St. Joseph Cemetery, Price Hill

St Joseph Cemetery was originally founded in 1842 on nineteen and a quarter acres in Price Hill by the Cincinnati Archdiocese headed by Archbishop John B. Purcell. The cemetery is located at West Eighth and Enright. West Eighth was not there when the cemetery was built.  Its construction divided the cemetery and most of the Irish and Italian interments ended up across the street in what is now a very dilapidated offshoot.

When the archdiocese announced the cemetery to the public several ethnic parishes petitioned to have St. Joe set aside for their groups. The cemetery was divided into German and Irish sections. After West Eighth was run through the cemetery, the Irish graves were the ones that had to be relocated. When the cholera epidemic hit the catholic community hard between 1849 and 1854 , the cemetery filled quickly and a new cemetery, St. Joseph New, was founded and became a mostly Italian/Irish Catholic cemetery.

St. Joseph is still an active cemetery with frequent burials and is overseen by the St. Joseph Cemetery Association. The grounds are in beautiful shape. The monuments are in various states. Some are well taken care of while others have been left to crumble. There are few mausoleums here, but the monuments are beautiful and many rival Spring Grove's finest!
There are only a few people of note in this cemetery, the most famous, perhaps, is Louis Hudepohl, the beer baron.

I like the broken lyre under the bust. This symbolizes that his "music" (life) was cut short.

What would Strauch say? Strauch would not approve of the number of monuments within a family group. It also does not have an “improvement upon nature” air about it. With the exception of the older sections on the west, northwest corner, there is not much shade and it is mainly just an expanse of grass area. The plots are tidy, though and they have refrained from the excessive accouterments that Strauch so despised when he arrived at Spring Grove. 
Gladstone, on the other hand, would approve. There are many beautiful monuments, some with loving epitaphs.

It is also obvious that some families are still involved with the care and upkeep of the stones. Here is a good example. This is a new granite plinth on the old marble base and the original angel on top.

There were so many beautiful monuments! I could blow this page up with pictures, but what follows are a few of my favorites.

Beautiful simplicity.

This tableau is prevalent throughout the cemetery, Faith. Her sisters Charity and Hope are more commonly depicted as their symbols, the heart and the anchor.

Ostentatious much? I like the busts.

A very fine treestone

A fine bronze statue. Ostentatious but tasteful.

LOVE this! Carved clouds, very unique.

Note the figure standing on the snake with the apple in its mouth.

I'll end with my favorite. Simple yet beautiful.

 

 Thanks to my mother, Sandi Cook for being the photographer on this jaunt.