The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1906-08-13
REMAINS OF A HERO.
BEGINNING OF SEARCH FOR
DUST OF PAUL JONES.
His Long-Forgotten Grave in Distant
Foreign City Located After
Much Study and
Trouble.

Much Study and
Trouble.
There had now been fully established
by authentic documents and convincing
corroborative evidence the fact that the
81. Louis cemetery was the actual burial
place Of Paul Jones: that he had been
buried in a leaden conn; that the body
had been prepared for transportation to
the United States; that the coffin had
never been removed by legitimate
means, and that there was no probabil-
ity that ii had been carried away by
stealth or had been stolen, writes Gen.
Horace Porter, in The Recovery Of the
Body Of John Paul Jones. in Century.
After having studied the manner and
place of his burial and contemplated the
circumstances connected with the
strange neglect of his grave, one could
not help feeling panied beyond express
sion and overcome by a sense Of pro-
found modification. Here was pre-
sented the spectacle Of a hero whose
fame once covered two continents and
whose name is still an inspiration to
world-famed navy. lying for more than
a century in forgotten grave like an OBJ
scure outeast relegated to oblivion in
a squalid quarter of a distant foreign
city, buried in ground once consecrated.
but since desecrated by having been used
at times as a garden with the moldering
bodies of the dead fertilizing its market
vegetables, by having been covered later
by common dump pile, where dogs and
horses had been buried and the soil
was still soaked with polluted water from
undrained laundries, and as a culmina-
tion of degradation, by having been oc-
cupied by contractor for removing
night soil
II recalls the remark once made by
gallant naval officer: when We give
up our lives Ia the service of our coun-
try we do not ask that our graves be
kept green, but we should like to have
them kept clean"
Having collected all the facts neces-
sary to justify an immediate attempt
to remove the remains from such Of
fenslve surroundings and secure for
them appropriate sepulcher in Ameri-
ca, was about to open negotiations
quietly with the proprietors and ten
ants who occupied the property with a
view to purchasing the right to enter
upon the premises and make the neces-
sary excavations in order to explore
thoroughly the cemetery when unfortu-
nateiy the news OF this intention be-
came publicly known through the IN
discretion of persons whom II had been
necessary to consult. Self-constituts
agents Immediately began to busy
themselves with circulating fantast.c
stories regarding the fabulous prices
that we're to be paid for the property,
the whole of which It was said was GO
ing TO be bought by rich government,
at any cost. as the only means of get
ting access to the cemetery and max
ing the excavations necessary to find
the body of its great admiral. Sueh
representations naturally created in
tense excitement, raised false hopes
in the minds of those interested in the
property, and rendered negotiations on
a practical basis entirely impossible.
This was altogether the most discour-
aging episode in the history of the
undertaking.
There was then but one course to
pursue. however reluctantly, which
was to drop the matter entirely for o
couple Of years In order to let the
excitement subside.
At the end Of that time negotiations
were quietly opened upon the basis of
purchasing the right to explore ths
abandoned cemetery by means of sub
terranean galleries. provided that all
damages to houses should be repaired.
any victims OF disease caused by foul
emanations from the disturbed soil in
demnlfied. and the property restored TO
its former condition. After a series
Of prolonged and tedious negotiations,
appeals to the public spirit of the oc-
cupants of the property and an as
surance that the government had made
no appropriation or taken any ac-
ton in the matter, and that the work
was simply an individual undertake
ing. / at last succeeded in procuring
options in writing from all concerned
granting the right for three months 10
enter upon the premises and make
the necessary excavations.
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