On North Morris Street in Waynesburg, just north of Waynesburg University, lies Greenmount Cemetery. Established in 1853, and one of the largest cemeteries in the county, Greenmount is “home” to many of the notable and prominent residents of Waynesburg and the surrounding communities.
No doubt, many stories are recollected by residents and historians as they stroll through Greenmount and look over the worn white marble headstones that mark the burial locations of so many people that lived here. Each grave is the culmination of a life, and luckily, many of these lives can be recounted in the annals of Greene County history, through books published on this region over the years and in records held at repositories such as Cornerstone Genealogical Society and the Greene County Historical Society.
Perhaps the most famous “resident” of Greenmount Cemetery is Edward Martin. Martin was born on September 18, 1879 at Ten Mile in Washington County to Joseph and Hannah (Bristor) Martin. Edward Martin spent a great portion of his life associated with the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry and the 28th Infantry Division where he would move up through the ranks and become a Major General. He would spend his later years in politics, serving as the 32nd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1943 through 1947 and as a United States Senator from 1947 through 1959. Edward departed this life on March 19, 1967 and was laid to rest in Greenmount Cemetery in a plot where his parents and many of his relatives also were buried.
Not too distant from the humble marker erected to the memory of Edward Martin and his wife Charity can be found a modest granite mausoleum built in the old Roman Doric style. Across the lintel stone of the portico an inscription reads: “J. T. & J. J. Martin” thus marking this as the tomb of Joseph Thomas Martin (father of Edward) and James John Martin, a brother of Joseph. Though striking in its simplicity, when you approach the doors of the mausoleum, you see a bright flash of color. In the back wall, illuminating the interior is a beautiful stained-glass window that contains a colored image of Martha (Moor) Martin, mother of Joseph Martin and grandmother of Governor Edward Martin.
Martha Moor Martin was born on October 21, 1819, two hundred and two years ago this month. She was the daughter of Joseph and Mary (Schackleton) Moor and the wife of John McMyrtre Martin. Martha died on September 18, 1880. Martha’s sons, Joseph and James bought the lot in Greenmount Cemetery, where the mausoleum now stands on July 18, 1924, very soon after the sudden death of Joseph’s daughter Maud on July 12, 1924. Construction of the mausoleum began shortly thereafter. In commemoration of their dearly departed mother, Joseph and James had the stained-glass window created and installed in the mausoleum. Once the structure was completed, Martha’s body was exhumed and reinterred in one of the upper most sections of the tomb.
The stained-glass window, and its infamous portrait of Martha (Moor) Martin has not gone unnoticed in local lore. In the image, her eyes seem to follow those who are near the mausoleum and in the area of the immediately adjacent graves. In the fall, particularly around Halloween time, younger folks can often be found playing games of hide and go seek and tag on the grounds of Greenmount, oftentimes using the Martin mausoleum as a base. Some view the image of Martha as a figure of protection, watching over the graves of her loved ones, while others found her a frightful figure, one to be avoided.
Local legend tells us that Martha keeps a watchful vigil for her husband, John M. Martin. Just a few months after her death in 1880, Martha’s husband John remarried a woman twenty years his junior and raised another family. Originally, Martha was buried in Amity, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and when John passed in 1903, he would be buried beside her. However, when John and Martha’s sons completed the mausoleum in Greenmount, they would bring their mother Martha there, along with their sister, and Martha’s parents. John M. Martin was left behind, eternally separated from his first wife and the mother of his oldest children.
Is Martha perhaps upset at her husband marrying so soon after her death? Or does she long to be reunited with the husband she has been separated from for nearly a century? Either way, her watchful gaze has been captivating visitors to the Martin mausoleum for a very long time.
Or is there another reason for her ever vigilant stare? In the archives of the Greene County Historical Society, in the Martin Collection, can be found a photograph of Martha (Moor) Martin, the very photo that was the inspiration used to design the stained-glass window in the mausoleum. In this photo you can easily see that Martha has an eye condition that causes one eye to wander. When her image was recreated for the stained-glass window, this eye condition was preserved in the colored glass image.
Yet for nearly a century, Martha’s visage has been gazing upon those who happen upon the Martin family tomb in Greenmount Cemetery. The nature of her gaze, and how it seemingly follows visitors, may in part be due to a condition she had in life, but perhaps… just perhaps, her watchful gaze is still looking over her family in the tomb and nearby graves and looking for her husband John who lay lonely in a grave in Amity, PA.