USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Historical sketch and matters appertaining to the Granary burial-ground > Part 2
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Interments continued, however, in the Granary and also in King's Chapel, amid complete indifference on the part of the town, and with very disagreeable results a century or more later.
In 1795, attention was again drawn to the crowded condition of the two Tremont-street cemeteries. A committee appointed to consider means of discontinuing the opening of graves in the Granary and King's Chapel, reported on November 6, 1795, that
"having consulted physicians of the town, they find it to be, in their opinion, that the health of the inhabitants is in danger from the crowded state of these grounds, and the exhalations which must fre- quently arise from the opening of graves thereon. In addition to which, they find it is almost impossible to open new graves without disturb-
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ing the relies of the dead already interred. From an equal regard to health, for a decent respect for the living and the dead, they recom- mend to the inhabitants to adopt the following measures :
" First : That no graves or new tombs shall be opened or built in either the Common or Chapel Burying-ground, after May 1st next.
" Second : As the South Burying-ground is already sufficiently large for the present accommodation of the inhabitants, and will admit of such enlargement, that the Selectmen be em- powered to allot to any inhabitant who may apply for the same, sufficient ground for erecting a tomb in the ground, and en- large the said South Burying-ground in a direction westerly whenever the public convenience shall in their judgment re- quire it."
The report was accepted, but interments in the tombs still con- tinued, although no new graves were opened.
In 1879 the city council sat upon the matter. Numerous objections to closing the tombs were made on sentimental grounds. The board of health, however, held that the practice was a menace to public health, the odor being such as to sieken persons in the vicinity. The tombs were exceedingly dilapi- dated, giving free vent to gases, and in some instances men cut- ting grass had fallen into them. The soil of both the Granary and King's Chapel was fairly saturated with buried remains, the two cemeteries containing about 3,000 bodies. "Dives," de- clared the board, " is no sweeter in decomposition than Lazarus." The result was an order forbidding further interments.
The main interest of a burial-ground is in those who tenant it. Here, in the heart of the populous, living city, swept round by the central pulse and tingle of Boston life, yet utterly aloof, sleep the dead of a different and departed Boston. Here are they who builded the rude village, who managed the growing town. Save for a few modern memorials erected in patriotic commemo- ration, the stones are gray and old and worn. Neatly piled in a corner are fragments of slabs, broken, defaced, detached from their unknown places, so illegible that none can tell in memory of whom they were carved. Though kept with all care and neat- ness, the cemetery is slowly mouldering away.
The inhabitants of the town of Boston were at an early day keenly alive to business and thrift. The records of the town evidence this in many ways and every possible income was ex- acted from the old burial-grounds. Reference has already been made to sales of herbage and the letting for pastures. Grave- diggers were appointed to office by the selectmen and their charges fixed and regulated from time to time by the town.
April 28, 1701, it was "Ordered that the digging of Graves in the two South burrying places shall be Three Shillings for each grave for a grown persons Corps from the first day of Aprill to the first day of October, and four Shillings, from the first day of October, to the first day of Aprill yearly, and James Williams in behalfe of his mother undertakes to take care of digging the graves in the two South burriall places for this year at that rate."
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Later in the same year the selectmen being "Enformed by the grave digers that they often faile of receiving their pay of Sever- all of the poorer Sort of persons and that much time is spent in waiting on burrialls besides the noysomness and other difficultyes attending their work at Some Seasons of the year more than other, The price for digging graves was ordered to be four shil- lings throught the year for a man or woman."
Thirty years later (May 17, 1732) finds a new schedule of rates adopted.
For white man or woman 10 shillings
For persons 6 to 12 years of age
7 shillings
For children caryed by hand 5 shillings
For negro man or woman
7 shillings & 6 pence
Ditto from six to twelve years of age
6 shillings
For children.
four shillings
For opening the new or wall Toombes
14 shillings
For opening the Old Toombes or those that stand in the midst of the Burying Places sixteen shillings
These charges for some reason were reduced Sept. 13, 1745, when another change was voted. At this time the "Prices to be paid in old tenor bills."
For digging a grave white man or woman . nine shillings
For children by hand
four shillings
For a negro man or woman at ye South
. seven shillings
For ditto at the North Burial Ground.
. eight shillings
For ditto to 12 years of age at both places .
.
five shillings
For opening a wall tomb
twelve shillings
For opening an old tomb
fourteen shillings
Still later, Dec. 28, 1748, Voted : " That the Grave Diggers in the South Burying places be Allowed for Digging a Grave for a man or woman Sixteen Shillings old tenor, for children eight shillings."
It is likely that the first graves dug in the Granary were unmarked with stones, and burials therein were not numerous. Though the ground was laid out in 1660, no stone has been found of an earlier date than 1667. The oldest stone discovered is one found west of the Franklin monument, and bearing the following inscription :
HERE LIES YE BODY OF JOHN WAKEFIELD. AGED 52 YEARS DEC'D JUNE YE 18 1667.
The oldest horizontal slab, as well as the first metrical epitaph, records the death of Mrs. Hannah Allen, wife of Rev. James Allen, pastor of the First Church. She died on February 26, 1667, aged twenty-one. The verse on her tomb reads :
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STAY ! THOU THIS TOMBE THAT PASSETH BY AND THINK HOW SOON THAT THOU MAYST DIE : IF SEX, OR AGE, OR VIRTUES BRIGHT WOULD HAVE PROLONGED TO THESE IT MIGHT, THOUGHI VIRTUE MADE NOT DEATH TO STAY, YET TURN'D IT WAS TO BE THEIR WAY, AND IF WITH THEM THOU WOULDST BE BLEST, PREPARE TO DYE BEFORE THOU REST.
Perhaps no burial-ground in New England contains names more distinguished. Though the Granary is not so actively con- nected with local history as is Copp's Hill, yet a greater number of famous Bostonians are here buried. Here lie governors of the province and state, judges, ministers, and town leaders, together with some of the leading figures of the Revolution.
The conspicuous monument in the centre of the yard, erected over the parents of Franklin, draws perhaps most attention from the casual visitor. Nearby sleep others of the Franklin family. The original stone, erected by Franklin himself, had become so dilapidated that in 1827 it was replaced by the present stone, the gift of " a number of citizens."
Josiah Franklin, the father, was born in Eeton in Northampton- shire, in 1598, and during the non-comformist persecution came over to New England in 1685. Abiah, whose name shares the inscription, was his second wife. In his memoir, their youngest son, Benjamin, writes, " I never knew either my father or mother to have sickness but that of which they died, he at eighty-nine, and she at eighty-five years of age. They lie buried together at Boston, where I, some years since, placed a marble over their grave with this inscription :-
JOSIAH FRANKLIN AND ABIAH HIS WIFE, LIE HERE INTERRED. THEY LIVED LOVINGLY TOGETHER IN WEDLOCK FIFTY-FIVE YEARS. AND WITHOUT AN ESTATE OR ANY GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT, BY CONSTANT LABOR AND HONEST INDUSTRY, MAINTAINED A LARGE FAMILY COMFORTABLY, AND BROUGHT UP THIRTEEN CHILDREN AND SEVEN GRANDCHILDREN REPUTABLY. FROM THIS INSTANCE, READER, BE ENCOURAGED TO DILIGENCE IN THEY CALLING, AND DISTRUST NOT PROVIDENCE. HIE WAS A PIOUS AND PRUDENT MAN; SIIE A DISCREET AND VIRTUOUS WOMAN. TIIEIR YOUNGEST SON, IN FILIAL REGARD TO THEIR MEMORY, PLACES THIS STONE.
J. F. BORN 1655, DIED 1744, AE. 89. A. F. BORN 1667, DIED 1752, AE. S5.
This stone was replaced on June 15, 1827, by the present mon- ument, which is an obelisk of Quincy granite twenty-one feet. high. On the front side in bronze letters is affixed the name
-
-
-
FRANKLIN TOMB, GRANARY BURIAL-GROUND.
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"Franklin." On a bronze table beneath, sunk into the stone, is carved Franklin's epitaph, with the following inscription below it :
TIIE ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION HAVING BEEN NEARLY OBLITERATED A NUMBER OF CITIZENS
ERECTED THIS MONUMENT, AS A MARK OF RESPECT FOR THE ILLUSTRIOUS AUTHOR, MDCCCXXVII.
Under the corner-stone were placed an inscribed silver plate, a Franklin medal, and several other medals. The inscription on the plate declares that "This monument was erected over the remains of the Parents of Benjamin Franklin, by the citizens of Boston, from respect to the private character and public services of this illustrious patriot and philosopher, and for the many tokens of his affectionate attachment to this native town."
Perhaps the most famous tenant of the Granary is Samuel Adams. On the bowlder placed over his grave by the Massachu- setts Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the inscription runs :
HERE LIES BURIED SAMUEL ADAMS
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE GOVERNOR OF THIS COMMONWEALTH A LEADER OF MEN AND AN ARDENT PATRIOT BORN 1722 DIED 1803
MASSACHUSETTS SONS OF TIIE
SOCIETY REVOLUTION.
1898.
There is little need of recounting the public fame of "Sam Adams." As to his personal career, he was born in Boston, Sep- tember 15, 1722, being the son of Captain Samuel Adams, a brewer. He was sent to Harvard to become a minister, but the charm of politics lured him from the pulpit to the forum. The subject of his oration at gradnation was : " Whether it be lawful to Resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved ? " Adams decided that it is.
He was vainly launched on a mercantile career. After an in- different apprenticeship in a counting house, his father lent him £1,000 with which to begin business. Of this sum, he lent one half to a friend in distress, and never exacted payment. The rest was soon frittered away.
Adams then devoted heart and soul to his true vocation - polities. With voice and pen, he led the way to revolution. In a few brief years, he induced his countrymen to boycott British goods till the repeal of the Stamp Act ; inspired the Boston Tea Party ; originated the Provincial Congress ; and created the pub- lic opinion which upheld all these measures.
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After serving in Congress through the war, he returned to find his house practically destroyed by the British. The premature death of his son, Dr. Adams, however, left him a competenee for old age. He became an ardent Republican, despite the political obloquy thus incurred. He was chosen governor by a narrow margin, and in 1796 received a scattering vote for President. He died in October, 1803, aged eighty-two. Party feeling ran so deep at the time that with difficulty were got for him the funeral honors due to one of exalted rank.
The character of this tribune of the people is illuminated by his refusal to accept from the British government a pension of €2,000 to keep quiet, and by this opinion passed upon him by a Tory governor ;- "' Such is the obstinacy and the inflexible disposition of the man, that he never would be conciliated by any office what- ever."
Over the grave of the patriot orator, James Otis, is another bowlder, dedicated by the Massachusetts Society Sons of the Revolution. On the plate affixed to the stone is inscribed the following epitaph :
HERE LIES BURIED JAMES OTIS ORATOR AND PATRIOT OF THE REVOLUTION FAMOUS FOR INIS ARGUMENT AGAINST WRITS OF ASSISTANCE BORN 1725 DIED 1783 MASSACHUSETTS SONS OF THE SOCIETY REVOLUTION
1898.
Otis was born in Barnstable on February 5, 1725. After graduating from Harvard in 1743, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in Plymouth in 1748, removing to Boston in 1750.
His brilliant and stormy public career began with his famous opposition to the Writs of Assistance, allowing the king's officers to break open any citizen's store or dwelling in their search for goods on which duty had not been paid and compelling sheriffs and others to aid in the hateful work. Otis resigned rather than uphold the writs. In fact, he was chosen to contest their legality before a court held amid great excitement in the old town hall. Gridley, the crown advocate, argued that parliamentary suprem- acy left no ground for complaint. The answering speech of Otis created a profound impression. "Otis was a flame of fire," wrote John Adams, "with a promptitude of classical allusions, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into futurity and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him American independence was then and there born."
The judges evaded a decision ; and the writs, though secretly granted at the next term, were never executed.
In the following year, Otis was elected to the Legislature, where he became the leader of the popular party and earned the
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title of " the greatest incendiary of New England." He offered on June 6, 1765, a motion recommending a provincial congress. The circular letter sent out in consequence resulted in the holding at New York in October of the Stamp Act Congress, to which Otis was a delegate.
In 1768, after the passage of Townshend's plan of taxation, the House sent out another circular letter advising united action to obtain redress. Governor Bernard demanded that the letter be rescinded. Otis thereupon made a speech which the partisans of the government termed " the most violent, insolent, abusive and treasonable declaration that has perhaps ever been delivered." By a vote of ninety-two to seventeen, the House refused to rescind.
In the summer of 1769 Otis inserted a notice in the Boston " Gazette," denouncing the customs commissioners for having charged him with treason. The next evening in a coffee-house, he met Robinson, one of the commissioners. An affray ensued in which Otis was severely injured by a blow on the head from a cudgel. He obtained £2,000 damages from Robinson, but restored the amount on receiving an apology.
The blow. however, had ruined his career. Henceforth he was but a wreck of the orator and scholar. In 1770 he retired to Andover, for his health. The next year, in the Legislature, he made practically his last publie appearance. Save at intervals, during the rest of his life, his mind was deranged. During his insanity, he destroyed all his papers. On May 23, 1783, while standing at the door or the house in which he lodged at Andover, he was killed by lightning, the death he is said to have desired.
The stones placed over the graves of Adams and Otis are handsome bowlders of Roxbury puddingstone, and easily consti- tute the most artistie memorials in the Granary. The following account regarding them is taken from a historical sketch of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Revolution, by Mr. Walter Gilman Page :
" On the one hundred and twenty-third anniversary of the battle of Lexington, the Sons of the Revolution gathered about the tomb of Samuel Adams in the Old Granary Burial-ground. For ninety-five years the spot where the mortal remains of Samuel Adams were laid away had been unmarked, and almost unknown, at least to a large pro- portion of the citizens of Boston.
"On March 26, 1898, the tomb was opened for purposes of identifica- tion, though it was well known that Samuel Adams was buried in the Checkley Tomb, the property of his wife. It was necessary to remove the earth to about the depth of three feet before the two stone slabs which lay across the short flight of steps leading down into the mouth of the tomb could be reached. The tomb was found to be in excellent condition, perfectly intact, constructed solidly of brick throughout, the roof being slightly curved. Every indication furnished satisfactory evidence, and left no doubt, if any existed, that the great organizer of the Revolution was laid to rest in the Checkley tomb:
"Samuel Adams Wells. the grandson of Samuel Adams, made the following memorandum, which appears in the appendix of a volume of poems by John Witt Randall, great-grandson of Adams:
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''Samuel Adams was buried in the Checkley Tomb, which adjoins the westerly sidewalk of Tremont street in Boston. His bones were gathered into a box by his grandson, and deposited in a corner of the vault.
' Teste, S. A. Wells.'
" The rugged granite bowlder with its tablet of bronze is in perfect keeping with the ancient character of the Old Burial-ground, in which it has found a permanent abiding-place. No other form of memorial would have been so appropriate; and the selection was a happy one, typifying, as it so well does, the bold and firm nature of the man whose illustrious memory it guards. Placed at the head of the flight of steps, leading down to the entrance of the tomb, it was unveiled with simple but impressive speech, and presented to the City that Samuel Adams loved so well.
" In the same line of tombs, but on the opposite side of the entrance to the Old Granary, and equally distant from it, interred in the Longley tom'b, repose the remains of the fiery orator and ardent patriot, James Otis. The proofs of this fact are so interesting in themselves that per- haps no apology is needed for recording them here in this connection at some length.
" That the location of the burial-place of James Otis, one of the great leaders in the Revolution, should have been forgotten for over half a century, seems almost incredible; but many circumstances have tended to veil it from public knowledge. For many years, queries have appeared in the daily press and historical publications, asking for information on the subject. Conjectures were made that he was buried in West Barnstable, where he was born; while many others have be- lieved that he was buried at Andover, Mass., where he was killed by lightning. And this supposition was strengthened by the fact of his re- quest, shortly before his death, to be buried on a knoll directly in the rear of Mr. Osgood's house at Andover. Local historians have looked in vain for any clew that would lead to a solution of the mystery.
"But by collecting probate records, family history gathered from various sources, and the traditions of one family connected with the Cunningham family, of the generation contemporary with James Otis. the tomb in which were interred the remains of the Hon. James Otis, the distinguished patriot of the Revolution, has finally been discovered,
" Thomas Bridgman, who wrote a book of epitaphs of the Granary Burying-ground, does not mention the name of Otis. The bronze tab- lets on the iron gates do not record the fact that James Otis is buried within the grounds. But our records are conclusive that James Otis was buried in that burying-ground after his remains were brought from Andover to his dwelling in Boston, and the funeral cortege that marched from the house to the ground was one of the largest ever beheld in Boston.
" In the records of St. John's lodge of A. F. & A. M. of Boston is recorded the fact than James Otis was made a Mason in the year 1752, and was a member of that lodge. This lodge escorted his remains to the tomb.
"The newspapers published at the time of Mr. Otis' death and funeral furnished but meagre accounts. The Boston Gazette or Country Journal, under date of Boston, May 26, 1783, says : -
". We hear from Andover that last Friday Evening the House of Mr. Isaac Osgood was set on fire and much shattered by Lightning, by which the Hon. James Otis, Esq., of this Town, leaning upon his Cane at the front Door, was instantly killed. Several Persons were in the House at the Time, some of whom were violently affected by the Shock, but, immediately recovering, ran to Mr. Otis' support ; but he had expired withont a groan. The Friends and Acquaintances of the Deceased are informed his Funeral is to be To-Morrow from his House near the County Court House. Freemasons are to proceed the Corps.'
" The Massachusetts Spy or Worcester Gazette, under date Boston, May 29, 1783, contains almost exactly the same account as above, with the following addition : 'His remains were honourably interred last
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Tuesday afternoon, preceded by the honourable fraternity of free and accepted masons, and followed by a long train of respectable friends.'
" Mr. Otis' family were notified as soon as possible of the sudden death of Mr. Otis; and Samuel Allyne Otis, the youngest brother of Mr. Otis, proceeded at once to Andover, and brought his remains to Boston. "Colonel Joseph May, a prominent citizen of Boston, for many years a member of King's Chapel, who died in Boston in 1841, and to whose memory a marble tablet was placed on the wall of King's Chapel, was well versed in the history of Boston. He came to breakfast after his usual morning walk, and said to the family : 'I have seen something wonderfully interesting this morning. As I passed the Old Granary Burying-ground, I saw that the tomb was open in which I knew were the remains of James Otis, and with the help of the sexton I opened the lid of Otis' coffin, and, behold ! the coffin was full of the fibrous roots of the elm, especially thick and matted about the skull ; and, going out, I looked at the noble elm, and there, in transfigured glory, I saw all that was material of James Otis.'"
The elm referred to was undoubtedly one of the gigantic Pad- dock elms that formerly stood on the Tremont Street sidewalk in front of the burying-ground.
The remains of James Otis were interred in the Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., tomb, numbered forty on the Tremont Street front of the Granary Burying-ground, between the Park Street Church front and the gate of the Burying-ground. This tomb was built by Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., a wealthy merchant of Boston, in 1726 (Boston records). Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., his mother Ruth Cunningham, his son Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr., the Hon. James Otis, Ruth (Cunningham) Otis, wife of James Otis and daughter of Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., and a number of others of this family, are buried in this tomb. The slate slab on the tomb bears the inscription only of George Longley, 1809. The absence of the names Cunningham and Otis from the tomb slab, together with the early death of Mr. Otis' family, caused the identification of this tomb with the name of Otis to be obscured.
This tomb, after the death of Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., was held by Ruth, Sarah, and Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr. ; Nathaniel Jr., dying soon after his father, left the two daughters, his sisters, Ruth and Sarah, heirs of the tomb. Ruth married James Otis ; and, as her husband never owned a tomb, his widow caused his remains to be placed in this tomb, of which she was part owner, and which contained the remains of her an- cestors.
Besides the heirship to the Cunningham tomb by the James Otis family, traditions have been handed down by well-known families that James Otis' remains were buried in the Cunningham tomb.
On July 15, 1898, the anniversary of the storming of Stony Point by Anthony Wayne, a boulder and tablet similar to the memorial already dedicated to the memory of Samuel Adams was unveiled in the presence of a large gathering, and presented by the Sons of the Revolution to Mayor Quiney, who accepted the gift in behalf of the city. These two simple monuments shall be
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a witness to generations yet unborn that the descendants of the men who stood behind Adams and Otis, perhaps tardily, yet worthily, honor their memories as true and tried patriots.
The inscriptions for the Adams and Otis tablets were written by Dr. Samuel A. Green, of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In the southwestern corner of the ground a rough stone with this simple inscription,
Nº 1 TOMB OF HANCOCK
was all that marked the resting-place of John Hancock, the first governor of this Commonwealth. In 1895 the Commonwealth erected a magnificent steel monument, with the following inscrip- tion :
OBSTA PRINCIPIIS . THIS . MEMORIAL . ERECTED . · A · D · MDCCCXCV . BY . THE . COM- MONWEALTH . OF . MASSACHV- SETTS . TO . MARK . THE . GRAVE . OF . JOIIN . HANCOCK .
Hancock was born in Quincy on January 12, 1737. After graduating from Harvard in 1754, he entered the clearing house of his wealthy uncle as a clerk. At 27 he came into possession of his uncle's estate, one of the largest in the province.
His first public office was that of selectman, which he held for several years. At 29 he entered the Legislature. His strong convictions, coupled with his social and public prominence, nat- urally made him a leader in the popular ante-Revolution move- ment. He was one of the committee which secured the removal of the British troops after the Boston Massacre. On an anniver- sary of the same occasion he delivered a bold and glowing ad- dress which deeply offended the government. It had tried to win him over by intimidation and flattery, but now sought to repress him with a strong hand. Gage's expedition to Concord was partly with the purpose of seizing Hancock and Adams; the quarry, however, escaped.
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