Remarkable Markers 6 (Last Installment in This Series)

My dear friend Eleanor Y. Stewart—with whom I have authored several books—and I believed we were lost while looking for the cemetery in Troy, Ohio, so we stopped to ask directions from a man mowing a small graveyard near a church. Happily, he told us we were only a short drive from our destination. He added, “Find the blue ‘stones’ and knock on them.” We were mystified, but that is all he would say. We easily found Riverside Cemetery and began to stroll around, admiring the monuments. After a time, we noticed a large marker with a bluish tint. We knocked, and, much to our surprise, we heard a ringing reverberation. The marker was hollow and made of metal! 

A Hollow Zinc Marker in Riverside Cemetery, Troy, Ohio

According to the website of the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, “Beginning in the 1870s, inexpensive monuments in American cemeteries began to be made of zinc. … The Monumental Bronze Company in Bridgeport (CT) and subsidiaries in the U.S. and Canada produced the most commonly found items using a unique methodology that included a sandblasted finish to imitate the mat appearance of stone. Marketed as superior to stone in terms of durability, their products were referred to as ‘white bronze.’ They included thousands of markers …, custom-made effigies of the dead, off-the-shelf statues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and enormous Civil War memorials crowned by statues of soldiers … .”

A website at gombessa.tripod.com says, “The Monumental Bronze Company produced these monuments for just forty years from 1874 to 1914. … Subsidiaries were eventually opened in Detroit, Chicago, Des Moines, Philadelphia, St. Thomas, … and perhaps New Orleans. The subsidiaries did final assembly work. Most, if not all, of the original casting was done in Bridgeport, Connecticut.”

A blog (Click on “blog.”) entitled “A Grave Interest” gives a detailed and informative description of the unusual blue markers and features many illustrations, including a photo of a marker identical to the one in Troy, except for the panels under the monument’s arches, which could be customized. (I want to thank Joy, the blogger!) Apparently, the blue tint is a product of aging. The marker in Riverside Cemetery is quite blue!

Eleanor and I agreed that zinc markers should make a comeback!

 

Legends of Pine Village, Indiana: Lee N. Brutus, Pilot

During the exhilarating years in Pine Village, Indiana, at the beginning of the 1900s, inventor Lee N. Brutus (1895–1998) became fascinated with flying. He served as an army pilot during World War I (yes, the first world war). Later, he became executive vice president of Waco Aircraft in Troy, Ohio, and, still later, president of Luscombe Airplane Corporation in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1947, Brutus served as Pacific Coast sales representative for the Nylok Nut Corporation of New York. As may be seen in the dates that I have provided, Lee lived longer than a century. He once told my father, Joseph C. Rhode (1918–1999), his WWI flight training involved taking off and flying until he had used half his fuel before returning to his point of origin by recognizing landmarks along the way.

Lee N. Brutus' Biplane Beside Charley Cobb's Barn in Pine Village, Indiana

Lee was one of three sons born to John Brutus and Rosetta Belle Belew. Lee’s brothers were Arba and Glenn H Brutus. Lee married Geraldine Broadie. The couple had no children. (Lee’s brother Arba will figure prominently in this series of blogs, for Arba invented a machine deserving of attention and comment.)

Despite assertions that Waco began in May or June of 1929, Waco may have formed as early as 1928. Lee was with the firm from its start. Waco grew from the Weaver Aircraft Company, which changed its name to the Advance Aircraft Company before becoming Waco, which was an acronym derived from Weaver Aircraft Co.

I remember seeing Lee at the Methodist Church when he visited his family in Pine Village. My recollection is of a distinguished gentleman who was soft-spoken. 

It must have been a stirring sight in 1922 to see Lee land a biplane in the pasture beside the barn on the land that my father eventually farmed across from the school. Tom Cobb first owned the farm. Then his son, Charley, owned it. Charley’s widow, Margaret, came into possession of it. Finally, my father owned it. At the time that the biplane was the center of attention, the land was in Charley’s name. Charley was fascinated with machines and undoubtedly took a keen interest in Lee’s aircraft. Charley ran steam engines, including a Reeves, a Huber, and a Gaar–Scott, and he assembled his own gasoline tractor from a hit and miss engine. I can only imagine what his conversation with Lee must have been like when Lee brought his plane to Charley’s farm.

The early decades of the 1900s were indeed heady times in Pine Village!