River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-10-18
FORGOTTEN BURIAL PLACES
Clusters o" Graves in the Heart of
New York City-A Surprising Dis
nayarv


ger who had drowned himself in the
river, World reporter came upon Gu
rious spot. 1t was wide open space,
closed in on three sides by huge tene-
ments and on the fourth by primary
school No. 81 First street and stumbling
along a narrow hallway and hoil W
backyard, he was confronted suddenly
and rather swkwardly by an opening in
the rear fence. through which he fell
prone on his face while endeavoring to
gain an idea Of the locality and to atttact
the attention of q man in second-story
window in order 10 inquire for the per-
sons he was in search of. 1t was wide
leve! Enclosure many times larger than
an ordinary yard and rather like aschool
playground, devoid apparently of all
trace oil vegetation save a withered
willow tree in the further corner
and huge clothes post in the
center, whence numerous lines ran to
windows in the surrounding tenements.
The ground seemed Uttered with cart
| loads of rusty tin.pans deiunct tea ket-
| ties and old tomato cans, but from out
| of the desolation rose two gray shadows
| and something that in the uncertain
moonlight strongly resembled head
sto es in a grave enclosure.
Cautiously picking his way among the
| rubbish, the reporter ran his foot against
an obstacle that proved to be a marble
slab. Placed against the walls of the alb
| butting house, he was able to make out
others like it, some whole and others
| broken. There was no doubt the place
was an old graveyard.
Astounded at his discovery the re-
porter made circuit OF the ground,
| frightening away dozen or more black
cats that we're its only living occupants
| Two marble slabs still stood in their or
ignal places, marking forgotten graves,
and there were remnants here and
| there of old Enclosures. The wiring on
| nearly all of them was etiaced by time
and weather. The surfaces were rough to
the touch. only one being smooth and
seemingly perfect. By the aid OF a
lighted match the following inscription
was made out under two weeping viii
lows craven in the stone;
| As a small memento of sincere and de-
| voted affection this stone was placed here by
| MRS ELIZA FISHER.
| To mark the grave OF AZ at, ctonate husband
| JACOB FISHER.
Who departed tuIs ilie Oct. 20, 1887, aged
| 40 years months and day.
| Oh! shade below, the last memorial take;
| lis all, alas! thy weeping wife C N n.aks
On this trail stone to mark thy truth and
| worth
And claim the spot that holds thy sacred
| earth.
| Here the last match went out and the
reporter stood in darkness. Hardly forty
years had passed and no one now could
| pick out the spot where Fisher sleeps
| in that dung-heap, for it was hardly
ANYTHING else. The refuse from the sur
rounding houses, had been thrown up
on many of the old graves, until they
| were covered. A side-long gance at an
other stone showed the half-erased
name of Margaret w. Schaeier, 1890
That was all. tier story, if she had any,
was BLANK. The names of the others,
one and all, had disappeared.
Inquiry developed the fact that the
gray yard belonged to Methodists who
| built church two generations ago where
the school now stands. The ground had
been given to them by two brothers
II med Stillwell, and when the church
disappeared it remained where il may
never be disturbed for want of owners
to dispose of it. His interest havins
been strongly excited, the reporter
found number of like spots scatter {
through the city--old buryin2 grounds
the names and original owners of which
have been forgotten by the busy worlC
tina lives and moves around them. TX
sell or dispose of a graveyard does no
appear to be an easy matter. The It'll,
| each grave being vested IL its owner
or his heirs in fee simple, the scattering
or entire extinction of families inter
eres with the sale of the ground foI
other purposes. sometimes survivor;
are not willing to have the rest OF theil
dead disUur bed. Notably is this the case
with Hebrews, with whom itamounts tc
an article of faith. However sharply
Jew may trade with living men, he viii
not bargain about his fathers dust oi
Ills grave. Hence there are many ole
Jewish grave-yards in @dd places in New
York. The public alone, by right of EN-
inent domain, can acquire the rlght o
way through them.
The old burying ground in the New
Bowery, Just below Chatham squar e land
one in west Eleventh street, a hundred
feet or two east of Sixth avenue, are in
stances. Both In their day served AZ
srave yards for the Shearith Israel con
gregttion, the Oldest synagogue in the
United States, commonly called the Por.
/
teenth street, near Fifth avenue. After
their use was abandoned, streets were
cut through them, and the present mel
aucholy remains give no idea of their
original form and extent. The New
| Bowery cemetery was the occasion Of q
| prolonged lawsuit that ended in fixing
permanently the sepulchral character OF
the spot. 1t contains q number OF
graves that arouse the curiosity of trav-
elers on tie elevated railroad from Full
ton Ferry. There are Jewish burial
rounds also in west Twenty-tirst street,
Sixth avenue; in Eighty-seventh street,
between Madison and Fourth avenues,
and a small bit on Sixth avenue near
| Fiftieth street. A plot that covers hard
| ly single city lot at Fiftieth street and
Ninth avenue, and contains only one or
two head-stoncs, is said to be also of
| Hebrew ownership.
The utilitarian spirit of the age has
converted some of the grfveyards of old
New York, upon which business did not
iutrude from resting places for the dead,
into breathing spaces for the living. The
| potter's field was once where now is
| Washington square, and the old Quaker
| hurying-ground behind st. Augustine
| chapel in Houston street next the Bow
| ery, has been made into q handsome
| lawn that is God-send to the surround
| ing tenements. So is the Second avenue
art OF the Marble cemetery, which one
| approaches through a spiked iron gate
near Second street. Few have any idea
that the long lane between the two tall
| buildings leads to great burial ground,
quite shut out from sight by the houses
ON Second avenue and the Bowery. I'm
| like its handsome neighbor around
the corner on Second street, which most
people take to be all there is Of the Mar
lie cemetery, it has no fine monuments
but there are trees and shrubs. Huge
vaults vawn at every step.
The vault in st, Marks church yard in
Stuyvesant place that once held the
body of A. f. Stewart, the merchant
prince, is still minus its stolen tenant.
Behind Ne. 6i5 Broadway, whore lit
tie wooden door opens on narrow
lane, there is a vacant spot that once
was, but no longer is, burial ground.
John Jacob As,or began his long sleep
there. The bodies were removed ff-
teen wears ago and the vaults filled up.
and the ground became private proper
ty, but has never been built upon.-New
York World.