The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-04-21

How Graveyard Was Started In Cu s.er
City-A Frontier Funeral.

SChNh IN ThE HILLS.
How = Graveyard Was Started In Uus.e,
City-A Frontier Funeral.
Death demanded q sacrifice. A grave
} yard. had to be started in Custer. Nc
} one had volunteered to die, and no rnf.
fan had offered o sacrifice. Fate led
Charlie Holt and John Picket across the
plains from Sioux City, and hope and
} ambition induced them to drive their
stake" upon the southern slope in the
suburbs of Custer. Poor boys they
were not yet men, and their combined
fortune and earthly effects would not
reach five dollars in value. They Sc
lected town lot upon the side of a
grassy knoll, close to a small grove of
straight, tall pines, and being unable to
chop large logs or buy lumber with
which to construct habitation, dug a
cave. They call them "dug-outs here,
but a better name would be "dead-
FALLS" for they are little else. These
boys made their dead-fall eight feet
square, covered it with pine brush,
propped it up with eight small poles,
threw on several tons of earth, and went
to bed to dream of home, of mother, of
father, and of the fortune they, in their
boyish imaginations, had already carved
out of these golden realms. When
morning came yesterday morning,
March -, sad sight was revealed to
the young man who went to the dug-out
to borrow 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 fed in
horror from the fatal spot, calling loud
ly for help, which came from all direc-
tions, from fifty cabins in the gulch. A
dozen yeoman arms delved down and
tore away the cruel earth which had al
ready clasped and claimed one of these
boys as its own, and which had Rugged
and pressed in its icy embrace, for eight
long hours, the struggling survivor. The
story told by the mangled and mutilated
youth is a brief one. He told it to me
while gasping in agony and pain,
stretched upon couch of pine boughs
ON the hillside.
"We finished our 'dug-out yester-
day, and went down town to beg for
work or -four. We had eaten up our last
grub. Charlie-that's my partner
stayed at home to fix'up things and fin
ish digging out the chimney. L went to
the miners meeting at Swearenger's sa-
loon, and came home about 10 o'clock
and went to bed. When I woke up /
was buried, but 1 had one hand free,
with which I scratched away the dirt
and brush and got air. Then all was
dark again, and after awhile woke up.
1 could see the stars and the moon, and
l heard Charlie calling to me to help
him out. L tried to move, but the dirt
came tumbling in on my face, so quit
Then Charlie said, Johnny, am dy-
ing write to my mother / cried out,
Charlie, cart get out; God help you
We must die 7 then all got dark again.
That's all 1 know, sir, TIL just now. Is
Charlie dead 2"
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 on Custer street, and laid
out upon plank placed upon two logs.
Then came the inquest-frst held in
the Black Hills. 1t was a queer scene.
There stood the city marshal, tall,
rough, honest man, with bronzed brown
face and tear-stained eyes, pair of ma
vies on his hips, but gentle as lamb in
the face of death like this.
The Coroner, miner with grizzle
beard and hard grim hands, stood by
the body with DO k in his hand, two |
doctors just arrived that morning from |
Platte county, Missouri, looking more
like tramps than professionals, stood by |
awaiting. A reporter, Jewish clothing |
dealer, saloon keeper, lawyer, and |
two miners constituted the jury, which |
sat itself upon log, which insisted upon |
inquest was brief, the reporter organ
lied the jury, swore them in, elected |
the evidence, made the verdict, and |
founded the first official archive for the |
city. The verdict was accidental |
death from suffocation," that was all,
and material was ready with which to
start a graveyard in Custer. Then came |
humane hands and kind hearts and |
dressed the unfortunate stranger.
Charlie Fahey found white shirt, the |
only one in the city, sheet was con-
verted into a shroud, and Charlie Holt |
soon lay in rough pine box upon bier
of logs. This was not all, fire was
built in the corner of that black deserted |
cabin, the roof opened to allow the smoke
to escape, and then a half dozen noble
men sat and watched until daylight.
They were bound to start graveyard.
With the rising of the sun came Indies
yes, ladies. kind-hearted pioneers who
had woven a wreath of pine twigs, win
ter ivy, pine cones, and four little frag-
ments of white tarletan and pieces of the
black silk strings of Mrs. Drogmond's
bonnet. This wreath was laid reveren-
TALLY upon the implanted pine box ; it
was all these five noble-hearted women
could do, and they did it well. Butstill
the graveyard was not inaugurated.
Here was a corpse neatly shrouded,
wreathed, and ,coffined, and no grave
yard but site for city graveyard was
found-a natural cemetery already
planted with groves of trees, and laid
out by nature into bread, irregular av-
enues, all sodded and half green. Cas-
cades, ornamented with glittering icicles
lent their aid to the frosted evergreen
1 ~