The Northern Pacific farmer., 1883-10-18
FORGOTTEN BURIAL PLACES

FORGOTTEN BURIAL PLACES
Clusters o~ Graves In the Heart Of
New York Oity-A Surprising Dis
covery. . -
While roaming among the swarming
eastside tenements one night last week,
seeking to ferret out the story of q stran-
ger who had drowned himself in the
river, World reporter came upon a Gu
rious spot. 1t was wide open space,
closed in on three sides by huge tepe-
ments and on the fourth by primary
school No. "a First street and stumbling
along a narrow hallway and a holl':w
backyard, he was confronted suddenly
and rather awkwardly 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 a man in second-story
window in order to inQuire for the per-
sons he was in search Of It was wide
leve! jnclosure many times larger than
an ordinary yard and rather like aschool
playground, devoid apparently of all
trace OF vegetation save a withered
willow tree in the further corner
and a 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 grave enclosure.
Cautiously picking his way among the
rubish, the reporter ran his foot against
an obstacle that proved to be marble
slab. Placed against the walls Of the ab
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 ere 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 writing 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 small memento of sincere and de-
| voted affection this stone was placed here by
MRS, ELIZA FISHER.
| TO mark the grave OF II, att' ctlOuate husband
JACOB FISHER.
| Who departed ttlls Ilte oct. 20, 1887, aged
40 years months and day.
Oh! shade below, the last memorial take:
lis all, alas! thy weeping wife IN make
On this frail 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
rounding houses, had been thrown up.
on many of the old graves, until they
were covered. A side-long glance at an
other stone showed the half-eraseG
name of Margaret W. Schaefer, 1880
That was all. Her story, if she had any
WAS blank. The names of the others
one and all, had disappeared.
Inquiry developed the fact that the
graveyard belonged to Methodists wht
built church two ago where
the school now stands. The ground ha(
been given to them by two brOther'
named Stillwell, and when the church
disappeared it remained where it may
never be disturbed for want of owner
to dispose Of it. His interest having
been strongly excited, the reporte
found number of like spots scatters(
through the city--old buryiny grounds
the names and original owners of which
have been forgotten by the busy worlt
tina, lives and moves around them. II
sell oe dispose of a graveyard does no
appear to be an easy matter. The it'll
feach grave being vested in its owner
or his heirs in fee simple, the scattering
or entire extinction of families inter
eres with the sale of the ground 70
other purposes. Sometimes survivor
are not willing to have the rest Of thei
dead disturbed. Notably is this the cas-
an article of faith. However sharply
Jew may trade with living men, he viii
not bargain about his fathers dust O
is grave. Hence there are many oil,
Jewish grave-yards in odd places in Ne,
York. The public alone, by right of EN-
inent domain, can acquire the right {
way through them.
The old burying ground in the Ne,
} Bowery, just below Chatham squa' e IAN
5 me in west Eleventh street. hundre
: eet or two east of Sixth avenue, are in
? stances. Both IN their day served q
rave yards for the Shearith Israel con
} zreg Ation, the oldest synagogue in tn
United States, commonly called the Por
uguese synagogue, now located in Nine
1eenth street, near Fifth avenue. Afte
their use was abandoned, streets wer
tut through them, and the present mel
ancholy remains give no idea of thei
original form and extent. The Ne1
Bowery cemetery was the occasion of
prolonged lawsuit that ended in fxin
permanently the sepulchral character O
he spot. It contains a number o
graves that arouse the curiosity of trav
alers on the elevated railroad from Full
ION Ferry. There are Jewish buria
rounds also in west Twenty-frst stree,
Sixth avenue; in Eighty-seventh street
'etween Madison and Fourth avenues
and small bit on Sixth avenue nea
riftieth street. A plot that covers hard
lv single city lot at Fiftieth street an
Ninth avenue, and contains only one o
TWO head-ston 8, is said to be also O
Hebrew ownership.
The utilitarian spirit of the age ha
converted some of the gr4veyards of oil
New York. upon which business did nc
i:trude from resting places for the dead
into breathing spaces for the living. Th
potter's field was once where now
Washington square, and the old Quake
'urying- ground behind St. Augustin
chapel in Houston street next the Bow
Try, has been made into handsom
lawn that is God send to the surround
ing tenements. So is the Second avenu
art OF the Marble cemetery, which on
approaches through, spiked iron gat
near Second street. Few have any ide
hat the long lane between the two tai
buildings leads to great burial ground
quite shut out from sight by the house
on Second avenue and the Bowery. Un
like it's handsome neighbor aroun
the corner on Second street, which mos
people take to be all there is of the MAJ
lie cemetery, it has no fine monument
bus there are trees and shrubs. Hug
vaults vawn at every step.
The vault in St, Marks church. yard i
Stuyvesant place that once held tn
body of A. T. Stewart, the merchan
prince, is still minus it's stolen tenant
Behind No. 6l5 Broadway, where lii
tie wooden door opens on narro1
lane, there is vacant spot that ono
was, but no longer is, a burial grounC
John Jacob Astor began his long slee
there. The bodies were removed Fl