Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-03
GRAVE OF PAUL JONES
BONES REST IN AN ABANDONED
cnFFFrERY IN PARIS.
Old House Stands Over Burial Place of
rather of the American
IJ-3t
Ytd Navy.

q question: tHdI mas IOT many Yeas bSSAA
asked by American visitors to Paris. and
was not satisfactorily answered until Oc-
tober 1909, when, at the instigation of
Henry vignaud who. besides being sec
rotary of the United States embassy here.
| Is an eminent archaeologist, several learned
societies instituted a systematic search Tor
| the burial place of the founder OF the
| American navy. 1t may now be accepted
as an historical fact that the body OF john
Paul Jones reposes beneath the house
| bearing No. ] Rue des Ecluses Saint Martin,
built on corner Of a cemetery discontinued
| as such in 1913, where 1t was buried on
| July 20, 1902. There is no evidence of the
! body ever having been exhumed have sew
eral times visited the premises, but am
convinced that any efforts to identity or
recover the bones would be useless The
result of all Investigations so far made. has
been to locate an area Of about twenty
yards square. in which were buried a
great number of bodies. including that OF
John Paul Jones. The subsoil Of this area
| consists of what is technically known as
| corpse loam'-a special condition pecu-
liar to oversaturated graveyards. Exca-
walton has disclosed the presence In this
gelatinous corpse loan of many fragments
OF human skulls, shin bones and shoulder
blades.
! Any approach to Identification Is out of
the question. mere is no documentary evil
dence that John Paul Jones body was
or that 1t was clothed in naval uniform. in
which case the metal buttons. sword.
brass buckles or other imperishable relics
4 might be discovered and serve to establish
an approximate identification The only
4 practical suggestion for commemoratiOn OF
| the unmarked grave Of John Paul Jones is
| to obtain possession of the dilapidated
houses and sheds that now stand on the
site and replace them by monument The
site is in out-of-the-way part Of the
city, far from the American quarter of
| Paris, situated behind the great Eastern
| railway station (Gare de rEsD and rarely
visited by any one 1t Is in the midst of
| the workmens district No doubt the mu-
nicipal authorities of Paris would gladly
| ing for its object the commemoration Of
| the grave of the distinguished American.
Credit to Ricaudy.
The merit Of ting the site of the burial
| place of John Paul Jones is mainly due to
a Partisan archaeologist. M. de Ricaudy,
| who, in 1898, discovered the long sought for
4 remains of Turgot. NJ. de Ricaudy, after
| long researches, found the correspondence
of the gatekeeper Of the cemetery for for
eign Protestants, and also ascertained from
! a certified copy-probably the only one ex
| tant-of the acte de decis, or document
| attesting the death, that John Paul Jones
died at Paris in the house formerly num-
| bered AZ Rive de Tournon, on July is, 1892
| first year pr the French republic), in the
death is formally recorded as dropsy of
| the chest ('hydropisie de poitrine'). The
cost of the Funeral is stated by the French
| authorities, to- have been betrayed by the
| French government. John Paul Jones was
| a Protestant, and his death occurred dur
| ing the most stormy period of the French
revolution. 1t should be noted that the
original record of decease, together with
all documents relating to the burial Of
/ Protestants in. Paris, was destroyed In
1871 when the Hotel de Vile and the
building in the Avenue Vfctoris where the
municipal archives were kept were burned
| by the commune. The confusion IN regard
| to where John Paul Jones was buried, mo-
| ticed in the works of his American and
| that would have proved insurmountable
had not NJ. de Ricaudy CHANGED to find in
| the archives of the Protestant Church of
| the Oratoire a voluminous correspondence
| rela ting to impecunious gatekeeper
| (concierge) of little known cemetery in
Paris, who applied in vain for the pay
ment of his salary to the ministry of for
| eign affairs to the municipality of Paris
| and to the Protestant consistory. To APP
| preciate the difficulty of finding the re-
| mains of q Protestant buried in Paris
| during the last century it may be neces-
| Sary to refer for a moment to a dark and
| intolerant page of French history.
| Bigotry Of Louis XIV.
| The burial of Professionals, whether native
or foreign was actually prohibited in
L
Louis XIV in 1855 shortly after the revo-
cation Of the edict of Nantes. For nearly
| a century Pfotestants were clandestinely
buried in cellars or in private land: some
| times in sites adjoining the embassies Of
| foreign Protestant powers, like those Of
| England. Holland or Sweden, but more fire.
quently in Catholic cemeteries, furtively
| and with the connivance of concierges or
| gatekeepers. Owing to the strong remon-
strances made by M. Opp, the Dutch am
| IrlSc fiIt tn, Do vic Cjnr, oh
| tanned for a cemetery for foreign Protest
| ants. Under the ministry Of Necker-him-
| self a Protestant and native of Switzer-
| land--the lot of foreign Protestants in
France was considerably lightened; but
Protestant funerals even at that period We're
| often grossly insulted and desecrated by
| the populace. At the outbreak of the revo-
| luton the archives of the Church of the
| Oratory show that the Protestant Conven-
| tional. Rabaut st. Etienne begged Pastor
Marion not to ask for any measures to
| insure the greater liberation and liberty of
| Protestants, because AL his coilea CUES had
such bitter antipathies to the Protestant
| religion
| Thorough researches in the archives of
| the National Library, of the Protestant
| churches in Paris, of the ministry of for
| eign affairs. in those of the foreign en-
| bassies and legations and among the rec
| ords Of the Paris cemeteries. and among the
| documents collected by Charles Read, the
English archaeologist, enabled M. de Ri
| caudy to affirm positively that John Paul
|
| was opened to foreign Protestants in 1871,
and situated to the northwest Of the Hos
| pital st. Louis. on the site now occupied
| by the one and two-story buildings and
| sheds numbered Al. 43, 45 and Al Rue de
| la Grange aux Bellies and 40. 1 Rue des
Ecluses Saint Martin. The area Of this
abandoned cemetery is $500 square meters.
| The buildings are of inconsiderable value.
The cemetery was closed in 1888 shortly
| after John Iiaul zones was buried there.
The Old Graveyard.
The commodore's burial being one of the
last that took place in the cemetery Of
| the Rue de-, la; Grange aux Bellies, 1t is
believed that his body lies near the former
entrance Immediately after the discon-
tinuance Of, the cemetery the land was
sold by the government and has not since
changed hands. The spot where John
Paul Jones Abbdy reposes was used as a
stable foF-tAe carts of a night soil re-
mover andl subsequently by a laundry es-
| tablishment When slight excavation was
made to 4aaeei the boiler for the laundry
| some bones and human debris were I'M
| earthed The place is now Occupied by a