Posts Tagged ‘Calvary Cemetery’
Tales of Calvary 4- Triskadekaphobic Paranoia
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Near the crest of one of Calvary Cemetery’s hills, can be found what I’ve described in previous posts as “a tree that is fed by some morbid nutrition”.
A convenient afternoon vantage point for photographing the Johnston mausoleum and a frequent destination, a Hallowmas (nov. 1) stroll through Calvary revealed some interesting goings on beneath the swollen boughs of this loathsome landmark.
note: I returned the following Sunday (nov. 7) for further observations, to this alien vista of titan blocks and sky flung monoliths.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A summit on hallowed ground, at one of the highest elevations in the cyclopean landscaping of Calvary Cemetery, the tree juts out against the sky.
If you seek it, you’ll find it… but that’s the way of things- isn’t it?
Implications, remarks, all sort of obsequious comments will bubble forth when you arrive at it, and then- you’ll notice where its roots lead and the smile will drain from your countenance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Several monuments from heterogeneous eras – and representing disparate social classes- abut the tree, with its taproots squeezing into the ground between them. At once beautiful and shocking, the effect of the scene is macabre, and it is redolent with implied horror.
That’s when I noticed the stick affixed to the tombstone, and the multi-colored chords tied across the weathered monuments.
(Now, I’m not implying -what the links clearly suggest- what I think might be going on here, I’m just saying that it fits my worldview)
from donaldtyson.com
Knots were not widely employed by Renaissance magicians working in the tradition of high magic, but the magic of knots was known to them. Cornelius Agrippa made several references to the classical lore of knot magic in his Occult Philosophy.In Book I, Chapter 41, he wrote about a witch who was mentioned by the Roman writer Apuleius (2nd century AD) in his novel The Golden Ass. She attempted to attract the love of a young man by tying what she believed to be his hair into knots and burning it: “she ties those hairs into knots, and lays them on the fire, with divers odours to be burnt…”In Book I, Chapter 51, Agrippa referred to the Natural History of the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (1st century AD), writing: “It is said that some do cure diseases of the groin with thread taken out of the weaver’s loom, being tied in nine, or seven knots, the name of some widow being named at every knot.” The reference is to Pliny, Bk. 28, Ch. 12. Pliny added that the thread must be tied around the “part affected,” presumably around the base of the scrotum and penis; or perhaps around the hips.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I have a few theories about all this. Let’s start with the most likely- its some sort of perfectly ordinary groundskeeper practice… but…
This is kind of a weird thing, going on, here in Calvary Cemetery.
from sak-yant.com
A basic Love Spell
Items: 3 cords or strings (Pink, red, green)
Ritual: Take the cords and braid them together. Firmly tie a knot near one end of the braid, thinking of your need for love. Next, tie another knot, and another until you have tied 7 knots. Wear or carry the cord with you until you find your love. After you have found him (her), keep the cord in a safe place or give it to one of the elements.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Observe that the stick has been stripped of bark, its been worked. All the little nubbins and splinters are bark free, and it appears to have been scraped clean – carefully – with a knife.
Knot/Cord: Weaving intent into a cord, whether by braiding, knotting, etc.. Most often done on the self, so there’s limited ethical concern.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Then there’s the knots. Weirdly intricate knots, tied in some sort of semi translucent plastic chord. Mostly red, but the oldest stone had a blue one that just trails off (as you can see in the second photo, above).
from being0fthemist1.multiply.com
In mythology, we have the Fates who wove, knotted, and cut the strings of life. We also have the famous Gordian Knot which Alexander was said to have cut in two with his sword.
In not so long ago times, there were men and women who were called blowers of knots. They would recite incantations while tying knots. The most famous of these incantations were done for wind knots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These knots are overly complex and curiously suggest an unknown logic. Do the number of loops, or their shape, correspond to some numerical or allegorical theme?
from harborguides.com
Although they are widely considered the stuff of legends, Sea Witches are a true phenomenon and still exist today. The myths portray them as dark sorceresses who control the elements and associate with phantoms and other unsavoury creatures of the deep. But cast aside superstition and you will be closer to the truth.
Real Sea Witches practise the arts based in Moon Lore and weather magicks. This makes perfect sense as the moon, of course, controls the sea. Centuries ago it was believed that these women could, and would, raise winds and create storms. They were still being burned 200 years ago. However the truth is that Sea Witchery is a Pagan practice that actually works as one with the chaos of nature, not because they associate it with evil but rather because they recognise chaos as a major part of the environment. This is particularly true of the ocean.
They neither practice ‘white’ nor ‘black’ magick but what is termed ‘grey’ magick. This is where the balance between light and dark are maintained to establish control of or draw power from the elements at their disposal. Sea Witches are a solitary bunch as maintaining this balance is immensely difficult for most individuals. They are regarded as very powerful practitioners. Such is their strength that they can perform, using virtually any sized body of water from lakes, rivers and ponds to bath tubs, sinks and bowls of water.
There most famous power is their control of the wind. This is traditionally carried out by the use of magickal knots. Sailors would buy or be given a small length of rope with three specially tied knots in it. These were wind-binding knots and were tied to ensure safe passage. By untying one knot a sailor could release a gentle, south westerly wind, two would ensure a strong north wind and three knots would summon a storm.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These cords are wrapped purposely around the stones. For the blue one to just be hitched on with no purpose makes no practical sense.
from wikipedia
Knot spells have been created for cutting pain, binding love, and traveling safely. The string or cord can be made out of almost any material, but natural fibers such as hair, wool, hemp and cotton are preferred. Although ladders are often created for as part of a specific spell, many wiccans keep a personal ladder. In this case, the knots or beads are used to keep track of repetition in a spell or prayer, similar to Rosary beads.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just so you know what I mean when I say- “by a morbid nutrition”.
from stregheria.com
Witches are much sought after in affairs of the affections between lovers, and between husbands and wives, and to restore love between parents and children. They use an ” acqua della concordia ” and an ” acqua della discordia.” To bring back an unfaithful lover the witch goes at night to the cemetery, digs up with her nails the body of an assassin, with her left hand cuts off the three joints of the ring-finger, then reducing them to powder in a bronze mortar, she mixes it with ” acqua benedetta senza morti,” bought at the chemist’s. The lover is to sprinkle the road between his house and his sweetheart’s with this water, and this will oblige the beloved one to return.
Another very powerful powder is made by scraping the left humerus of a dead priest; the powder is then made into a small parcel and hidden on the altar by the server at a mass paid for by the witch. When the priest says: ” Cristo eleison” she must mutter: ” Cristo non eleison.” Such a bone was shown me by a witch; it had been purchased for fifty francs from one of the servants of a confraternity. It had belonged to the witch’s mother, who was also a witch, and had been stolen from the objects given by her before dying to the priest to be burnt. It must be the left humerus, ” the right having been used for giving the benediction.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some of these shots are from a week later, when I returned to the spot to see if things had changed, or if anything was missed. The first shots were done at the apex of a full Hunters Moon, which corresponded neatly with Halloween in 2009. The second were done a week later, when the moon had begun to wane gibbously indicating the transit from Samhain to Yule.
from catholicleague.org
January 11 & 12, 1997
Queens, NY – Almost 130 headstones were overturned at Calvary Cemetery. Police investigated it as a bias crime. Previously, on Christmas Eve, over 400 headstones were overturned along with statues, including one of Mary. In still another incident, more headstones were knocked over and a mausoleum window smashed with a sledgehammer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had blurred these angles badly, the week before, and wanted to include these knots in this post…
from time magazine, 1949
The 200-odd union workers of Calvary, one of the country’s largest Roman Catholic cemeteries, were bargaining for a raise of about 20%—a five-day week for the same wages ($59.40) they now get for a six-day week. Their employers, the trustees of Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, offered them a raise of about 3%. The gravediggers turned the offer down, and negotiations came to a stop. On Jan. 13, they went out on strike, and the coffins began to pile up at Calvary. After burial services, the coffins were laid down in shallow uncovered trenches. Last week when the number of unburied dead topped 1,000, the cardinal called out his seminarians.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the sun was on my side this time, and that’s when I noticed something.
from wikipedia
Rituals, such as these, were common practices associated with necromancy, and varied from the mundane to the more grotesque. Rituals in necromancy involved magic circles, wands, talismans, bells, and incantations. Also, the necromancer would surround himself with morbid aspects of death, which often included wearing the deceased’s clothing, consumption of unsalted, unleavened black bread and unfermented grape juice, which symbolized decay and lifelessness. Necromancers even went as far as taking part in the mutilation and consumption of corpses. Rituals, such as these, could carry on for hours, days, even weeks leading up the summoning of spirits. Often these practices took part in graveyards or in other melancholy venues that suited specific guidelines of the necromancer. Additionally, necromancers preferred summoning the recently departed, citing that their revelations were spoken more clearly; this timeframe usually consisted of 12 months following the death of the body. Once this time period lapsed, necromancers would summon the deceased’s ghostly spirit to appear instead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A fourth stone had been adorned.
from wikipedia
During the 20th century interest in witchcraft in English-speaking and European countries began to increase, inspired particularly by Margaret Murray’s theory of a pan-European witch-cult originally published in 1921, since discredited by further careful historical research. Interest was intensified, however, by Gerald Gardner’s claim in 1954 in Witchcraft Today that a form of witchcraft still existed in England. The truth of Gardner’s claim is now disputed too, with different historians offering evidence for or against the religion’s existence prior to Gardner.
The Wicca that Gardner initially taught was a witchcraft religion having a lot in common with Margaret Murray’s hypothetically posited cult of the 1920s. Indeed Murray wrote an introduction to Gardner’s Witchcraft Today, in effect putting her stamp of approval on it. Wicca is now practised as a religion of an initiatory secret society nature with positive ethical principles, organised into autonomous covens and led by a High Priesthood. There is also a large “Eclectic Wiccan” movement of individuals and groups who share key Wiccan beliefs but have no initiatory connection or affiliation with traditional Wicca. Wiccan writings and ritual show borrowings from a number of sources including 19th and 20th-century ceremonial magic, the medieval grimoire known as the Key of Solomon, Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis and pre-Christian religions. Both men and women are equally termed “witches.” They practice a form of duotheistic universalism.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another byzantine knot, exhibiting a complexity unnecessary for any common task. What can this all be about?
Nearby, a tugboat moving its cargo languidly across that gelatinous slick of black water- called the Newtown Creek- triggered its horns, and the marbles of Calvary reflected a choral scalar echo which reminded one of the hebraic ram horn trumpet called the Shofar.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
But, as always, Calvary Cemetery is not a place you want to be – when the burning thermonuclear eye of god dips behind the shield wall of Manhattan- in tenebrous darkness, here at the fossil heart of the Newtown Pentacle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator, shaken by psychic exsanguination, and possessed by that unshakable desire to just lay down upon the soft invitation of the grass… and rest… for just a little while… experienced after a stay of no more than 90 minutes in Calvary- began to move quickly toward the gates on Greenpoint Avenue.
Away from a city which is not dead, but eternal lies… dreaming… and after strange aeons…
Tales of Calvary 3
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Swirling, my thoughts.
A vast and byzantine pattern which extends beyond even the coming of the Europeans into the mist of olden days, traced by rail and road, reveals itself step by step as the burning eye of god itself leads me to and fro across the glass strewn Newtown Pentacle.
Bits of information, nuggets of pregnant fact, theosophical themes and mystic iconography obfuscating its truths and meaning, a maelstrom of barking black dogs crowds my mind. Cowardly and infirm, I run to the grave.
Solace is found amongst the tomb legions, and the nepenthe of their silence.
from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1880, via junipercivic.com
The extension of Calvary Cemetery by the addition of one hundred acres occasions the demolition of the Alsop mansion, of historic interest. The Alsop family was distinguished n the annals of Newtown down to recent date. Now but one descendant remains, and he long ago quitted his ancestral home. Thomas Wandell was the founder of the Alsop family, through Richard Alsop, his nephew, when be brought from England, while a mere boy, about the year 1665 and adopted his son and heir. The one act in mr. Wandell’s life in Newtown which serves to perpetuate his name in local history was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph Hall and his wife, and acquitted them…
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Researches into the hallowed grounds of Calvary Cemetery have hinted at a lost mausoleum, whose hidden entrance was last known in the 1900’s – and which served as an exclusive tomb for Catholic clergy.
Neighborhood gossips whisper of hidden rites and orgiastic meetings, conducted by caribbean cultists and drug crazed adolescents who dance in candlelight upon Calvary’s swollen ground, on moonless nights.
Personal observation has served a buffet of puzzling evidences, odd coincidence, and terrifying implication. If you dial the correct number at midnight, who – or indeed what- might answer?
from the Annals of Newtown
Mr. Wandell, according to reminiscence in the Alsop family, had been a major in Cromwell’s army; but, having some dispute with the protector, was obliged to flee for safety, first to Holland, and thence to America. But some doubt of this may be justly entertained; because Mr. Wandell was living at Mespat Kills in 1648, which was prior to the execution of King Charles, and when Cromwell enjoyed but a subordinate command in the parliamentary army.
Mr. Wandell, the widow of Wm. Herrick, whose plantation on Newtown Creek, (originally patented to Richard Brutnell,) he bought in 1659, afterwards adding to it fifty acres, for which Richard Colefax had obtained a patent in 1652. On this property, since composing the Alsop farm, Mr. Wandell resided. He was selected, in 1665, as one of the jury for the trial of Ralph Hall and his wife for witchcraft, (the only trial for witchery in this colony,) and shared the honor of acquitting the accused. Some years later, he made a voyage to England, returning by way of Barbadoes, and, it is supposed, brought with him from England his sister’s son, Richard Alsop, who, about this time, came to America, and was adopted by Mr. Wandell as his heir, he having no issue. He d. in 1691, and was interred on the hill occupied by the Alsop cemetery. Many years ‘after his death, the silver plate of his coffin was discovered, in digging a new grave.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Shrouded by ancient copyright and purpose driven obscurity, the building of Calvary was a gargantuan project.
Hints of some enormous underground water calvert electrify my imaginations. The notion of a tunneled world beneath the sepulchral depth, collecting storm driven torrents of rain that would otherwise carry this vast attempt at elysian splendor into the nearby Newtown Creek (in the manner of some macabre mudslide), and the anticipation of where- and what- this system of sewers might empty into fill me with an overwhelming and loathsome joy.
from “A history of Long Island” at archive.org
At ye Court of Assizes held in New Yorke ye 2d day of October 1665 &c.
The Tryall of Ralph Hall and Mary his wife, upon suspicion of Witchcraft.
The names of the Persons who served on the Grand Jury: Thomas Baker, fforeman of ye Jury, of East Hampton ; Capt. John Symonds of Hempsteed ; Mr. Hallet, Anthony Waters, Jamaica ; Thomas Wandall of Marshpath Kills ; Mr. Nicolls of Stamford ; Balthazer de Haart, John Garland, Jacob Leisler, Anthonio de Mill, Alexander Munro, Thomas Searle, of New Yorke.
The Prisoners being brought to the Barr by Allard Anthony, Sheriffe of New Yorke,
This following Indict was read, first against Ralph Hall and then agst Mary his wife, vizt.
The Constable and Overseers of the Towne of Seatallcott, in the East Riding of Yorkshire upon Long Island, Do Present for our soveraigne Lord the King, That Ralph Hall of Seatallcott aforesaid, upon ye 25th day of December ; being Christmas day last, was Twelve Monthes, in the 15th yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles ye
Second, by the Grace of God, King of Eng- land, Scotland, ffrance and Ireland, Defender of the ffaith &c, and severall other dayes and times since that day, by some detestable and wicked Arts, commonly called Witchcraft and Sorcery, did (as is suspected) maliciously and feloniously, practice and Exercise at the said Towne of Seatalcott in the East Riding of Yorkshire on Long Island aforesaid, on the Person of George Wood, late of the same place by which wicked and detestable Arts, the said George Wood (as is suspected) most dangerously and mortally sickned and languished. And not long after by the aforesaid wicked and detestable Arts, the said George Wood (as is likewise suspected) dyed.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Calvary Cemetery is very much alive, teeming with a population of wild cats, rabbits, migratory birds. A sort of ecosystem exists here, but disturbing subsidences are common, the soil collapsing into a familiar rectangular pattern.
At intervals throughout the cemetery, there are oddly shaped concrete pillboxes- clearly hollow- which are secured with heavy iron lids that are often padlocked. Once, I dared to look into an unlocked one, and the dread implications of a staircase allowing egress down into a corridor roughly 15 feet below the surface, and the fresh muddy footprints leading away into that underworld nearly brought on one of my nervous attacks.
But- hatches abound in the Newtown Pentacle, and it is best not to dwell on all it is, that might be lurking down there.
Samuel Dibble accused his father-in-law, William Graves of witchcraft in the death of his wife, Abigail. There was a history of disagreement between Samuel and his father-in-law over his wife’s dowry. Abigail suffered horribly during the birth of her daughter (with a condition now possibly diagnosed as eclampsia (toxemia)) and Samuel blamed William Graves and depositions were taken in his complaint against him. The outcome of these depositions is unknown, however, it is likely that there was no severe action taken against William Graves as he lived another twelve years and died in Newtown, Long Island.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Meditating on the oddly suppressed events that have occurred here at Calvary, my mind reels with implied meanings and unheralded imaginings.
On Christmas Eve of 1996, “vandals” overturned between 50 and 75 headstones.
Recently, Crows- the name I’ve coined for the large population of metal collectors who scavenge and pry to feed raw material to the recycling industry along the Newtown Creek – have been accused of stealing valuable copper ornaments adorning the mausoleums here.
Evidences of unwholesome activities may be found all along the great walls, adorned with the spear motif of the high iron gates that surmount and complete them, which seal the great ossuary off from its environs. In the waning years of the 19th century- 1866 to be exact- the Newtown Board of Health was forced to bring charges in courtagainst the cemetery for improper treatment of the bodies of the poor.
From nycgovparks.org
In the five years between 1793 and 1798, New York City suffered terrible outbreaks of yellow fever, and by the end of the crisis, the city had lost nearly five percent of its population. An investigation into the causes of the outbreaks found shockingly unsanitary conditions, and the City responded with sweeping health reforms. Those reforms effectively staved off yellow fever for several years, but in the summer of 1803, the disease struck again. In 1805, the City created the Board of Health, which used its powers to evacuate residents from all streets near the East River, where the epidemic hit the hardest. This successfully warded off the disease for another 14 years. In 1830, a Manhattan ordinance forbade burials below Canal Street, and land in the suburbs was set aside for cemeteries. Newtown, the region between Brooklyn and Queens, was the site of so many cemeteries that it was often called “the city of the dead.”
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Today, visual inspection will confirm the Review Avenue and Laurel Hill Blvd. fences as being a favorite spot for illegal dumping of both construction debris and deceased animals. Directly across the street from the Review Avenue gate, at the former Penny Bridge Calvary railroad stop- fascist iconography adorns the scene.
and from “The Annals of Newtown” at bklyn-genealogy-info.com
This cemetery, which is located at Laurel Hill, was set apart and consecrated in 1848. It is one of the most accessible rural cemeteries near New York, and it would be difficult to select a lovelier or fitter spot as a place of sepulture. The old ground comprised one hundred and ten acres, but in 1853 a charter was obtained from the State by the trustees of St. Patrick’s cathedral, New York city, for 250 acres; 165 acres of this are now enclosed. The artesian well in that part of the enclosure called New Calvary was sunk in 1879. It is 606 feet deep and 6 3/4 inches in diameter, and was bored in white granite for a large part of its depth. Last year 32,000 persons died in the city of New York, and of this number 15,500 were buried in Calvary. The cemetery keeps one hundred and fifty men regularly employed, and two hundred more are kept at work by the relatives and friends of the deceased. Here may be found some of the choicest of materials and the finest models in monumental structure; and here we may mention as worthy of note the vault and chapel built by John Johnston, at a cost of $75,000, and regarded as one of the finest to be found in any ground. This cemetery is to the Catholics of New York what Greenwood is to the Protestant population. Since 1872 Hugh Moore has been the general superintendent, and to his ability much of the beauty and attractiveness of the place is due; he has been assisted by Michael Rowen. The mortuary chapel, of fine architectural design and finish, was built in 1856. The present chaplain is Rev. M.J. Brennan.
Tales of Calvary 2- Veterans Day
-photo by Mitch Waxman
21 Roman Catholic Union soldiers are interred amongst the 365 acres of first Calvary Cemetery in Queens, nearby the cuprous waters of the much maligned Newtown Creek.
The wars of the 20th century, terrible in scope and vulgar in effect, cause us to overlook these men who vouchsafed the American Republic in the 19th century as we focus in on the veterans of the second thirty years war which modernity myopically calls World Wars One and Two. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed a federal holiday called Armistice Day in 1919, celebrating the anniversary of the legal end of the first World War in 1918. Congress agreed, seven years later, and then took six years to pass an act which made Armistice day an official United States federal holiday celebrated on November 11 annually.
Ed Rees, a populist Representative from the state of Kansas during the post World War 2 era, spearheaded a successful campaign in 1953 to have “Armistice Day” reclassified as “All Veterans Day” so as to include the veterans of WW2, and the ongoing conflicts fought by our “permanent government” on the world stage.
from nycgovparks.com
On April 28, 1863, the City of New York purchased the land for this park from the Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and granted Parks jurisdiction over it. The land transaction charter stated that Parks would use the land as a burial ground for soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War (1861-65) and died in New York hospitals. Parks is responsible for the maintenance of the Civil War monument, the statuary, and the surrounding vegetation. Twenty-one Roman Catholic Civil War Union soldiers are buried here. The last burial took place in 1909…
The monument features bronze sculptures by Daniel Draddy, fabricated by Maurice J. Power, and was dedicated in 1866. Mayor John T. Hoffman (1866-68) and the Board of Aldermen donated it to the City of New York. The 50-foot granite obelisk, which stands on a 40 x 40 foot plot, originally had a cannon at each corner, and a bronze eagle once perched on a granite pedestal at each corner of the plot. The column is surmounted by a bronze figure representing peace. Four life-size figures of Civil War soldiers stand on the pedestals. In 1929, for $13,950, the monument was given a new fence, and its bronze and granite details replaced or restored. The granite column is decorated with bronze garlands and ornamental flags.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Many of the combatant nations observe November 11th as Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day.
It is hard for we moderns to conceive of the psychological pathologies of the post Victorian era, as our “end of the world scenario” is played out as either an expanding cloud of nuclear fire, or some “romeroesque” dystopia populated by hordes of disease maddened and resource starved ghouls- either way- it involves the apocalyptic ascendance of one of the “ism’s”.
Have no doubts though, that the world which created Calvary ended in an apocalypse, and our modern world was built upon the ashes of the Fin de Siècle.
from wikipedia
In many parts of the world people take a two-minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. as a sign of respect for the roughly 20 million people who died in the war, as suggested by Edward George Honey in a letter to a British newspaper although Wellesley Tudor Pole established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
The soils of Calvary, a vast cocktail of loathsome and ghoulish ichor, contain many Civil War dead- as well as citizen soldiers from every conflict since. Forgotten and long neglected, the obelisk and its attendant bronzes are in a tremulous condition, etched at by a century of pervasive industrial pollution arising from Newtown Creek, and the greater city beyond.
from a newtown pentacle post, from july 31 of 2009, titled “Up and through Calvary”
Daniel Draddy was an irish speaker from County Cork, and the son of John Draddy- a stonecarver and prolific author in the Irish language who hailed from a family on Quaker Road. In context, they came from what modernity would describe as “an oppressed religious underclass involved in an ethnic and cultural war with an aggressive and powerful neighbor willing and and able to actively engage in state sponsored genocide and ethnic cleansing“ but which they would have called the Irish Potato Famine.
Daniel maintained his marble studios on 23rd street in Manhattan, near the east river. Known as a cultured and gracious host, he was beloved by the Tammany men. Contemporaries describe him as a first class carver, mechanic, historian, and he had the ability to write in the Irish language “druidically”.
Resemblance of the monuments to the tombs of ancient Egypt is no accident. The men who built this were Free and Accepted Masons.
This is masonic iconography, with its obelisk splitting the solar wisdom into the four cardinal directions and the four deities of the spaces found between standing watch at intersecting 45 degree vectors. Such falderol was quite in vogue after the Civil War, look at the Capitol Dome or Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. for similar thematic elements.
Don’t forget- Draddy was a stonecutter, from a family of stonecutters. That made him a Free and Accepted Mason, who’s existential threat was the subject of much Catholic liturgy. The Masons, especially after their successes in the Lowlands and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, were considered a dangerous fifth column in the power structure of Europe. In the United States, the origins of the mythology surrounding them was beginning to form. In the 19th century men like Draddy would have been considered as subscribing to an “ism”, and its odd to find such iconography in a Catholic cemetery. The Church bore a special antipathy toward the Masons in this period of time, and even today they officially shun members.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
The statues here at Calvary’s Soldiers Monument seem to have been the original castings of a much reproduced statuary design. Placed here in 1866, they predate the identical statues found at Green-Wood Cemetery, and exact issuance of the mold has been confirmed in New England, North Carolina, and all over New York State. As early as 1875, fumes from a nearby Ammonia Factory at Newtown Creek were graving pitted marks into them.
Check out this amazing nytimes.com report of the ceremonies held, at this very spot- on Memorial Day, June 1, 1875.
In accordance with a resolution to celebrate the ceremony of decorating the graves of their dead comrades with more impressiveness than had attended that event in the past, John A. Rawlius Post, No. 80, with the members of the veteran corps of the old Sixty-ninth Regiment, Meagher’s Irish Brigade, Corcoran’s Irish Legion…
Observation, Speculation, and musing- the thinking out loud section
During the Civil War, the United States Union organized its troops by State, City, and town- hence the “XXth New York Regiment” or the “XXrd Illinois”. What this meant, in a meat grinder conflict like the Civil War with its high casualties, was that an entire neighborhood or town could lose ALL of its sons in a single battle.
The long economic decline of upstate New York, New England- especially Massachusetts- began soon after the Civil War partly because of this depopulation- and a generation of widows it created (the decline of “green energy” powered cotton cloth production in area textile mills is a major factor as well). The population important to politicians ceased being the rural mill town or agrarian producer and shifted to the newly crowded urban centers. In “the country”, a fascination with Spiritualism took hold while “the cities” set about building concrete cathedrals.
Radical politics, moralist movements, and fringe religion ruled in a depopulated countryside. The worn out land of the family farm wound inexorably toward a dust bowl, and there was no way to keep your sons and daughters from moving to “The City” and its possibilities. Stricken by endemic poverty, disease, ethnic violence, and starvation, the reality of “the good old days” before the Fin de Siècle is something that just doesn’t jibe with “you could leave your doors unlocked when you went to sleep, back then” that my grandfather used to proclaim.
The next generation of women that came along, who saw their widowed mothers and aunts running businesses and farms and participating in government– they were the Suffragettes.
Tales of Calvary
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hallowmas, or All Saints Day, is coincident with the running of the NYC Marathon’s tumult laden course. The secular spectacular merely whets the appetite of your humble narrator for the open skies and sacred vantages found along those unhallowed backwaters of an urban catastrophe called the Newtown Creek. Calvary Cemetery– dripping in centuried glory- sits incongruously in an industrial moonscape stained with a queer and iridescent colour. It’s marble obelisks and acid rain etched markers landmark it as a necropolis of some forgotten civilization.
Today, I determined to ignore the psychic effects of the graveyard, which are both palpable and remarkable. Resolving to climb to the highest point on this Hill of Laurels, my aim was to discover whose grave would occupy such a socially prominent spot. Secretly, I hoped to discover some celebrity or famous mobster’s resting place. Instead I found the O’Brien’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Let me mention, before I begin this vulgar display of information gathering and dissemination, that this was hard won knowledge. If anyone has additional info they’d like to share, please contact me.
The difficulties one encounters when using modern search services to inventory a common personal or place name, especially ones that might overlap a mediacentric figure or location whose modern incarnation has obliterated all other definitions, are numerous. In the case of one William O’Brien, a VERY common name, narrowing things down is a daunting task. O’Brien died in New York City, apparently, as He’s buried in Calvary. O’Brien is an odd spelling of a common hibernian nomen, and indicates a certain direction to look toward. Still, finding an Irishman who died in 1846 New York wouldn’t be easy. I kept looking, slavishly.
Who was William O’Brien?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I went down the list of names, searched with quotations, ampersands, and “or”s. Tacked on the “died xx, xxxx”. Nothing. “Disappeared from history”, thought your humble narrator, “Balderdash!”.
A couple of leads on the O’Brien patriarch William seemed to point to a career in finance and politics, but the O’Brien in those stories was some kind of Irish nobility, and that just couldn’t be right. These people were buried at the top of the hill in Calvary, but there’s no way that an Irish noble was going to be buried in Queens. My searching did turn up a potential address for the O’Brien clan, in Manhattan at 19 Washington Square North, via this link to an obituary page for Robert, from 1902 at nytimes.com. Concurrence found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
from nyc-architecture.com
By the time Abbott photographed the venerable houses at the northwest corner of the Square, Old New York’s foothold was slipping. Although not built until 1952, an apartment house was planned in 1929 for the Rhinelander properties, east of nos. 21-26, and shortly after Abbott’s photograph, nos. 7-13 were gutted and renovated as apartments. The photograph documented the beauty of the old facades but also revealed incipient change. Nos. 22 and 23 (center) were shuttered with “for sale” signs affixed to them. At the west end of the block (left) was the 16-story Richmond Hill Apartments. The leaves of a tree in Washington Square Park, softly framing the left and top edges of the photograph, give a romantic air to this otherwise sharp-focused view of fading elegance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When searching for the combined term William O’Brien and Robert Pardow, this 1901 pdf at the Library of Congress turned up. William O’Brien Pardow? Who was Robert Pardow, and again- who was William O’Brien?
William O’Brien Pardow was the key to this conundrum… and away we go…
from nytimes.com
THOUSAND MOURN FOR FATHER PARDOW; Women and Children Weep During Funeral Services for the Noted Jesuit Priest. ALL SEVERELY SIMPLE Poverty and Humility, to Which the Order Is Pledged, the Keynote — Four Bishops Present.
When Archbishop Farley began the low mass for the repose of the soul of Father William O’Brien Pardow in the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, in East Eighty-fourth Street, yesterday, every seat in the edifice was filled, the aisles were crowded, and thousands stood for hours outside the church to see the coffin bearing the beloved rector of the Jesuit Church borne to the hearse…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The name Pardow is an anglicized version of a family name that indicates both a Norman heritage, and long service to the French as part of the Irish Brigades. The original family name is reported as either “De Par Dieu” or “De La Pore”. The first Robert Pardow arrived in New York City in 1772 with his wife and six children. Her name was Elizabeth Seaton, and the family business they started would be the first Catholic newspaper published in the City, called the Truth Teller. He had two sons, Gregory and Robert. Both studied with the Jesuits in England. Gregory became a member of the Society of Jesus, and Robert returned to New York’s social elites and died in 1882.
Robert was married to Augusta O’Brien, daughter of William O’Brien. And, it was “that William O’Brien”, as it turns out. The kings of Ireland, it seems, lie in Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is actually where everything goes off on a crazy train.
The O’Briens of County Clare are a troublesome lot, given to displays of heaven shaking martial prowess, if the mood suits them.
Legendary foemen of the English Crown, they have gathered unto themselves vast power and influence which continues to the present day. The hereditary title of the Chief of the Name is “the O’Brien, Marquess of Thomond and Baron Inchiquin”. They’re also the direct descendents and heirs of Brian Boru, the semi legendary King of Ireland.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
William O’Brien, 2nd Marquess of Thomond and the Baron Inchiquin, forfeited his title and came to New York around 1800 for political reasons. He started a banking house, supposedly located at no. 58 Wall Street (modern no. 33), with his brother John. He married Eliza(beth) and had an undetermined number of children. Augusta was his eldest daughter, and the family story follows her union with a young and recently returned to New York Robert Pardow- on its unyielding journey toward the emerald devastation of Calvary Cemetery, here alongside the noisome Newtown Creek.
from wikipedia
In 1847, faced with cholera epidemics and a shortage of burial grounds in Manhattan, the New York State Legislature passed the Rural Cemetery Act authorizing nonprofit corporations to operate commercial cemeteries. Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral trustees had purchased land in Maspeth in 1846, and the first burial in Calvary Cemetery there was in 1848. By 1852 there were 50 burials a day, half of them the Irish poor under seven years of age. By the 1990s there were nearly 3 million burials in Calvary Cemetery, the cemetery was also used for the film The Godfather for the funeral of Don Corleone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Pardow’s had two boys and three girls- William, Robert, Julia, Pauline, and Augusta.
The matriarch of the clan, Eliza, survived her husband William by 36 years and died in 1882. She even survived her daughter Augusta, who died in 1870.
Click here for a description of Eliza’s funeral in 1882 at the NYTimes. The Mass was led by her grandson- William O’Brien Pardow, S.J.- now a firebrand Jesuit orator- and was attended by one archbishop, 2 bishops, and Mayor Grace– amongst others.
from wikipedia
Opposing the famous Tammany Hall, Grace was elected as the first Irish American Catholic mayor of New York City in 1880. He conducted a reform administration attacking police scandals, patronage and organized vice; reduced the tax rate and broke up the Louisiana Lottery. Defeated the following year, he was re-elected in 1884 on an Independent ticket but lost again the following year. During his second term, Grace received the Statue of Liberty as a gift from France.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of the five children, 4 joined the Roman Catholic clergy, and all attained high office in their various devotions. Robert and William joined the Jesuits, sisters Pauline and Augusta (junior) joined the Society of the Sacred Heart. Both sisters became Mother Superiors, and William became an ecclesiastic rock star in the days of the Third Great Awakening. His sister Julia remained “in the world”.
That Julia had children, or that this branch of the O’Brien clan persists, I cannot confirm.
As a note, their uncle- Gregory Pardow– who had become a Jesuit whilst his brother Robert was courting Augusta O’Brien- was the founding Rector of the first Catholic Church in Newark N.J. – St. John’s.
from wikipedia
The number of Roman Catholics in Continental United States increased almost overnight with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Adams-Onís Treaty (purchasing Florida) in 1819, and in 1847 with the incorporation of the northern territories of Mexico into the United States (Mexican Cession) at the end of the Mexican American War. Catholics formed the majority in these continental areas and had been there for centuries. Most were descendants of the original settlers, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, benefiting in the Southwest, for example, from the livestock industry introduced by Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino in 1687. However, U.S. Catholics increased most dramatically and significantly in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century due to a massive influx of European immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany (especially the south and west), Austria-Hungary, and the Russian Empire (largely Poles). Substantial numbers of Catholics also came from French Canada during the mid-19th century and settled in New England. Although these ethnic groups tended to live and worship apart initially, over time they intermarried so that, in modern times, many Catholics are descended from more than one ethnicity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The grandson of a great man, William O’Brien Pardow distinguished himself in his vocations. He offered spiritual retreats to clergy and commoner alike, and attendants often remarked on the priest’s incisive intuition and razor sharp rhetorical skills which made him the center and arbiter of conversation. He made the rounds of polite society, and often spoke at parlour meetings of the social elite. Many of the references I found about him were on Society pages, located a blurb or two below discussion of Mrs. Vanderbilt’s latest scandals or gossip about the scandalous meetings of Dutch Cotillion Societies.
Quoting freely from the 1879 edition of a Justine Bayard Cutting Ward biography of William O’Brien Pardow, grandson of William O’Brien found at archive.org
“The lives of men are written,” said Father Pardow, “their biographies press down the shelves of our libraries, yet when you have read the biography of the greatest of men, what do you know of the man himself? You know what this, that, or the other man thinks about him, but you know nothing of the real life of that man, nothing of his interior life which the eyes of God alone can penetrate. About that life you know absolutely nothing.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pardow had an interesting mind, and focused on education in many of his sermons. He preached an eleventh commandment “Thou shalt learn to read and write” as the cure for society’s ills.
Again, quoting freely from the 1879 edition of a Justine Bayard Cutting Ward biography of William O’Brien Pardow, grandson of William O’Brien found at archive.org
William Pardow came of a race of warriors, the O Briens of County Clare. Many an ancestor had fought and died for a principle, and from Brian Boru, the warrior king, down through the centuries, the military tradition keeps recurring in almost every generation. Among the officers of the Irish Regiments in the French army we find the names of many an O Brien, bearing the proud titles of Marquis of Thomond, Earls of Inchiquin, and Barons Burren. When in 1800, William O Brien sought the New World, he did so as the result of an unselfish struggle for a principle. Pure patriotism had led him to identify himself with the cause of the United Irishmen; as a result he for feited his title of Inchiquin, sold his property, and set sail for New York. There he established a successful banking house, but though the ocean lay between him and his beloved country, he never wavered in his loyalty to his own people and their cause, and it is characteristic of the man that when, many years later, he was offered the agency of the Bank of England, the loyal Irishman would have none of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The family business was finance- and as I’ve mentioned earlier in this post- references to no. 58 Wall Street as the address for it, which- I am told- would correspond to the modern numbering n0.33. That would put it on or near the site of the modern New York Stock exchange. If anyone reading this has any information on the O’Brien banking operation that they can share, please contact me, as it’s a missing piece of this particular pie.
And again, quoting freely from the 1879 edition of a Justine Bayard Cutting Ward biography of William O’Brien Pardow, grandson of William O’Brien found at archive.org
Many a man or woman is defeated by ease who would have flashed forth under persecution with the heroism of the martyr. In the more complex struggle against the imperceptible encroachment of a lax moral code, Augusta Pardow stood firm. She brought up her children with almost military discipline, grounding them firmly in the nobler qualities which such training brings out, courage, obedience, and devotion to a cause outside of self. She needed no punishments, it would appear, to enforce her will, for her children realized from the first the principle of authority and its source. It was a point of honor to obey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The world of the O’Brien’s was sketched out by novelist and next door neighbor Henry James, check out ephemeralnewyork’s post on James here.
And one last time- quoting freely from the 1879 edition of a Justine Bayard Cutting Ward biography of William O’Brien Pardow, grandson of William O’Brien found at archive.org
The framework of his active life may be outlined with a stroke of the pen. It has but slight signif icance. The scene of his early experience and early mistakes was the Church of St. Francis Xavier, where he was appointed on his return from Europe. In 1884 he was made socius, or secretary to the provincial; in 1888, instructor of tertians at Frederick, Maryland; in 1891, rector of St. Francis Xavier s College in New York City; in 1893 he was appointed provincial of the Maryland- New York Province and held the position until 1897, when he was attached to Gonzaga College in Washington as professor of philosophy and preacher in the church, going from there to St. Ignatius Church in New York. In 1903 he was once more appointed instructor of the tertians, this time at St. Andrew-on-Hudson near Poughkeepsie. In July, 1906, he was elected delegate from the province to the general congregation at Rome, which met to elect a new General for the Company of Jesus. While in Rome, he fell ill, but recovered sufficiently to take his place in the congress. Upon his return to the United States a few months later, he was attached to the Church of the Gesu in Philadelphia; in the autumn of 1907, was made rector of the Church of St. Ignatius in New York City, where a little over a year later he died.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey, you never know what you’re going to find out here, at Calvary Cemetery.
Who can guess all there might be, buried down there, in that poison loam which is the heart of the Newtown Pentacle?
The Newtown Pentacle 