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.

[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.

[LincolnMan]

Well, it seems that trees hold "treasures" from the past more than we may have thought. The March 2013 issue of America's Civil War has an article about a finding of a cannonball under a tree in Philadelphia:

"A contractor removing a tree stump in Philadelphia's historic Independence Square made a startling discovery in late October: a cannonball left from a Civil War recruiter's encampment, tangled in the stump's roots.
The 2.8 pound ball is 2.9 inches in diamenter and harmless, X-rays by the Philadelphia Police Department Bomb Squad confirmed. The solid sphere is worn from its 150 years in the earth, park archaeologists said.
In September 1862, the war had become increasingly unpopular and enlistments declined in the North. Philadelphia officials appealed to the locals' patriotism to join the army, establishing Camp Independence as a military recruitment on Independence Square."

[JMadonna]

There is a story about Roger Williams the founder of Rhode Island, who was buried under his favorite apple tree when he died. Years later the tree fell over and it was found that its roots had broken through the coffin and absorbed his body replacing his entire vascular system with the tree's root system.... No word on how the apples tasted.

[LincolnMan]

Kind of neat and repulsive at the same time!

[Gene C]

I heard a similiar story about Granny Smith

[LincolnMan]

I thought that story was about Paula Red.

[Hess1865]

or maybe a Rhode Island Red....