The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-12-11
OF UNKNOWN DROWNED.
ROMANCE AND CRIME BURIED
IN A CEMETERY.
Staten Islands Burial Ground Hides
Many Secret Deaths of Three
Cities-Floating to One
Part of tho Shore.


An acre OF wooded land on the Rich
mond county farm, mile west of New
DOrp on Staten island.
1t is the pauper graveyard Of the is.
land, wherein rest the bodies of many
OF those unfortunates who during
the last quarter OF a century have
found death in the rivers that ebb and
flow past the wharves of New York,
Brooklyn and Jersey City. or who
have been cast into waters after death
has come upon them in some other vi
olent form
the constant harvest of the rivers
dead that finds its way into the
morgues of the three cities represents
by no means the total of the rivers
eeath-roll, says the N. Y. Advertiser,
for the rush of the ebbing tides car
ries many of the dead down into the
bay, where the currents sweep to the
westward and almost invariably cast
the gruesome objects upon the Staten
Island shore at the points where the
little towns south of St. George are
strung along the shore all the way to
Fort Wadsworth and around to South
Beach.
Indeed, so steady and certain is the
swirl and playing of these seabound
eddies that there are little bays here
and there into which they cast their
drift, which bear such unpleasant
local names as dead Mans Hole"
1.-The Floater's Haven and Dead
Mans Dock. }" because it is so common
thing to find a body floating there
abouts when the waters have been
hurrying down TO the millrace of the
Narrows or have whirled through that
famous passage into the lower bay.
The graveyard of the county poor
house is situated $50 yards south of
the residence of Superintendent of the
County Poor Bodine and is about an
acre in extent. The acre is the only
wooded land upon the farm of almost
a hundred times that SIZE and it will
be left uncleared of it's timber. as the
tall young oaks and chestnuts that
form its growth make a pleasant grove
and a more attractive battle-ground
than if the ground was cleared. There
has thus far but little been done to-
wards keeping the graves in order and
they are in many cases overrun with
the same tangle of underbrush, weeds
and grass that mark any of the uncul-
tivated or uncleared woodlands of this
section.
And the great majority of these
numbered graves have no other record
of their occupants. for all the books
which held the records of the bodies
that are buried in the graveyard until
June, 1890, have been lost and con-
seluently there is absolutely no means
of knowing if a certain number marks
the last resting-place OF a worthy
pauper, murdered tramp, one of the
sadly numerous unknown dronwed''
or any other class of unfortunate who
has found his or her grave in this sad
little acre of woodland.
But it is known that very many of
the numbered graves are those of poor
creatures who have during the many
years since the place has been so used,
came down to the island on the bosom
of the rivers flood and have no loving
relatives or friends to recognize them,
or carried no marks by which such
sorrowing ones might know of their
fate.
The unknown drowned are not buried
in any particular part of the plot, but
may be found scattered irregularly
along the lines. in some places two or
three buried side by side and at 9th
ers only one grave to score being
that of victim of the waters. And
it is a pitiful crew, in which they are
to be found, with suicides and MUIR
dered men and women, with the VIC
Tins of hunger and cold and fire keep
ing them company, and with the
pauper poor as the rank and file of the
departed company.
Men form the great majority of the
unknown drowned for the body of
drowned woman or girl is much more
likely to be identified than that of
man. but the poorhouse burial plot has
not few female victims in tho list of
its drowned, and a sad proportion of
them were young when they sought the
river.
When the outgoing tide casts one of
the unfortunates upon the shore the
body is taken to one of the undertaking
establishments that are run by the
three coroners Of Richmond county
and publicity is given to the fact by
newspaper paragraphs, of greater or
lesser leugth, according to the features
of the case. A well-dressed man,
plainly the victim of violence, natural
ly gets more space than some poor
tramp or sailor who has probably fallen
overheard from dock or vessel while
overcome with liquor
After few days an inquest is held,
and if no trace of the identity can be
found it is sent to the poorhouse in a
plain, well-made pine coffin, and there
kept above ground as long as possible
in the little red frame box of build
ing which is used as the dead-house of
the institution. Then. if none follow
it thither and identify it. it is given a
decent burial and the burial service of
the Protestant Episcopal church is read