Connecticut western news., 1876-04-21
STARTING A GRAVEYARD.
Tho First Inquest and Funeral in the Black Hills--A Trnveler's Story of Burial In the WlldeFueaa.

The First Inquest and Funeral in the Blac
 Hills--A Trnveler's Story of Burial In tn Wilderness,
 Death demanded sacrifice. A grave
 yard had to be started in Custer Oity
 No one had volunteered to die and n,
 ruffian had offered sacrifice. Fate le
 Charley Holt and John Picket across tn
 plains from Sioux City, and hope an,
 ambition led them to "drive thei
 stake" upon the southern slope in tn
 suburbs of Custer. Poor boys the,
 were not yet men, and their combined
 fortune and earthly effects would no
 reach $5 in value. They selected tow
 lot upon a grassy knoll, close to smal
 grove of straig ht, tall pines, and being
 unable to chop large logs or buy lumbe
 with which to construct habitation
 dug O cave. These boys made thei
 deadfall eight feet square, covered i
 with pine brush, propped this up witt
 eight srnan poles, threw on several tom
 of earth, and went to bed to dream oi
 home, of mother, of father and of the
 fortune they, in their boyish imagina
 tions, had already carved out of these golden realms. When morning came (
 sad sight was revealed to the young mar
 who went to the dugout to borrow 6
 shovel. The angel of death had been
 there in the night and had buried the
 sleeping boys alive. A faint, piteous
 voice beneath this living grave broke
 the icy stiffness of the frosty morning,
 crying out: "In Gods name, pull me
 out! I am dying" The boy who had
 come to borrow shovel fled in horror
 from the fatal spot, calling loudly for
 help, which came from all directions, from fifty cabins in the gulch. A dozen yeoman arms delved down and tore away the cruel earth which had already clasped and claimed one oR these boys as it's own, and which had hugged and pressed in it's icy embrace, for eight long hours, the struggling survivor. The story told by the mangled and mu- tilated youth is brief one. He told it to me while gasping in agony and pain, stretched upon couch of pine boughs on the hill side.
 "We finished our dug out, and went down town to beg for work or flour. We had eaten up our last grub. Charlie-that's my pardner-stayed at home to fix up things and finish digging out the chimney. went to the miners meeting at Swearenger's saloon, and came home about ten o'clock, and went to bed. When woke up I was buried, but I had one hand free, with which | scratched away the dirt and brush and got air. Then all was dark again, and after awhile I woke up. I could see the stars and the moon, and heard Charlie calling for me to help him. I tried to move, but the dirt came tumbling in on T mn3be3 SShany oa1ed s% ddydng write de.,i sG my can't get out God help you we must die ' then all got dark again. That's all know, sir, till just now. Is Charlie dead2"
 Yes, Charlie was dead His crushed and mangled body was dragged out of the debris few minutes afterward, and borne down the hillside to deserted soldiers cabin, and laid out upon a plank placed upon two logs.
 Then came the inquest-frst held in the Black Hills. It was a queer scene. There stood the city marshal, a tall, rough, honest man, with bronzed brown face and tear stained eyes, a pair of navies on his hils, but gentle as lamb in the face of death like this.
 The coroner, miner with grizzled beard and hard, grimy hands, stood by the body with book in his hand. Two doctors, just arrived that morning from Platte county, Mo-, looking more like tramps than professionals, stood by. A reporter, 8 clothing dealer, saloon keeper, lawyer and two miners consti- tuted the jury, which sat itself upon log which insisted upon rolling over every two minutes. The inquest was brief, the reporter organized the jury, ,wore them in, eicited the evidence, made the verdict, and founded the first official archivs for the city. The yer lict was accidental death from suffoc.- tion :" that was all, and material was ready to start a graveyard in Custer.
 Then came humane hands and kind | hearts and dressed the unfortunate | stranger. One of the miners found a | white shirt, the only one in the city, a | sheet was con verted into shroud, and | Charley Holt soon lay in rough pine oox upon bier of logs. This was not | III, a fire was l.lilt in the corner of that black, deserted cabin, the roof opened o allow the smoke to escape, and then ! half dozen noble men sat and watched lntil daylight. They were bound to tart graveyard. With the rising of he sun came ladies-yes, ladies; kind hearted pioneers who had woven & wreath of pine twigs, winter ivy, pine 'ones and four little fragments of white arlatan and pieces of the black silk strings of bonnet. This wreath wns aid reveren ,ially upon the unpainted pine box; it was all these five noble learted women could do, and they did t well. But still the graveyard was not Here was corpse neatly hrouded, wreathed and coffined, and no but site for a city grave 'ard was found-a natural cemetery al- 'eady planted with groves of trees, and aid out by nature into broad, irregular venues, all sodded and half green. Gas ades, orr amented with glitteripg icicles, ent their aid to the frosted evergreen oliage and snow white grotto of quartz o beautify the newly selected site for he city of the dead.
 A half dozen brawny athletes, with 'ick and shovel, tore open the virgin oil, and made the grave. They were generous sextons, these amateurs, and unk hole like unto mining shaft. It vas at least twelve feet long-this grave or the half-grown boy. But the trouble vas only half over. There is no preach r in Custer, and a two hours canvass # the city failed to find a professor of eligion among three hundred people. Worse than that, a close search failed o find prayer book. The mayor, hon. 'st man, appealed to one of the two awyers in the city to say few words t the grave, to be Christian-like," but uch pleading YVES not in his line; so he three doctors were applied to, but with like success. Theu came a coln- nittee of judge, mayor and marshal to he reporter. Surely d "paper man new something about funerals; and, aid the mayor, "wa want to put the 'oor lad away a kind O Christian like; lot like dog" Besides, a prayeyard