Unidentified #01

Westmoreland County 1833-1845

(Biographies and Photographs contibuted by Bill Plack)

     This Westmoreland County carver, while not identified by name, is certainly not unknown. In fact, he is quite well known, by his work, by anyone who has visited the older cemeteries in the area south and southwest of Greensburg.

     Other carvers may have more than one shape, design, or style of wording. They may have produced stones that were bigger or more elaborate, but no carver is as easily recognized as this man. His stones are always of modest size, always the same shape, and nearly always have a simple decorative design at the top. All begin with the wording “IN Memory of” and most of the rest of the wording is also consistent from one stone to another. I guess his designs and lettering could best be described as “primitive”. He occasionally started to engrave a word and realized it was wrong, and then simply engraved the correct word right over the wrong one, as shown in the Robert Kelley photo below. And, he sometimes made slight errors in spelling or capitalization, but these flaws didn’t seem to bother his customers because he was one of the most popular sandstone carvers in his area. I have seen 39 of his stones in 9 cemeteries, more than any other carver in Westmoreland County.

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Known Examples of

Unidentified #01

 stone carvings

Sewickley United Presbyterian Cemetery

Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County

Sewickley Presbyterian Cemetery

South Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County

Tarr's Methodist Cemetery

East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County