Lost Souls Cemetery

On this All Souls Day …

A friend recently directed me to this small cemetery in South Fayette Township, fifteen miles south of Pittsburgh — Lost Souls of Fairview Cemetery.

Twenty-five markers dot the picket-fence enclosed burial ground, the final resting place for unknown, unnamed patients of the mental hospital Pittsburgh City Home and Hospital (later named Mayview State Hospital) who died between 1913 and 1918.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

The following article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (January 8, 1987) provides a bit of history including the efforts of Ginny Thornburgh, wife of then-Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh.