The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-06-27
HooDoo HEARsE IN MAINE.
Anticipated Conveyance for COrpses
the Cause of Il Bitter Com
trOVersy.

1t is hoped now that the evil repu-
tation that has marked the late ca
reer of the Holden hearse has come
to an end, says the New York Sun.
! The hearse was made in England
more than a century ago and was
/ brought over to Massachusetts, as
something unusual in the line of fu-
neral splendor.
Having done its solemn duty in
| Ipswich, Mass, for nearly quarter
of a century it was sent down to
| New Wrentham, Me-. and for IS years
was in constant demand for funerals
| in all parts of Hancock and Penob-
| scot counties, often being sent more
| than so miles from home. The body
of the carriage wore out four sets
| of wheels, and the revenues which
| il earned for its owners mounted up
to almost $1,000 a year.
| 1t had become the custom for the
! heaviest stakeholder in the vehicle
| to drive the horse and attend all the
| funerals. Six hearse drivers grew old
and died in the service. The seventh
| blCuSh 1T III luNN anu maj tISe1SANl'
Late in the fall of 1896 he was
called upon to take a body from Ban
| gor to Brooksville for interment.
The surviving kindred of the deceased
were poor, and the driver got a fee
much too low for profit. To recoup
himself he bought 600 pounds of salt
Goldfish to take home in the hearse
! cad FThig oo+ al, IJa1lar,
into a neighborhood row, which is
| still in progress. His critics said that
| the vehicle was for the exclusive use
of the dead, and that if it was made
to carry anything else such conduct
was in the nature of sacrilege.
1t was the bitterest fight ever seen
in eastern Maine. Families became
| estranged over it, and aged men sent
for lawyers in haste and drew up
| documents, declaring that their re-
mains must not be carried to the
grave in such a vehicle. 1t seemed
| for time that the owners of the
| hearse were sure to win, because they
showed old contracts with two GEM
eterv associations in which the own
ers of lots agreed to employ this par
ticular hearse at all burials in their
yards. No sooner were these papers
| produced than the anti-hearse crowd
began to fence off burial lots on their
own land.
For the next six months it is de-
clared that no enemy of the old
hearse died, fearing the indignity of
riding in hearse which had once
held Goldfish. Finally the courts up
set the contracts.
From this time the patronage of
the old hearse fell off, and it was dis
mantlea and locked in the hearse
house to await its own time of bur-
ial. If the enemies of the hearse had
been content to let things rest where
they were, the war would have end
ed there, but the grudge was so deep
| that the boys in the neighbour God
| amused themselves by stealing the
rickety carriage and hauling it about
the roads at night, leaving it in the
yard of one of its supporters.
1t was soon noticed that wherever
the hearse was left member of the
household died in a short time. AS
the hearse was generally run into the
yard of some one who owned shares
in the vehicle. and as most of these
owners were aged and would soon die
in the course of nature, the deaths
were not regarded as remarkable at
first. Rut when the hearSe contin-
we'd to roam abroad at night, and
death continued to visit the homes
where it was left, great fear took
hold of the people.
Several meetings were held by
| those who saw an omen of death
in every movement of the hearse, and
the time was drawing near when the
hearse was likely to be burned by an
indignant and frightened people,
when the constable caught five boys
wheeling the hearse through the
woods leading to Dedham. They
were taken before a magistrate, who
threatened to send them away to the
reform school unless the hearse
ceased to go abroad at night. The
hearing took place in March. The
hearse has not been out since. and all
the people of Holden are enjoying ex-
| cellent health. So it is hoped that
the trouble over the hearse is ended.