The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-01-27

Eccentric Mrs. Johnson Guards
Against Body snatchers.
An IMPROBABLE RESTING PLACE.


Her.
The most elaborate grave in the Nut
meg State, perhaps in New England, has
lust been completed In Yantio cemetery.
in Norwich, for Mrs. Mary T. Johnson
recently of Norwich, but now of Chicago.
Mrs. Johnson is rich. She is haunted
by the fear that after her death her tomb
may be invaded and despoiled by body
snatchers Hence she decided to prepare
and fortify her tomb that any attempt Of
the kind would be foiled.
Some years ago she purchased the most
spacious and precious lot in Yantic ceme-
terry and with the aid of a corps of skilled
workmen constructed a grave that was a
masterpiece, seemingly impregnable, Of
sepulchral handiwOrk. It's floor and lid
we're seamless slabs of stone and its mass
i've side walls of cemented bricks. 1t
seemed as if it were capa BILE of resisting a
prolonged assault from the most deter
mined vault robbers.
Not long ago, however, tormented by a
recurrence of her morbid dreams of ghouls
Mrs. Johnson vigorously applied herself to
the task of reconstructing the grave Fear
ing lest her husband, rich ranch owner
and manufacturer, or her sons, with whom
her relations are neither cordial nor conf.
Dental, might interfere with her purpose,
she carried on the work stealthily, and
they knew nothing about it until after it
had been completed.
One morning little army of expert ar
tisans with pickaxes, spades shovels,
trowels, chisels bars, hoes and large
derrick, moved into Yantic cemetery and
encamped on and about Mrs. Mary T.
Johnson's burial lot
They toiled uniDterruptedly for several
weeks and the curious neighbors about
the rustic cemetery peered daily from up
stairs chamber windows through haFf
closed shutters above the graveyard wall
at the busy workmen and wondered what
on earth Mrs. Mary Johnson was up to
now. " They were acquainted with Mrs.
johnson through the medium Of neighbor-
hood gossip and local newspaper reports Of
her varied, picturesque and always enter
tanning appearances in the county courts
Finally one day the little army of toilers
knocked off work, gathered their tools, I'M
shipped their derrick's crane, and with all
their working paraphernalia loaded in
drays marched away. Their labor of re-
construction was completed, vet so deity
and circumspectly bad they wrought that
from a superficial inspection of the lot
alOne casual observer would not surmise
that TIE old grave had ever been disturbed.
A wonderful grave it now is. Its sides,
of the finest pressed and cemented bricks
and thick and massive as the foundation
walls of a castle or fort, rest on single
titanic slab of polished granite that weighs
considerably more than On, while
similar stone, beautifully finished and
weighing g,7OO pounds, forms the Isa
4he ground about and above the grave
has been laid out and turfed evenly and
with precision, so that there is no external
token revealing its existence or location.
Mrs. johnson has expressed herself as
entirely satisfied with the vault, believing
implicitly now that when her body shall
be laid between its two mighty monoliths
it will forever be secure from invasion by
the dreaded grave robber. When the time
has come, however, for the commitment
Of her body to the cemetery tomb der
rick must be used to remove and replace
the ponderous lid
Besides the Curiously contrived grave,
AhL % OOAlLlSOu lItAS AluN OH OluhAAy ASA1teAN
able moTtuary memorial erected on her lot,
magnificent polished granite monument,
costing SIS, 600, which was designed by
herself 1t being in part in imitation of a
masterpiece of the kind which she saw in
an art gallery of Europe
The monument is shaft, bearing or
nately carved eftigies of the allegorioal fig
ures Faith, Hope and Charity. 1t was pro-
duced by the granite cutters of Westerly
r. 1.
Mrs. johnson, during her residence iii
Norwich, varied with occasional sojourns
in New York city, by her personal eccen-
tricities, peculiarities of dress and free
and democratic social ways provided local
gossips with abundant material for street
and shop and tea table meetings.
One of her most pronounced CHI lracter-
ist1cs was an extravagant fondness for dla-
monds, and on account of that fondness she
was known in all sonthorn New England
as Mrs. Diamond Johnson.
She was afame with great, magnificent
gems at all times, rarely appearing IN pub
lie with less than $50, 600 to $40, 900 worti
of the jewels on her person. Her finger
were covered with diamond rings. and sb
decked herself with diamond earrings dia
mond brooches, bracelets, wristlets. coF0
nets, breastpins, studs, sleeve buttons. ant
had diamonds in her fans, gloves pura
and other accessories of her toilet includ
ing sundry pieces of underwear
In leaving the Park Congregations
church at tho end of the morning servic
one Sunday Mrs. johnson once let slip
wonderful garter, and a gentleman VIII
promptly and CALAMITY retrieved it oil
served that it's clasp was set with a man
moth flaming solitaire.
In her palatial home on Broadway ST