Gruesome discovery made underneath a "Lincoln oak" tree

[Laurie Verge]

Church yards were the normal burying places in towns prior to the early-1800s. However, people also had family burial grounds on their farms and plantations (some still do). As part of the project to mark Elizabeth Keckly's grave several years ago, I did a short paper on the history of graveyards; and it is a fascinating subject.

Burials were pretty much located according to social status. Very wealthy parishoners might even be buried inside the church. The higher society outside preferred the eastern side of the grounds so that they could catch the rising sun on Judgment Day. The south side of the grounds was reserved for the middle and lower classes, while the north side was considered the Devil's Domain where stillborns, suicides, bastards, etc. resided.

Near the end of the 18th century, however, these church yards became overcrowded. The ominous markings warning of eternal damnation on the stones began to bother passersby, and more importantly, the townspeople began to worry about the water supplies being contaminated by the rotting bodies.

The first quarter of the 1800s saw the rise of Garden cemeteries with spacious grounds, beautiful landscaping, competition for impressive gravestones, benches for peaceful meditation, etc. The first of these Garden cemeteries in the U.S. was Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dating to about 1830. It is the final resting place of Edwin Booth.