The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-31
HISTORIC GRAVES IN OLD TRINITY

In the busiest portion of New York,
where the millionaires gather to
add to their already immense wealth,
there lie buried the men who in great
part helped to give the republic it's ex-
istence and took an active part in the
early history of this now vast city. The
almost ceaseless tide of travel which
GIBBS and flows along Broadway in front
of Trinity church. whose tall spire tow
ers in the air at the head of Wall street,
gives scarcely a passing notice to the
rows of old and dilapidated tombstones,
which mark the last resting place OF
the early settlers of New York, some
of whom were inferred there over 200
years ago.
Graves Centuries Old.
The Amsterdam of their day has
grown into a metropolis of over 3,000,-
600 souls, and their name and fame are
almost forgotten. but their modest
graves remain as link between the
centuries past and to come. Precisely
how many people this little cemetery
in the busy financial world of Greater
New York numbers none can tell, is the
records of the first $50 years of the
sacred spot We're destroyed when fire
swept away the earlier church build
ings-once during the revolution ana
later in a big confagratiOn that deVas-
tated the lower part of the young CITY,
but as some graves and vaults contain
from four to six bodies, it is safe to es-
, innate the total well up in the thous-
I ands. No new graves are opened In
the Trinity church enclosure, but in
terments are permitted in the many
vaults.
4 These burial places, many of which
We're built as early as ltSo, are SUNK
/ beneath the pavement which leads from
! the various gateways to the edihce and
| are marked only by fiat slab of stone
| bearing name and date of construction.
In fact the ground surrounding the
church is honeycombed with sepulchres
/ full of the bones of the early ancestors
/ of many of New York's illustrious fam
/ lilies The last burial was at Christ
mas time last winter in the l.. Clark
| son vault in front of the steps leadln
| to the church on the Rector street side.
Seldom are what is left of the long
| buried bodies removed. But one such
| event has occurred in many years; that
was when a transfer was made TO the
| historic graveyard in peaceful sleepy
! Hollow. During the past two years
| Qhere have been only six sepultures in
( the Trinity church enclosure, the pres
ent generation preferring Trinity GEM
etery. uptown, Woodlawn or Green
wood
Trinity's Earliest Grave.
The first interment in this famous
old burial ground, then on the out
skirts of the city, was a child. Ihe
brownstone slab placed at the mead o.
its little mound still stands, but the
tooth Of time has nearly eaten away
the simple inscription, which reads
Here Ives the Bodye of Richard
Churcher. the son of William Churcher
who died the fifth of August, 1851, agee
5 years and 3 months"
The adjoining headstone tells tina
annie Churcher died May the IA 1863
aged II years"
For more than 200 years thes'
Churchers, brother and sister, have
lain undisturbed by the march OF prog
rpss and the too frequent disposition
to destroy the old landmarks tina
bind the present to the soul-thinknt
past.
: During the next century burfals wer