Graves Only Two Feet Deep.

New York, 1895

The town trustees of Flushing, who have been inquiring into the condition of the town cemetery have at last decided to put John Turner in charge. Mr. Turner was before the board and swore that he saw two dogs scampering about the cemetery. He watched them for a while and they commenced to dig. He saw them uncover a coffin, the lid of which had been broken, and eat the remains of a man who had been buried.

The coffin, Turner said, was only a few inches below the ground. Turner swore that he saw graves dug only two feet deep.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, July 5, 1895, p. 1.

Grave Yards Not Wanted

New York, 1895

Respecting Farmer John O'Donnell's suggestion that the Long Island railroad company establish cemeteries in the "wild lands" of Suffolk county, the Greenport Watchman has this to say:

"Thanks; the 'wild lands' of Suffolk invite settlement and would welcome colonies, but not by any underground route. Two plantations of live lunatics are enough for the present; moreover the Long Island railroad makes more than sufficient money out of Suffolk county residents in the flesh without picking the bones of the dead. Really we hope our philanthropic neighbors over the border will not insist on forcing their benevolence upon us in this sort of collateral inheritance style."

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.

New Receiving Tomb (advertisement)

New York, 1895

The plot owners of the new Cedar Grove cemetery at Flushing are to be congratulated on the beauty of the new receiving tomb, recently finished at a cost of many thousands of dollars. It is said to be the handsomest structure of its kind on the island. Graded payments and very reasonable prices for plots are also features that the public should note.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, p. 2.

Hangs Self at Wife's Grave

1916

Man Who Mourned Four Years Commits Suicide.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Four years ago Michael Streb, 76, knelt beside the body of his wife and prayed — prayed that he might join her in death. Patiently, he waited for the grim answer to his prayer.

Wednesday the caretaker of Northwood Cemetery passed a little grave in a remote corner. At its head was a birch tree and dangling from a limb was the limp body of a white-haired man. The headstone of the grave bore the inscription, "My Wife." When morgue officials searched the pockets of the dead man they found nothing but a wedding ring inscribed "Rachael Streb."

Death had been too tardy and Michael Streb had gone along the road to meet it — at the grave of his wife.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

The True Poker Flat

1901

In 1852 Poker Flat produced $700,000 in gold bullion in a single month and celebrated the event with a triple hanging. Then came the public spasm of virtue which caused the John Oakhursts and the "outcasts of Poker Flat" to depart from thence and die of cold and starvation on the snow bound road to Sandy Bar. There are no "Oakhursts" nor "Uncle Billys" in Poker Flat today, and when the stranger makes the slow descent and suddenly by a sharp turn in the trail comes upon the famous camp he finds in that huddle of cabins little to remind him of the Poker Flat of 1852.

The famous slope presents almost a picture of utter ruin. There are but eight persons living in the old town, while a hundred dead ones sleep in the cemetery. Some of the graves are marked with wooden headboards, some with stakes, but many have nothing above them. Nearly all of them were laid to rest without religious rites save a Bible reading by old Charlie Pond, who, though a professional gambler, was selected for the religious office owing to his excellent voice and oratorical ability.

In 1853 and 1854 there were 2,000 souls in Poker Flat and 15 stores, 5 hotels. 3 dance halls and 7 gambling houses. There is but one man left today of that original company. He is an old and grizzled veteran, who delights to tell how in 1856 a circus came to town and sold 1,500 tickets of admission at $20 each. — W. M. Clemens in Bookman.

A.E.F. Slain Soon To Be Taken Home

1920

Board To Remove Bodies Arrives In England

All Dead That Can Be Moved Are to Be Sent Back When France Permits

LONDON, England, Jan. 1. — Extensive plans for the wholesale removal of the bodies of America's war dead to the United States will be put into operation in England and France this week.

Fifty-one members of the graves registration service arrived at Southampton on board the Martha Washington. Some members of the expedition will remain in England to supervise the work of removing the bodies of Americans who died in England, while the others will proceed to France, where they will start similar operations.

26,096 Buried in Great Britain

According to the statement of Major Whipps, mortuary officer with the American forces in Great Britain, 26,096 American soldiers were buried in Ireland, Scotland and England. The bodies of only two members of the American Navy still remain buried in English soil. The others were transported home shortly after the armistice. In France there still are 600 Naval dead, whose bodies will be taken home as soon as technical objections can be overcome.

According to American Naval officers in London, France finally has granted permission to the United States to remove both the dead sailors and soldiers.

Heretofore only in exceptional cases have the bodies of soldiers been sent back to the United States. A recent Army order, however, is said to contain instructions to the effect that all bodies not buried in the actual war zone are to be prepared for shipment to America.

The organization, composed partly of Army officials and partly of civilians, which will superintend the removal of the bodies, will be divided into three sections. One section will be stationed in England, a second section in France, and the third will be assigned the work of gathering the bodies buried in Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Some to Be Left Behind

It is not regarded as possible or desirable to send home all the bodies. Those that are left in Europe will, however, be gathered into one cemetery. The Argonne Cemetery, located at Romagne-sur-Montfaucon, in the heart of the region where the A. E. F. made its biggest fight, has been suggested as the site of the permanent A. E. F. Cemetery. There are 21,000 Americans interred there now.

The hardest work will be in removing the bodies of the war-swept areas, it is expected. Identification will be exceedingly difficult in many cases where large numbers of men were buried close to the battlefield.

The cost of the removal of bodies to America will be approximately $1,000 each. Owing to the shortage of railroad equipment in France, Army auto trucks will be used to carry the bodies from their present locations to the ships at Brest.

Had Corner in Graves

1905

The Melbourne Women's hospital discovered lately that a local undertakers' ring had bought up nearly all the vacant plots in the general cemetery, and, having put up its prices for funerals at another cemetery, which has only been opened a short time. In order to divert trade to its own ground, it was retailing its corner in graves at a handsome profit.


A Grimly Suggestive Group

The minister and the doctor were riding down town in a Lexington avenue car, and had arrived at Madison square when their friend the undertaker joined them.

After riding with him two blocks the minister and doctor put the undertaker off the car, saying their appearance in trio looked too suggestive and would cause talk among their friends.


Dachshund Found His Mistress

Three years ago Mrs. A. M. McKee of Plainfield, N. J., made a visit at Glens Falls, N. Y., and on her return left her dog, a dachshund, with her Glens Falls friends. The other day the dog appeared at the old home in Plainfield and finding that his mistress had moved, searched the city until he located her present residence.


Freak of Nature in Kentucky

A peculiar freak of nature has shown up in the bluegrass. Wells that have been dry for weeks, springs that have long since ceased to flow, have burst forth, and some of the small creeks that were dry as a powder keg are now living, running streams — all this without rain. — Grayson Bugle-Herald.

Boys Play Skittles With Skulls

1905

Numerous bones and skulls hare been recently dug up near the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, and boys of the locality are playing skittles with them.

This will soon be stopped, as the human debris is to be carefully collected by the workmen who are excavating in the district.

The skulls and bones come from the old graveyard of the Abbey of St. Martin-des-Champs, which existed where the Commercial Conservatoire now stands. There was also another cemetery, that of St. Nicolas, in the same district, and it was built over in the eighteenth century. — Paris correspondence, London Telegraph.


Japanese Live By Rule

Their Diet and Habits Regulated Strictly Through a Thousand Years

An army officer, discussing recently with friends the surprising immunity from sickness of the Japanese troops as manifested in the present war, said that, while the first cause was doubtless the diet prescribed, the real reason was to be found in the way the dietary is adhered to.

The Anglo-Saxon fighting man might be told what to eat and what to eschew, but centuries of personal liberty in eating and drinking and the ordering of his daily regimen to suit himself had given him a certain independence. With the gallant little yellow man, however, the adherence to the instructions they receive on such matters was slave-like.

Their minutest personal actions had been regulated through a thousand years of feudal strife and dependence, which, taken with their peculiar temperament, had made them submissive to a degree unknown among the freer races, or races which, if not freer, had freer institutions, in which minute details of life were not so closely regulated.

A Glass Tombstone

1896

A glass tombstone; that is certainly something unique. Such a grave marker stands in but one place in the United States, and that is the cemetery overlooking the city of Kittanning, Pennsylvania. It has but recently been set up there, over the grave of Mrs. Elizabeth Pepper, of Ford City, by her son, Matthias Pepper.

Not one of the piles of marble and granite attracts so much attention as the piece of polished glass, with clear inscription, which stands on a gentle slope falling slowly from the hilltop.

Matthias Pepper, who had the glass set up, is assistant superintendent at the Ford City factory. The piece used as a grave memorial is a part of a large plate which was made of unusual thickness for the construction of circular panes to cover the portholes of ocean steamships. The practical indestructibility of glass was its quality which suggested to Mr. Pepper its use in the cemetery.

Marble and granite seem to many to be almost eternal in their hardness, but they are far from it, and not at all to be compared with glass. Wind and rain, heat and cold have their effects on stone of any kind, and finally wear away the hardest granite and cause it to crumble. Go into any old graveyard, where stones were erected more than one hundred years ago, and it will be found to be the exception where all the lettering on the monuments can be made out. The stone has crumbled and the outline has been obliterated. No such effect is produced by the weather on glass.

The Pepper monument is of plate glass one inch thick, a foot and a half wide and four feet high. It stands in a mortise cut into a cube of sandstone. The top of the glass is arched. The lettering on it is made by the "sand blast" process, and is distinct. The monument bears this inscription:

In memory of Elizabeth Pepper, of Ford City. Died February 4, 1892. Aged seventy-seven years.
Also William Pepper, husband of the above. Died ——. Aged ——.

From this inscription it may be inferred truly that William Pepper is still living.

This new use for plate glass is likely to become extended, for it has many things to recommend it. The transparency and purity of the material are suggestive and appropriate. It is easily and quickly etched, its cost is not great, and in durability it surpasses any other available material. — Pittsburg Dispatch.

A Fatal Accident — Irvin Pottorff

Leon, Iowa area, no date, possibly before 1918

Irvin Pottorff Is Thrown From a Horse and Fatally Injured.

Irvin Pottorff, the 12-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. William S. Pottorff, who reside about three miles northwest of Leon, was thrown from his horse Wednesday afternoon of last week and sustained injuries from the effects of which he died Friday morning at 1 o'clock. On Wednesday afternoon about 4 o'clock two boys, Irvin and Willie Rumley, mounted horses and rode into a pasture to drive the cows home for the evening milking. One of the horses stumbled and fell, throwing Irvin on a stump so as to strike his left side and back. The unconscious boy was taken home as soon as assistance could be secured. Dr. Layton was summoned and on examination he discovered that two of the boy's ribs were broken, one of them having penetrated the left lung. This brought on a severe attack of pneumonia which resulted in death early Friday morning.

Mr. and Mrs. Pottorff have four children and Irvin was their only son. He was not only very industrious but an intelligent and promising boy, the pride of the household. They have the sympathy of the entire communion in their sad affliction. The funeral was held Sunday morning at 10 o'clock and interment occurred in the S[*] cemetery.

*Note: There's a tiny piece missing right here. It starts with "S" and can't contain more than two to four letters. Since there doesn't appear to be any cemetery near Leon that has a brief name like that, it might be a direction, like SW or SE.

Should Mothers of War-Dead Be Sent To France?

1920

A Suggestion

Why shouldn't the Government give the next of kin — or mothers, at least — of American boys buried in France, asks the Stars and Stripes, a soldier's newspaper, the alternative of having the bodies returned or of visiting the graves?

The Government has pledged itself to bring back all bodies asked for by the next of kin. It will cost no more — probably less — to take a mother to France than to return the body of her son.

Many mothers are not so anxious to have the bodies returned as they are to have some visual evidence that their sons are buried in proper surroundings. In recognition of this desire the Red Cross has taken pictures of graves, to be sent to the mothers.

Wouldn't it be a graceful and grateful act on the part of the Government, for whom these mothers have made the supreme sacrifice of womanhood, to take them to the spot where their boys are sleeping beneath the little white crosses?


None Too Much

Down in Connecticut, says the Boston Post, the courts seem determined to do what they can to end the pernicious activities of the automobile thieves who flourish there as everywhere else. As earnest of this intent, one Walters, the recognized leader of a gang of accomplished snatchers of motor cars who have stolen $30,000 worth of the machines within a short time, was given a sentence of twenty-three years and nine months in prison. An accomplice drew fourteen years. The first mentioned is said to be a record sentence in Connecticut for this particular offense.

It is a record that should be emulated by other courts.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Feb. 28, 1920, p. 6.

Mortuary Lore: Curious Epitaphs

1900

Clockmaker Expresses Hopes in Hereafter

Collecting epitaphs is not a particularly cheerful sort of hobby, but a well-known Philadelphia business man has acquired the grewsome fad, and is now thoroughly saturated with all sorts of mortuary lore.

Curious epitaphs find their way into print from time to time, many of which bear small traces of authenticity, and these are eagerly sought after by the collector in question, who inserts them in a book which he keeps for that purpose. His great pride, however, is in the inscriptions which he has seen with his own eyes, and copied from tombstones which have come under his own observation. He has traveled extensively, and it doesn't make any difference where he is, whether in an old English cathedral town or a "boom" city of the far west, his first question is, "Where is your most interesting burying-ground?"

While in England last summer he came across a couple of rather curious epitaphs in the old churchyard at Balsover, in Derbyshire. One read as follows: "Here lies in a horizontal position the outside case of Thomas Hindle, clock and watchmaker, who departed this life wound up in hope of being taken in hand by his Maker, and being thoroughly cleaned, repaired and set a-going in the world to come, on the 15th of August, 1836, in the nineteenth year of his age."

The following, from the same churchyard, is a curious instance of economy such as one seldom encounters — that of a man being buried in the same grave with his three wives, and with but one stone to mark their final and collective resting place. Following is the inscription: "Sacred to the memory of Margaret Armstrong, wife of William Armstrong of Balsover Moor, who departed this life Aug. 2, 1835, aged 33 years. Also William Armstrong, who died Dec. 10, 1862, aged 67 years. Also Ann, second wife of the above, who died Feb. 21, 1838, aged 28 years. Also Charlotte, third wife of the above, who died June 4, 1864, aged 42." — Philadelphia Record.

A Pet Cemetery

1908

Where Pet Dogs and Cats Are Buried In State

New York. — In a picturesque little spot situated on one of the most beautiful of the Hartsdale hills lies one of the oddest of cemeteries. The casual visitor here, inspecting the inscriptions on the tombstones, would expect to see records of long forgotten generations, perhaps the history of the village in the lives of its citizens, but instead the stones contained nothing but inscriptions to dogs, with an occasional cat epitaph here and there.

"Fido, asleep," "Our beloved fox terrier, Flossie," "Dedicated to the memory of our pet cat, Smutty." Such a jumble of inscriptions meet the eye that the visitor begins to wonder whether the souls of Fido and Smutty now rest peacefully side by side or whether they arise at the witching hour to fight out once more their lifelong battle. In that case even the back fences of Harlem would be preferable to the rural peace of Hartsdale.

This cemetery, moreover, contains French dogs and French inscriptions and German dogs. And just as human tombstones have little angels on them so these dog tombstones have little puppies carved on them playing with toys. Next to one of the graves the owner has erected a big rustic mourner's bench so that he may grieve for his pet in comfort.

The most elaborate grave is that of a bulldog that once belonged to a family named Willson. Besides having a big granite stone at the head, it has two little bay trees on either side, and at the foot is a little marble trough with three little marble canaries drinking out of it. The canaries would be more easily explained if it were a cat grave, but perhaps this particular bullpup had feline predilections.

For six months after he was buried tali dog had fresh violets or roses placed upon his grave every day, it is chronicled. The burial cost the bulldog's owner over $500.

The grave digger of the cemetery also tells of dogs buried in rosewood or mahogany coffins, some with gold handles, and gold, jewel-studded collars around their necks.

"You have no idea," he will wander on, "how much money some undertakers make on the side in these dog coffins. Often the coffins are lined with plush or velvet and cost large sums of money.

"And then some people insist on having their dogs embalmed before they are willing to bury them. Of course the undertakers keep that part of their business very secret, but they do it just the same."

Many of the dogs that were prize winners in their lively days have all their trophies, ribbons, silver mugs and such things buried with them. Others have all their old collars, whips and playthings, and one woman actually buried a Bible and rosary with a dog.

"Of course I know it must seem very silly," she said in explanation, "but it just makes me feel better, so why shouldn't I do it?"

"And do they have real funerals for dogs, with services and so on?" asked the seeker of information of the digger of graves.

"Well, no; no real services," he explained, "though some of them would like to, I guess, by the way they act.

"Sometimes they bring the body up from New York in an automobile, sometimes they ship it up as freight and meet it at the railway station with carriages. Only family and friends, you know. There are never very many of them.

"But the way those people act when it comes to covering up the box is — well — just about the limit. And the men are not much better than the women, either. I've got a pretty interesting job, I can tell you.

"And most of them come up regularly and see to it that I'm keeping the grave in OK condition. And on the day of the dog's death they usually decorate the grave with flowers. I can tell you I wouldn't mind being some dogs."

There are now 450 dogs and about 20 cats buried in the cemetery. Plots cost from $15 to $25 each, including a zinc lined box which is hermetically sealed for shipping. This, however, is only the minimum expense for a dog funeral, and from this point the price goes up far into the hundreds.

Memorial to Henry Clay Twice Struck by Lightning

1910

At Lexington, Kentucky, Shattered by Electric Bolts

Lexington, Ky. — It is a singular coincidence that lightning twice in succession has destroyed the statue erected in the cemetery here to the memory of Henry Clay. Years ago the people of Kentucky, proud of the greatness of Henry Clay and his distinguished public services, erected a handsome memorial to him in the cemetery where his ashes repose. In 1903 lightning shattered the statue crowning this memorial and steps were soon taken to repair the statue. A new one was placed in position the past summer. Before it could be dedicated lightning again destroyed it.

This elemental action seems typical of the life of Clay himself. He was one of the commanding figures of his time, distinguished as a statesman, orator and diplomat and greatly admired by millions of Americans. His one great ambition was to be president of the United States, but his prospects, even when most promising, were always shattered, just like the statue on the top of the imposing shaft, which a grateful state has erected in his memory.


Boastful Men

Men are inclined to boast, yet, according to statistics, three out of four are buried at somebody else's expense.


Heroes

Hero worship cannot be eradicated from humanity. It is well that it is so. It is a splendid thing to have heroes in history as definable ideals. It is a great thing to have also some living heroes as great ideals of our dally lives. But, above all, it is supremely important for us to keep before our minds the divine Master as a perpetual ideal. Looking up to him we grow toward God. — Rev. Oliver Huckel, Congregationalist, Baltimore.

They're Not Dead, But Living

1914

On Memorial Day

There is no death. There are no dead. In every town in America they are garlanding graves; lilacs from the tree beside mother's door, peonies from a great red mound which has been the pride of the place for years, snowballs and syringa from shrubs which father planted when the place was new.

But beneath the friendly grasses under the low mound marked with some dear name, there lies not one dead hero. Here is laid the dust fallen from his garments, here perchance may still be found a keepsake not yet indistinguishable. For all the years that we have mourned this brave spirit, he has lived only a little way apart in a planet to us invisible, alert, progressing, rejoicing in a plan universal, and at peace and in harmony with the law of love eternal. — Exchange.


Remember Lincoln's Message

That man honors the memory of the dead on Memorial day who, in Lincoln's words, dedicates himself "to the unfinished work" which must be done before this nation shall be worthy of its opportunities, and of the devotion of those who gladly died for it.

Declares His Wife's Body Vanished, Man Sues Cemetery

1920

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The alleged disappearance of a woman's body from the receiving vault of Calvary cemetery during the influenza epidemic in 1918 was the basis of a suit for $100,000 damages filed against the trustees who control the cemetery.

The suit is brought by Gaetano Ripatranzone, whose wife, Annie, died Oct. 12, 1918. Frank J. Rinaldi, his attorney, said the body was placed in the receiving vault of the cemetery, and the family was to be notified when a grave was ready. When no word was received, the attorney said the husband investigated and learned his wife's body had been lost or had disappeared.

John G. Agar, vice president of the board of trustees, was served with the summons. He said the cemetery officials claimed every body had been accounted for and any trouble should be between the family and the undertaker.

The Rev. William J. Stewart, who was managing director of the cemetery at the time specified, produced a letter which Supt. J. J. Cunningham of the cemetery sent him, saying Ruggiero Trepani & Co., undertakers, had brought a body described as that of "Anna Ripatranzone, 37 years," to the cemetery, and it was placed on the floor. He explained that bodies were coming faster than graves could be opened, and the receiving vault became filled, so arrivals were placed on the floor and a record of their location kept.

"The orders of the health department to place all bodies in temporary graves within a given time," he wrote, "tended to increase the work of identification."

It is said that when the department of health ordered the immediate temporary burial of all bodies they were placed in three trenches 16 feet wide, 330 feet long and 4 feet deep. They were tabulated, and later were interred in their proper grave holdings, except the body of one woman. It is said 14,000 bodies were received during four months of the epidemic.

Note: The last name of the man and his wife is spelled two different ways in the article. "Ripatranzone" is the first instance, "Repatrazone" is how she's referred to. I changed it, somewhat arbitrarily, based on the number of Google hits for each.

Bones of a Dog Found in "Bomb"

1920

Senders Now Plead They Are Only Two Boy Jokers

OAKLAND, Cal., Feb. 26. — A supposed bomb sent as a joke by two small boys to L. J. Lamb caused the recipient considerable uneasiness until the package was opened and found to contain the bones of a dog.

When Lamb received the package he noted a suspicious piece of rope hanging out. He summoned Police Inspectors Wallman and Flynn, who gingerly opened the parcel and found the bones of a dog with the following note:

"Dear Sir: We hate to inform you that the bones of your ancestors have to be taken from the grave where they have been buried for the last 400 years. The dues that are to be paid every hundred years are forty years overdue. Seeing that there has been no payment on the space for forty years, we are sending them to you, knowing that we could not get in connection with any other member of your family. You may expect them soon. — Manager Brooke, Lender Glen cemetery, London, England."

The inspectors traced the package to two 13-year-old boys, Lester Burpes and Neal Daniel, who declared they sent the parcel as a joke.

"Peeper" Is Suspected As Grave Robber

New York, 1928

Cordon of State Police Thrown Around Baldwinsville

Start Night Vigil

Ghoul Mutilates Body After Opening Casket

State troopers and deputy sheriffs seeking the ghoul who entered the grave of Mrs. Cora O'Brien, 51, and mutilated her body, Saturday night prepared to keep vigil in Baldwinsville for a "peeper," who is believed be the grave robber.

This "peeper," according to Sergt. M. F. Dillon of the State police who is directing the search, has been seen for five consecutive nights in Baldwinsville peering into the windows of homes and loitering about the cemeteries.

The information was withheld from the officials until Saturday afternoon.

"People wouldn't talk until they realized how serious a thing this was," Sergeant Dillon explained. "Then they came forward with plenty of information. Now we have a real lead to work on."

The State police officer added that medical authorities had told him that a man with the form of insanity which would cause him to enter a grave and mutilate a body would, in all probability, be given to peering into houses. This form of insanity, the medical authorities stated, causes the victim to return to the scene of his crime.

Therefore, the vigil Saturday night was based upon scientific knowledge. It began with a special detail of troopers stationed in the cemetery and about every home where the "peeper" has left tracks.

Sergeant Dillon, who had not been in bed since the empty grave was discovered Friday morning, took active charge and prepared to remain on duty all night.

The troopers were assisted by Deputy Sheriffs Edward Hoffmire and John Carey and Chief of Police Edward McCarty, the latter chief of the Baldwinsville police force.

The vigil began with Sergeant Dillon confident the "peeper" would be captured, and that he would prove to be the grave robber.

With the preliminary investigation completed, the full horror of the crime was made apparent. The vandal passed at least three hours in the Riverside Cemetery, which is located on the banks of the Seneca River.

After opening the grave until the casket was revealed, he pushed open and dragged the body to the grass near the grave.

Then, according to the manner in which Sergeant Dillon reconstructed the crime, he dragged the body by the hair for more than 100 feet. This was proved by bruises on the body.

One hundred feet from the grave, probably using a flashlight, he mutilated the body in a horrible manner. He left behind him his rubbers, his overalls and a shovel.

The rays of a flashlight, believed to have been held by the vandal, were seen in St. Marys Cemetery in Baldwinsville several nights before the grave of Mrs. O'Brien was opened. The same night the "peeper" was active in the village.

—Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, April 15, 1928, p. 1, second section.

A Sure Protection Against Body Snatchers

Advertisement, 1879

MOOERS' Metallic Coffin Shields.

A Sure Protection Against Body Snatchers.

The above cut represents Mooer's Metallic Coffin Shield. It is made of heavy sheet iron and is of such shape and size to completely inclose the coffin. A flange projects around the lower edge by means of which it can be securely fastened to the base upon which the coffin rests and thus prevent the removal of the corpse. Manufactured and for sale by A. H. Mooers, North Ridgeville; also for sale by Suearer & Waldeck, undertakers, Elyria, O.

—The Elyria Constitution, Elyria, Ohio, June 20, 1878, p. 2.

Decatur Doctor Caught Digging Up Negro Cadaver

Illinois, 1879

BODY SNATCHING.

A Decatur Doctor After a Negro Cadaver

His Operations Brought to a Sudden Conclusion.

The Decaturites are all worked up over a body snatching affair that occurred last Friday night. A prominent Decatur physician is implicated in the affair, and if he shows up the Decatur folks promise him an anti-cordial reception.

It seems that the above mentioned physician wanted to increase his knowledge of the human frame, and with this end in view he climbed the fence of a Decatur graveyard, having in his possession those necessary grave-robbing instruments, a pick and shovel. Strange to say this son of Esculapius seems to have a horror for the Caucasians. The reason of this is not known, but it is thought that Caucasian "stiffs" do not "pan out" as well as those of other races, therefore he concluded to get a "subject" of the African persuasion.

Having arrived at this conclusion he wended his way toward the "last resting place" of a recently "planted" negro. As soon as the grave was reached he unslung his pick and immediately began to delve into the newly made grave. He worked away with a will, and he was just stooping to raise the lid of the coffin when the deep stillness of the night was broken by the loud report of what seemed to him about seventeen cannons. The bullets flew past his cranium and buried themselves in the earth a few feet beyond him. The perspiration started in great beads to his forehead, and dropping his pick and shovel he precipitately fled. Scaling the graveyard fence, he took a short cut for his stable. Arriving there he immediately hitched his horse to a buggy, and in less time than it takes to "blow up a safe" he was driving across the country at a "Sleepy Tom" gait, and no tidings of his whereabouts have been received up to this writing.

The names of all parties are reserved, as it is thought that there will be further developments made.

—Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 19, 1879, p. 4.