The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-04-14
BURIED AT DuMFRIEs.
Resting Place Of John Paul Jones Is
Located.

From Fridays Daily.
Joseph A. Wheelock writes from Red
lands, CAL, as follows regarding the bur-
ial place of John Paul Jones:
The long forgotten grave of John Paul
Jones, for which Ambassador Porter has
been diligently searching the old ceme
teries of Paris, has been found-but not
there. 1t is true he died at Paris and it
was natural to suppose he was buried
there. But this very reasonable as
sumption turns out to be incorrect, as
Gen. Porter will be surprised to learn
as soon as he receives a letter recently
addressed to him by an old lady-a
Scotchwoman-Mr Preston by name
who is now and for many years has
been a resident of this place-Redlands,
in Southern California. The other day
she happened to see in newspaper an
account of Mr.. Porter's search for the
grave of the Scotchman whom he is said
to regard as the founder of the Ameri-
can navy, in view of his brilliant record
as sea fighter in our Revolutionary
war.
Mrs. Preston is a native of Dumfries,
Scotland, which was also the birth
place of Jonn Paul Jones, and when she
saw this story of the ambassadors
quest she Immediately wrote to him to
tell him that the grave of his hero was
there and all she knew about it. She
well remembers it for it is marked with
a stone which bears the sinister inscrip-
ton: "John Paul Jones, the Black Pr
rate"
Her story is that his mother caused
his remains to be transported from
Paris and buried among the graves of
his kindred in his native village. But
while his mothers affection procured for
him this last privilege of kinship it
could not protect him from the evil
fame he had acquired among his Scotch
lS'ulf'i y ihcii, diu coPCCi'iiy aiming HIS
fellow townsmen, by his exploits in the
capture and destruction of British ships
in the neighboring seas and III raiding
the coast towns of the British isles. He
had not spared Dumfries itself-the
home of his childhood. Tn the eyes of
the good people of the quiet burg this
paladin of the seas was a graceless
rebel and buccaneer-and so it is no
wonder that they voided their pent up
village wrath upon his memory in the
awesome epithet of "The Black Pirate"
which they carved upon his tombstone,
and no wonder that name of such evil
and picturesque ignomy in the local
annals of secluded Scotch village should
have impressed itself wildly on the
memory of woman who had grown to
ripe maturity in its neignborhood.
But it is good cause of wonder that
no hint of this strange, pathetic sequel
to the story of the famous sailor hero's
adventurous life ever found it's way into
any of the histories that have been
written about him or, so far as known,
into any other form of printed record
Mrs. Preston, / am told, thinks this is
because of the peculiar seclusion and is
olation of Dumfries. 1t has had but
little communication with the outside
world. 1t has had few visitors if any
from America, and has sent forth fewer
travellers or emigrants. Thus the de-
famatory inscription on his tombstone
has passed unchallenged through all the
century that the sea king of the infant
American republic has slept beneath it
in the grave which it dishonored The
old town meanwhile seems to nave
slumbered under the shadow of its OBJ
security in sleep, if not as deep as his
own, at least as needless of the New
World voices that reclaimed his fame.
Now that one of its few stray chill
dren in America has cleared up the
mystery of his burial place it would be
interesting to know what is to be done
about it. Ambassador Porter wishes to
have a suitable monument erected over
his grace in recognition of mis- achieve
ments in helping to conquer the indepen-
dence of the United States and of his
appropriate place in history of one of
the founders of the American navy.
1t would be poetic justice if such a
monument should replace the stone in
the Dumfries graveyard which dedicates
him to infamy as "The Black Pirate"
Such an antitnesis would be dramatic
but not feasible The unfitness of this
secluded Scotch town for such a monu-
ment is evident. American patriotism
will be satisfied with no other site for it
than the soil of the country under
whose flag he fought. The handful of
dust and the bundle of bones which are
probably all that it left of the once
stalwart frame of the republican viking
might very properly be transferred from
the inhospitable clay of Dumfries to
some important seaport town in
tho TTp;tod Sfofoc which ;c oocoo;otod