GRAVES WITH MANY BODIES ____________________ Some Queer Things Revealed at Old Union Cemetery. __________ About 35,000 Bodies have Been Taken Out of the Old Burying Ground-- The Keeper of the Cemetery Denies That There Has Been Anything Wrong, butAdmits That Some Graves Have Held More Than One Person. __________
The last body will probably be removed from Union Cemetery and placed in the new Cedar Grove Cemetery to-night or to-morrow morning. Over thirty-five thousand bodies have been transferred from one cemetery to the other and Union Cemetery has now the appearance of a battlefield, where a terrible struggle has taken place. The workmen will go over the whole field again and collect any bones or places that have been skipped since the work of transferring began. There have been complaints made that everything was not altogether right in the cemetery and a story has been circulated to the effect that in uncovering some of the remains it was discovered that here were more bones in the graves than had been thought by the families supposed to own the plots. One family claims for instance, that in one grave the remains of a man who was undoubtedly Afro-American extraction was found mixed up with the bodies of departed relatives. It is said that this is not the first instance where strange bones have been found in graves that were supposed to contain only the relatives of the people who came to see that the work of transferring was properly conducted. An Eagle reporter went out to the cemetery to investigate this report last night and found Mrs. ABRAMS, the wife of the keeper of the little old fashioned farmhouse that stands a further end of the cemetery that is soon to disappear under the modern cottages and be cut up into building lots. When asked if any formal complaints had been made to her concerning strange discoveries made by the diggers, she was very indignant and declared that everything had been found to be as it should be, so far as she knew. Finally, however, she said: "I believe I can tell how that rumor started. There were two young women here during the work and they overheard some of the men joking, just as men do, about the people who had been here to see the graves opened. The young women were very much disturbed over this and threatened to write it up. Some time afterward they said that in the grave where one of their people was buried they found a very large jaw, with big teeth, which they said certainly belonged to a Negro and which had no business in the grave. Now I would like to know how they could tell that jaw bone from any other, or how they can tell whether some friend of the family, may be fifty years ago, was buried in that grave?" "Of source, if anything was wrong," Mrs. ABRAMS continued, "I would be the last one to say so, but there has been nothing wrong. Years ago, for you know this cemetery is very old, there were no doubt many people buried in the same graves and their descendants have known nothing about it. How could they? But it is not true that there were any Negroes buried in anyone else's graves or I would know of it. And there were no strangers buried in graves where they did not belong and there would probably be no harm if there were." Mr. ABRAMS corroborated all that his wife had said. "This work," he said, "has been conducted with the greatest care. In a grave where my people were buried I knew what we had to expect. Twenty feet down the grave went. I knew, and I knew when I found two skulls and two plates I had all I was looking for and the plates are in the next room if you want to see them." "The depth we dug in that grave shows the trouble we have had in getting at some of these bones. Now some people have complained because we had to shovel out remains. But what are we going to do? Some of the remains are just little pieces of bones and we have to shovel them out. Where there are any bones that can be handled they are taken up with all reverence and placed carefully together. In the other cemetery a long trench is dug. That's the only way we could arrange there. In this trench the bones of the different people are laid and care is taken not to mix them. Than a mound is built over each one. Of course the relatives have the privilege of bunching the bones if they wish, and this gives them more room in the new cemetery. That is, they can have all the bones of their departed placed in one spot. Lots of people are doing this. But there is nothing wrong. You cannot believe all the rumors that are going around. Why, we are so careful that we dig under hedges and shrubbery for fear some body may be there and we not know it. Every hedge has been dug up, and when we have covered all the ground we will go over it again and look for bones that have been left." The superintendent of the work of removal, who was also present in the house, said that he had in no case seen anything wrong, either in the way the bodies were found or the way they were reburied. Back to CEMETERY INDEX Back to CEMETERY INDEX Back to BROOKLYN Page Main