Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-03-29
sIOKENING SCENES IN A CITY
CEMETERY,

6lUA6N1NQ CV1N00 IN q VAAA
CEMETERY.
HOW THE NEW ORLEANS PoTTER's
FIELD is CONDUCTED.
Extract from ths, Report Of Joseph Holt,
N. D., to the Louisiana Board Of 81
Health, for 1881
The Locust Grove Cemetery, or Pot
ters Field, is one square Of ground in
which are buried the pauper dead OF
the entire city, formerly located on
Sixth street, between Locust and Ere
ret streets. Having been used for
many years, the same graves were
made to receive the bodies of many
dead-as many as six occupying
single grave!
l, myself, making an inspection,
witnessed the burial Of corpse. The
grave was prepared by uncovering a
coffin, raking the bones together and
throwing them out, break up and pr11lz-
ing out the old coffin, and deposltlng
the new in the mould of the former.
When laid in its uncertain resting
place the lid of the box, like that OF
the one preceding, was two inches
below the surface Of the earth. 10
hide it, the earth formerly removed
was piled upon the coffin in mound
about two feet high. In this covering
I counted the skulls of three former
occupants, besides observing other
bones innumerable. So filled with
bones was the earth as to make the
use of the spade extremely difficult
Another coffin lid, warped by the sun,
displayed in hideous reality the body
of poor wretch who had died few
months before; the stencil was dis
gustingly perceptible. The whole
surface was strewn with ribs and
small bones, like pebbles upon the
hills. Here and there huge thigh
bones served as head and footboards
to the unknown dead. a
The citizens living in the city pre-
sented a petition to the City Council
March 18th, 1877, wherein they set
forth in the strongest terms the horrl--
bic facts relative to this graveyard
how that, in the summer season, the
stencil from human bodies pervaded
their homes; that whether eating OF
sleeping, they were ever in an atmos-
phere heavy with exhalations from
from the dead. They pictured the
disgusting sights presented and forced
upon. the gaze Of themselves and thei7
children.
They urged in this prayer the con
slant dread of the infee tious and pest
ilential diseases whose victims wer'
brought from all parts of the city AM
buried in their midst, hardly covered
from their gaze.
I Requested by these people, AM
! having made repeated inspections,
appended my official report, declarln
this graveyard an outrageous nuisanc
first, as a sanitary violation OF til
L most serious kind, not only prejudl
cial to the people of the immediat
neighborhood, but dangerous to til
entire city, inasmuch as the bodies {
: those who died Of infectious disease
were brought from one end OF the cit
}, to the other, through densely inhat
IS tied quarters, to be buried here. Th
7, fostering dead, in loosely-made co
: fins, and in open wagons, were brougl
J. from the smallpox hospital on Ely
ian Fields street, at the lower end
Is the city, oftentimes loathsome ma
a of flesh melted down by cOnflucl
e small pox, trundled along slow
J. through narrow streets crowded vii
,e unsuspecting citizens, the way throus
the middle Of the city almost it's el
N tire length.
1. A wagon load Of those dead
ID smallpox and other diseases we
A sometimes hauled to this place late
ID the evening or after night-fall, al
Or dumped for interment the next day
n Second, as a violation of the plal
rs est laws of humanity and INSTINCT
tn decency in the infection upon t
" helpless of such loathsome sights al
I'd disgusting smells.
70 The neighbors assured me that no
1g repeatedly made their way throu
b. the picketed fence, and even declar
v, to me that they had been known
il, root up the dead ont of their grave
at and to revel tn their carcasses t
on live-long night, filling themselves wi
he human flesh to fatten Oh it. Whetl
ed this statement be true or not, it "
H. certain that they were frequently
1r. this graveyard, and the collins SON
times not below the level OF the 81
N. face, were often made bare by
,rd rains.
IT. Adding danger to the disgust
IT. features of this picture, the boards
~ collins broken up, as described, W.
in constant demand to be used as Ii
,or wood for cooking and for the CT