New-York tribune., 1921-04-04
Burroughs Laid
In Grave Under
Mountain Rock
Villagers and Noted Men
Climb TwoMile Slope in
Catskills Where Natural
ist Played as a Boy
Birds Sing His Requiem
Great Boulder on Which He
Often Rested Serves as
Tomb Provided by Nature

ROXBURY, N. Y, April 3.-The body
Of John Burroughs was laid to rest
this afternoon on the mountainside
where he was born exactly eighty-four
years ago. From the peaks and the
valleys of his beloved Catskill Noun
tains came hundreds of neighbors to
pay him the final honors. Others from
far off corners of the nation Joined
them at the grave Of the great natu-
ralist.
All morning long and in the early
afternoon the SLOPE down the two miles
of rocky mountain to Roxbury was
dotted with groups of villagers trudg-
ing upward to the burial spot
Across the valley from the grave
rose a chain of the Catskills, marked
with patchwork of stone walls, sepa-
rating the pastures and farms The
sun beamed brightly on the mountains,
their trees gray with the starkness Of
spring on their rocky bosoms
Behind the grave great bowlder on
which Burroughs played as a boy and
often sat in the twilight shadows as a
man of the wide outdoors formed the
slab of his resting place. Soon a
bronze plaque will be imbedded in the
stone to immortalize its significance.
A few feet to one side spring from
which Mr.. Burroughs dipped his drink
ing water bubblcd out of the noun
tain. Down the slope few yards dis
tant "Woodchnck Lodge" the retreat
for contemplation Of nature and for
writing of it's wonders, rested in a
hollow spot. There it was that Mr..
his close friends, Thomas A. Edison,
Henry Ford and Harvey S. Frestone.
They stood beside the grave to-day
and when the ceremony was ended paid
a visit to the "Sylvan LODGE
Back Of the grave. which was blasted
from solid rock and rising high to one
tip of the mountain which bears his
name, was the clump OF woods where
Mr.. Burroughs hunted the fox and
observed the birds during his youth
and old age. To the right, over little
knoll. the weather blackened house in
which he was born could be seen, and
near it group Of maple trees where
the naturalist would sit in the spring
time and watch the flow of sap
In an opening in the woods q few
hundred yards away was the house
where Jay Gould. childhood playmate
road man, was born. Beyond it the
schoolhouse, where both men gained
their first knowledge from books.
Simple Burial Service
The burial service was simple. There
were few short prayers, followed by
the recitation of poems left to litera-
ture by other admirers Of the hills
and valleys. Some of the lines were
dedicated to Mr.. Burroughs and one of
the poems at the grave had been writ
ten on the death of the naturalist by
Edwin Markham.
Slowly the friends of the dead man
trod past his lifcless form for last
look upon the face of their most dis
tinguished townsman. There was no
music, but in the swaying trees birds
were singing the requiem Of the man
who understood them.
When the coffin had been lowered
into bed of green hem lock branches
and moss and flowers covered the mound
the townsfolk and the visitors began
winding their way back into the val
ley BY twos and threes. The purple
haze Of dusk came down as a twilight
mantle over the village. and then dark
ness fell leaving John Burroughs TO
abide forever in his own native soil.