Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-02-15
THE DEAD BODIES
That Have Recently Been Found Float
ing in the Mississippi River Came
From the Now Disused
Little Cemetery at Pecan P0int-A Sad
Commentary on Our Methods OF
DispOsipg of the Dead.

A reporter of the Vicksburg Herald re-
Gently visited the graveyard near Pecan
Grove that for some weeks has been giving |
up its dead, and makes an exceedingly full |
and interesting report. He says: At |
O'Clock Sunday morning, hour when |
graveyards yawn, the reporter was deposited
safely at the Grove, where Mr. George Fos-
ter, present owner of Pecan Grove planta- |
ton, Mr.. Alexander, his chief business agent, |
and Mr.. S. W. Roswell, formerly of this city, |
but now managing a store at Pecan Grove, |
received him Hospitality, and for the balance |
OF the mig ht his sleep was sweet and un- |
broken.
Early on the Sabbath morning, accom-
panied by Mr.. Boswell, the reporter set out
for the graveyard. The distance from the
store TO the graveyard is about three. quar-
tiers of mile. The spot is easily discern
ible from the store at Pecan Grove by the
thick mass Of foliage which, notwithstsnd-
ing the rigors of the season and the ruin
that is there constantly in progress, clings to
the place with seeming loving remem-
brance and respect for what il was in the
days of its loneliness and beauty. Origin
ally and until recently this quiet home of
the dead, comprising one acre Of level ground
occupying the most elevated and beautiful
site in all that section Of country, was almost
river sffording the only view of it obtainsble
from a distance. In the past year or two,
however, these great oaks, majestic guardi-
aus Of the repose and quiet sacred TO this
hallowed resting place for fully half i
century, have with one or two exceptions
entirely disappeared. Now its neat
paliDg is roited down, and the rapidly
encrosching waters have carried eff at least
half of the cemetery, disentombing bodies
and swallowing up numerous handsome
monuments, tombs, vaults, ETC., in its rapa-
cious NAV. The monuments are now no
longer TO be seen. But few tottering tab
lets remain, covered with the moss and
mould of years and wreathed in frames of
tangled vines. Curvng around the brief BIZ
ographies, spiral sentinels shoot fringed ten
drills, evoking awed attention 10 the time
stained words carved by loving direction.
The pretty walks and parterres are over
grown in grass and rank weeds. The neat
iron pailings surrounding nearly every lot
in this cemetery are rusted, broken and
sunken out of position. A few tombs are
yet remaining, but they are defsced, and in
several cases badly shattered. exposing to
| view the precious bones OF those who rested
within. Quite a number OF collins are pro.
| truding from the bank, some half way out,
| some not SO far, and others disentombed.
| In one instance coffin had caved
| with the bank into the river, but
| lodging on drift pile in the eddy below
with tue lid of, skeleton with all its gap
ing hideousness was exposed TO the vulgar
| gaze. very handsome metallic casket was
| picked up as it drifted dc wn the river Sun
day last, several hundred yards below the
| cemetery. 1t had been washed into the
river with large portion of the bank the
previous evening. The face plate was not
| taken of, but the coffin was carried hack TO
| the cemetery and deposited in an open vault
some distance from the bank The coffin
taken cut of the river here and at Delta, ac-
cording to the statement of Mr.. Boswell and
Others, were drifting around in the eddy near
the graveyard for eight or ten days. At one
time the levee laborers made an effort 10 get
one OF them out oil the river just above Pc
can Grove store, but, 1t proving too heavy
and unwieldly, it was permitted to continue
on It's way. The negroes who saw the caskets,
it is said, believed hey were vaults contain.
ing gold and silver, which they supposed
some Yankee had buried out in the field
and which had now been washed up by the
Mississippi.
Including those in tombs, vaults and
graves, there are not more than fifty bodies
now remaining in this graveya ard at the pres.
ent writing. OF these, We find a number OF
the Newman family, some of whom had been
inferred there as far back as 1928. A moss.
] grown tablet over the grave of Theresa New.
man bears this simple inscription: "Died
1928" There are also members of the Beard
family, Nicholsons, Deasons, Lsdbetters
Eastons, Goods, Pelhams, Joneses and Kirk.
endalls buried here; all notably wealthy and
influential people in Louisiana in their time
uttered here also waSan infant daughter oi
our esteemed fellow citizen, DIR. j. III. d
Bowman. DIR. Bowman has had the ashes
brought to this city and buried in the Gem.
etery. Those deceased members of the late
George Newman's family have also beer
moved to another burying place; and with
the exception of these, the remains of the
balance, whose relatives and friends are now
either dead or have left the country, are left
to their inevitable. And what a singular
destiny is theirs! In death how life.like i'd
changes and vicissitudes, its inequalities, and
its partinss!
Relative TO the bodies picked up here and
at Data, the reporter could find but one per
son in all The country round who was able
even TO give the least possible clew to the
identification OF either OF the REM aims re-
ferred TO. This was a lady, Mrs. Georg,
Newman-s most intelligent lady, at that
She had been residing at Goodrich's oil
vicinity for thirty years. Just after coming
there she recollec,ed that a very beautifu
young lady, a wing, as near as she coulc
recall 10 mino, the description of the lady
found in the river at Delta, had died sud
denly in Tennef-se, aud was shipped tc
Goodrich's for in -rnent. This lady's name
was Mics Good, daughter of lady who
afterwaId died as Mrs. Judge Bond, of Ten
nessee. Miss Good was a connection of Judg,
Morgan, of Louisiana. DIR. ]. III. d. Bow
mar, of this city, is under the imDres
sion that the remains of Miss Coco
were inferred in a brick vault. Mr.
Boswell says brick vault csvsd in the
river some time ago, and oEe of thu
collins from it foated away; which, being
the case, and putting one thing and another
together, it might almost be safe to say tina
the remains of Miss Good were picked NJ
in a metallic casket at Delta, and are nov
buried at the government light, just above
that point. About the same time a very
beautiful married lady, Mrs Esston by
name, was also buried in this graveyard
Her father was Jss. Galloway, and her hus
band, j. ID. EistoD, was brother-in-law o.
Lucius Polk, of Tennessee. Her remains
were also washed away with the balance
that have gone.
As for the remains of the young man
nothing is known, who he was, when he
died, nor eau anything tending in the re.
hottest degree 10 the Identification of the
body be ascertained from any quarter.
! 10 Df. q. ID. -. Bowman We are indebted
for The following history of this interesting
locality: The Pecan Grove plantation, upon
which the grave is located, was first settled
by John Buck in 1925, and sold to A. w
Lsdbetter at subsequent date. l. remained
in that family until purchased by the late
William Walker, of Chicago, who sold it tc
DR.. J. II. ID. Bowman in 1850. DIR. Bowman
sold il to James Railey in 1853. The grave
yard had been donated TO the public by Mr.
John Buck, the first settler. 1t was the
principal and only burying ground for the
height orhood up TO 1858, and wss abdo q
quarter of a mile from the river. Until
within the last year or so it was never know L
to cave within the memory OF the oldest
inhabitant. 1t was very handsomely kept
There were a great many persons buried
there, the majority of whom were extremely
wealthy, and it is probable that the families
to which they belonged have in almost every
instance become extinct. The plantation il
now owned by Judge w. G. Wiley, of Lake
Providence, and is called the Raleigh Place
though at one time known as Pecan Grove.
A Sudden Death.
| al da1oo the Annual