Year: 1866

Some time since considerable excitement
was occasioned among our German citizens
bv reports that graves in the Pine Hill Gem
etery had been invaded by sacrilegious hands
but the statement was denied with great
earnestness, and the whole matter finally
hushed up. Occurrences which have trans
pired within a few days past have again
aroused tn. utmost indignation, and deter
mination is expressed that this time the mat
ter shall be thoroughly Investigated, and all
circumstances connected with it brought to
light. In the present instance there can be
no doubt of the fact that the grave had been
rifed. Whether further examination will
lead to the discovery of other similar outrages
is. of course, a matter of mere conjecture
but feeling of deep alarm has been aroused
in the breasts of those who have buried loved
friends in the Pine Hill Cemeteries. The
latter as many of our readers know, are sit
uated about five miles out on the Batavia
street plank road, the ground being divided
into three burial places belonging TO the Ger
man Catholics, the German Protestants, and
those of the Hebrew faith. 1t was in the
first of these that the occurrence took place.


About year since, Colonel w. +. Berens
a we'll known citizen of Buffalo, lost daugh
ter. Miss Barbara Anne Berens. She was
about eighteen years of age at the time OF her
death, which occurred on the the third day
of October, 1865. Her illness was sudden
and lasted but few days, the physicians,
Drs Rochester and Barens, with DIR. Pratt
in consultation, decided that her death was
caused by disease of the heart.


On the Sunday following she was tempo
rarily inferred in grave in the northwest
side of the burial ground Colonel Berens
at the time not being the owner of a lot
About month since he purchased piece
of land in the same cemetery, decorated 1t
with loving hands to receive the remains of
his daughter, and on Tuesday last went with
his family to the cemetery to exhume the
body aud consign it to the new resting place
prepared for it


After removing the earth, Sexton Field
man discovered that the lid of the pine box
in which the coffin had been placed was
loose. The circumstance aroused the suspl-
cions of the family, and their worst fears
were confirmed when on raising it from the
grave and removing the rope the cover slid
entirely off, revealing the fact that the lid of
the inner coffin had been broken in. Colonel
Berens Immediately ordered the sexton to
ascertain whether the remains OF his daugh
ter were still there. At the first glance he
declared that the body was still there. but
Mr. Berens' son seemed to possess sharper
eyes. and Immediately exclaimed that the
coffin was empty.


The inner lid was then removed and as
the young man had stated, the body of his
sister was gone. Nothing was left but the
pillow, a flower wreath with which her head
had been decorated by her companions, the
decayed remains of boquet which had
been placed upon her breast beside her folded
hands; and two fingers which had been am
putated when she was little girl These
fingers had been preserved by the parents
and at her death had been inferred with her
body. These were all that were left of her
whom the grief stricken family had supposed
to be peacefully reposing in the quiet earth


No pen can describe the feelings of that
group whose hearts were wounded anew by
this terrible crime against the sanctity of the
hallowed resting place of the dead. They
were obliged to return with ,ut having per-
formed the last act prompted by that sacred
feeling which animates the hearts of all man
kind towards their kindred dead. Buffalo
Express.