Gruesome discovery made underneath a "Lincoln oak" tree

[Hess1865]

I grew up in the New Haven CT area, so I am very familiar with the area where they found the bodies. In Colonial days the area was the common burial ground for the city. This was before the 3 churches that face the New Haven Green were buit, even before Yale U moved to NH from Old Saybrook. Way back! Anyhow, it is estimated that there are several hundred bodies lying under what is now the New Haven Green. The Green has had so many uses over the years, and burials was one of them. I have gone to many an event there over the years and just about always I think of the people buried underneath us. Morbid as it sounds, I'm certain many modern day visitors to the Green are unaware of its somewhat grisly past.