Contributed by: Patrick Gerbus, descendant of John Keating
The poem inscribed on the side of the Keating Dollhouse is as heartwrenching as the monument itself. It appears to be the shortened version of an elegy for infants published around same time. A page of elegies that might be used for a variety of people, including the Dollhouse poem, was mistakenly left in an edition of a May 1877 edition of the New England Journal of Education which was then fortuitously digitized by Google. The original reads:
One more lamb now sweetly sleeping,
One dear one has left earth’s shore;
Sadly now still watch we’re keeping
Where we’ll greet it never more.
One by one the leaves are falling,
Fading, falling, day by day.
And in silence heaven is calling
One by one, our lambs away.
As previously noted, several children are buried at the Keating plot but are not memorialized on the dollhouse itself. This included John’s son, William Keating. An October 13, 1880 obituary for William (“Willie”) Keating published in the Cincinnati Enquirer includes an additional passage that is not found on the dollhouse.
If you would like to contribute to the Keating Dollhouse restoration, you can contribute directly to the restorationist’s company, Gravestone Transformations (Mark Smith) via the link below. Scroll down to the donation form and click on the checkbox next to “I would like to designate this donation to a specific fund.”
A dropdown menu will pop up. Keating Dollhouse is one of the options. If you would prefer to make a contribution via paper check, please send us a message here on this website, on Facebook, or email us at keatingdollhouse@gmail.com and you will be provided the proper mailing instructions. Thank you!
Keating Dollhouse 