Published the 11th of December in 1882 in
the Patriot out of Harrisburg, PA
READ WITH
HORROR
THE HARRIS
FREE CEMETERY ARTICLE CAUSES MUCH COMMENT
A Belief That
the Expose Will Aid in Remedying the Evil – Additional Facts in Relation to It
– A Meeting of the Board of Trustees Called for Tuesday Night.
The facts laid before the public by the PATRIOT on
Saturday, relative to the horrible condition of the Harris Free Cemetery,
caused much talk throughout the city. Although the charges were horrible and
almost next to impossible, yet it was admitted on all hands that the facts were
presented in such a plain and unvarnished manner as to leave no reason doubt of
their truth. Among the colored people it created must comment. Yet there were
none willing to dispute the terrible condition of affairs. The general opinion
seemed to be that it would prove beneficial to the cemetery association in
aiding them to procure necessary relief. A number of additional facts in
connection with it have been gathered by PATRIOT reporters. One of these (the
names of the parties for the present being with-held), is that a body was taken
out to the cemetery one evening, and because no tools were at hand to dig a
grave, it was placed without covering in a corner an allowed to so remain until
it was necessary on account of the stench to have it interred.
A PATRIOT reporter called ou Prof. W. Howard Day
yesterday. “What in your opinion is the general feeling among the colored
people in regard to the PATRIOT expose of the condition of the Harris Free
Cemetery?” was asked.
“The people as far as I have learned are satisfied
that it is vastly true – too true – and that they had no reason to disbelieve
even the most horrible portions of it. They have lamented the condition of the
cemetery for some time but every effort to raise money and place the grounds in
a respectable condition has for some reason or other failed. The old board of
managers had no money and the new board is not an improvement on the old in
that regard. The old board empowered a committee of women to raise funds for
the purpose of constructing a new bridge over the stream to the south of the
graveyard. In this they succeeded and expended about seventy dollars on a
culvert at this point, but a flood afterwards washed it away.”
“Who do you regard accountable for the state of
affairs in and about the cemetery?”
“Well, the white people are largely entitled to blame
in this matter and in a double sense. The soldiers in 1877 broke down the
fences, gates and tool house, and destroyed or lost the tools belonging to the
cemetery, thus doing damage to the amount of nearly $200. Again, public
sentiment has largely brought about this terrible shame. The doors of other
cemeteries are closed to the blacks, and the only alternative left them is to
bury in this miserable cow pasture. This I regard as all wrong. Death blanches
alike the black and the white, and demands for all a common grave. Several
efforts have been made to secure lots in the Harrisburg cemetery by respectable
colored people, but they have been barred and double barred. I regard as a
significant fact that the black and the white cannot lie together in “God’s
acre’ even in death. The exposure will no doubt be instrumental in remedying
the evil. There is no question but that the cemetery has been receptacle for
the bodies of infanticide.”
After a chat of a few minutes with the professor,
Major Simpson, secretary of the board of manages, was called on. The major
said: “The sunken graves have been noticed, but there was no revenue to repair
them or the fences. There are rules for the government of the cemetery, but
they cannot be carried out. Some people come for a permit and other bury
without it. One man came to me stating that his mother-in-law had been dead
three or four days and that he had no money with which to furnish a coffin or
to pay for grave digging. He went away and did not again return. It is to be
presumed that he buried without permit or coffin. No record has been kept of
the burials by permit ant it is impossible to give correct data in this
respect. The burials by permit would average about thirty-five to forty per
year, but since the Lincoln cemetery was opened there are not so many.” Mr.
Simpson says that a meeting of the board of managers had been in contemplation
for some time, but that the PATRIOT’S expose has hurried them up, a meeting
being called for Tuesday evening when steps towards remedying the evil may be
looked for.
