Silence is Golden

"It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me and the sunshine."

- Richard Jefferies

On my first drive through Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, OH, I descended a hill and witnessed the early morning sun bathing a monument in golden light. The surrounding area remained dark, with other headstones scarcely visible. The woman atop the monument seemed to be basking in the sun, her head tilted skyward and shoulders exposed. It was ethereal.

I barely had a moment to appreciate the beauty before I found myself at the bottom of the hill. I pressed the brakes and slowly reversed, driving backward until my car was directly opposite the land where the monument stood.

The Arthur/Haserot monument (section 11 lot 68) was sculpted by Giuseppe (Joseph) Carabelli, a skilled stone mason who moved to America from Porto Ceresio, Italy, in 1870. He spent a decade practicing his craft in New York City. In1880, he moved to Cleveland, OH.

At the age of thirty, he partnered with another individual to establish Carabelli and Broggini, a business specializing in designing commemorative memorials, which was located near Lakeview Cemetery. Many of the monuments from this company were installed there. The business was later renamed as the Lakeview Granite and Monument Works. After the partnership ended, the business became known as the Joseph Carabelli Company. Joseph Carabelli died in 1911, yet the stoneworks remained operational under the guidance of Joseph C. Carabelli, Jr. Upon his death in 1971, John I. Johns, a former employee and close family friend, combined his business with Carabelli. Since then, the company has been known as the Johns - Carabelli Company, which continues to operate today.

Joseph Carabelli, along with his wife Annetta and six children are interred in Lakeview Cemetery (association 11 lot 150).

The Arthur/Haserot monument was erected to honor Peter M. Arthur, a locomotive engineer with the New York Central and leader of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), along with his wife Caroline Hildebrand Arthur. Also buried there are their children, George, Jane, Jessie, and Charles, and their grandchildren Peter, Arthur, and Charles Jr. Their granddaughter, Harriet, is not buried with them. She married D'Arcy Hoodless Porter, the founder of the Porter Coal Company, and is buried with him in the Porter plot (association 35 lot 11) at Lakeview Cemetery.

The name Haserot on the lower part of the stone refers to daughter Jane C. Arthur, who married Samuel Frederick Haserot, a prominent figure in the wholesale grocery industry. His brother and business partner, Francis Henry Haserot, is buried alongside his wife Sarah Henrietta McKinney Haserot, sons Henry Sr. and John, daughter Margaret, grandson Henry Jr., and great-grandson David at the Angel of Death Triumphant monument (association 9 lot 14), also situated in Lakeview Cemetery.

The Angel of Death Triumphant, known as the Haserot Angel, was sculpted by Herman Matzen and placed in Lakeview Cemetery in 1924. Matzen designed numerous public monuments, primarily located in Cleveland. He is also interred in Lake View Cemetery alongside his first wife, Emma Jane Hale Matzen, and his second wife, Blanche Johanna Dissette Matzen, and three children (Association 11 lot 184).

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Christine Shephard is a photographer, writer, and avid taphophile. She makes her home in Central New York.

Images captured by Christine Shephard Photographic Design and the written content cannot be utilized in any other format or publication without explicit permission.

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