|
For scholarly reasons, one has to describe some of the dark history as well
as the good. Respect for the dead was not the #1 priority at times in history, and one can infer that
the fear of death may have motivated the
desecration of many ancient graves in Boston. Regardless
of such tragic vandalism, the old burial grounds of Boston are sacred
and extremely historic, more so than in any other city in America.
King's Chapel Burying Ground,
Boston's oldest cemetery, was improved upon by a maintenance
superintendent in the early 1800s. He decided to move many of the
stones and lay them out into neat rows adjoining the paths in the ground. The result was that the original location is unknown for many of the older
markers.
At Granary Burying Ground,
John Hancock's tomb was destroyed during a construction project in the 1860s. His resting place was marked by a simple white marble slab embedded in a
wall. Several tombs were removed to allow the light to enter the basement
of a newly constructed building on Park Street. An old reference states that
no trace of his tomb still existed and that "[The bricks that comprised
Hancock's tomb] may still be there somewhere, but not anywhere near his
tomb; perhaps they were carted away with the old bricks, etc., or used as
part of the foundation of the new wall." John Hancock was buried
in a lead coffin, and it was then mused it may have been used for lead pipes in a
local building. A tall obelisk was erected in his honor many years
later to substitute for the tomb. The five victims of the
Boston Massacre are buried at
Granary. Their markers are gone, and a collective stone later replaced them. Christopher Snider,
1st Martyr to the Noble Cause, was likely buried at
Central Burying Ground, and
not at Granary as marked [Provincial Governor Thomas Hutchinson wrote that Snider
was buried at Boston Common].
Copp's Hill Burying Ground also has a
tragic past. The markers of Free Blacks and slaves, as well as
others, were plundered in the 1860s and used for construction material. Some of these stones became front steps for local buildings. In the
1880s, Edward MacDonald, the Copp's Hill Superintendent, and local clergy,
recovered several of these stones, but many were never found. The British
of course shot up a few markers at Copp's Hill in 1775, just before the
Battle of Bunker Hill. In the
early 1800s, a young vandal re-inscribed some dates on stones at Copp's
Hill as a prank.
Central Burying Ground bears
the saddest legacy. In general, it was a pauper's cemetery first, and
later Roman Catholics were buried there. When Boylston
Mall was laid out in the1830s, many tombs and remains were just
covered over where they lay. Remains that were not claimed by a
descendent were tossed into the then opened tombs, and the entire area
was covered over by the new walkway. When the
Tremont Street Subway was
built in 1895, Boylston Mall was dug up, and over 900
remains were discovered. In late 1895, a mass grave and
a marker was laid in memory of those now unknown by name.
John Hancock's Obelisk
Return to Strange Boston Page
|
