Most of these "burial societies" formed along ethnic or neighborhood lines.
This tomb is built on two adjoining plots. It is different from other society tombs in that its vaults are two by four, when usually these tombs are four by three. the marble coverings of the vaults are missing, revealing its brick construction. The vase in front of the bottom right vault has the name "Downey" engraved on it.
Posted by YatPundit at 9:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 11, 2008
Feature Photo: Chalmette Cemetery
Sections 43 (left) and 44 of Chalmette National Cemetery, in St. Bernard Parish. The cemetery was originally part of the land blocked off by New Orleanians in the 1820s as a memorial for the Battle of New Orleans, which took place on 8-Jan-1815. During the Union occupation of New Orleans in the Civil War, several acres at the rear of the battlefield (behind the British starting lines) were isolated from the battlefield, and a cemetery for Civil War dead from both sides constructed.
Section 43 appears at first glance to be almost empty when compared with 44, but that's not the case. It's completely full, but most of those buried there are "unknowns." Most of those men were Union "Colored Troops." Freed slaves who enlisted in the Union Army didn't usually have the same paper trail following them that white soldiers did, so it was difficult to identify them when they were killed. Each grave is marked by a small square stone that has an identification number. The graves may not have names, but they are treated with all the honor and respect shown anyone else resting in this cemetery.
Originally, Confederate soldiers were buried alongside Union troops in this cemetery. In the 1890s, however, the Daughters of the Confederacy raised funds to construct a tumulus in Greenwood Cemetery at the head of Canal Street, and the CSA dead from Chalmette were re-interred there. The Confederate organization found it offensive that their dead were buried in the same cemetery as Colored Troops.
The view in the background is the perspective that the British had as they approached the American defenses at the Battle of New Orleans.
Posted by YatPundit at 2:50 PM | Comments (0)