Breckinridge County KyArchives History .....Old Time Burials 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Dana Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 September 23, 2006, 8:55 am

Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past

Daeth is a grim thing for everyone.  There are scores of small white 
gravestones and sandstone roks lining the countryside.

As soon as a person died, a number of things were traditionally done almost 
simultaneously: a bell was tolled announcing the death.  The number of times 
the bell tolled depended on the age of the person.  A neighbor was contracted 
to produce a casket and relatives were notified as quickly as possible.  The 
setting up was held in the home since there was no funeral home.

In the early days a body was not embalmed, which called for a quick burial.  
White handkerchiefs were sometimes placed over the faces of the dead as the 
skin turned black.  Often, these clothes were soaked in something like vinegar 
to keep the flies away.

The bodies were sometimes laid out on a table like made of boards laid on 
sawhorses and then later placed in the casket.  In the early days most caskets 
were constructed of the mummy type and were furnished free by a neighbor.  The 
crudely built box was of Egyptian design.  Pine was not the preferred wood for 
coffins as it was soft and would decay in a shorter time than red cedar, 
walnut, chestnut or oak.  The smell of the wood, such as red cedar, was a 
plus.  A lot of pioneers would put aside a few planks in the barn loft for 
their coffin.  The cakset required 80 board feet of lumber for the average 
size.  It took about ten hours to build a casket if it was sanded and varnished.

The coffins were sometimes lined and covered with cloth but in the early days, 
most were not.  In the early 1900s most of the coffins were lined with a nice 
cloth and the outside covered in velvet.  The body was usually dressed in the 
best clothing that he or she owned.  In later years, clothing coul dbe bought 
from the undertakers.  During the wake or viewing at the home or funeral home 
there was a drape of netting draped over the coffin.  The netting was used to 
keep the flies from the body, as most homes didn't have screens on the windows 
and doors.  When the body was laid out at the home, neighbors would come in and 
sit up all night.

In the early days the funeral was very simple and held at the graveside.  
Later, the funerals were usually held in the neighborhood church.  Today most 
funerals are held in the funeral home.

The graves were dug six feet deep because the taproot on most trees does not go 
farther down than five feet.  Lateral roots only about 18 inches deep.  The 
neighbors always dug the graves.  There were few vaults for coffins inside the 
grave.  Pioneers solved this problem by digging the grave wider for about four 
feet.  The would go the last two fee with a hole six inches narrower than the 
upper portion.  The result was a shelf for heavy timbers that were placed 
crossways over the coffin.  The grave could then be filled with loose dirt and 
mounded so that there would be extra dirt when the vault rook eventually caved 
in.

In the early days the burials took place on the family farm or a near by 
neighbor farm.  A grave houes was sometimes erected over the grave in some 
areas.  The little house was to protect the grave from both the elements and 
the grave robbers.

Decades ago, it was popular for a person to prepare his or her own tombstone 
inscription or epitaph.  If one wasn't clever at writing or didn't feel up to 
it before heeling over, they could hire a professional monument poet to do the 
job.

Following are just a few inscriptions that have been found around the 
countryside:

"Elizabeth Scott lies buried here/She was born Nov. 20th, 1785 according to the 
best of her recollection"
"Beneath this stone, a lump of clay.  Lies Auntie Ellie Daniels/Who early in 
the month of May/ Took off her winter flannels"
"Here lies a woman who while she lived/ Was happy as a linnet/She always lied 
while on this earth/And now she's lying in it."
"The horse bit the parson/How came that to pass?/The horse heard the parson say/
All flesh is grass."
"The manner of her death was thus/ She was driven over by a bus."
"Here lies the body of Susan Vernon/The only surviving daughter of Admiral 
Vernon."
"He rests here in pieces - Oh God, please bless them one last time."
"Here I lie snug as a bug-in-a-rug."
"Here lies-returned to clay/Miss Arabella Young/Who on the first of May/Began 
to hold her tongue."
"She lived with her husband of fifty years/And died in the confident hope of a 
better life."
A widow placed the following touching inscription over the tomb of her departed 
spouse: "1890-The Light of My Life has gone out."  A single year later, she 
added; "1891-I have struck another match."










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