Caldwell County MO Archives History .....BURIAL CUSTOM IN THE 70'S 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 3, 2008, 6:38 pm

BURIAL CUSTOM IN THE 70'S
	Narrator:  Irvin Harper, 73, Hamilton, Missouri

     Mr. Harper's father J.W. Harper kept a furniture store in Hamilton about 
1870 and took on the undertaking duties that went with it.  He had to make the 
coffins.  He measured the body then cut varnished black walnut boards which he 
kept in stock for the required length and width.  The box was narrow at the 
feet and was lined with a figured muslin made for that purpose.  There was no 
padding but a row of fringe hung around the edge.  The lid might be hinged or 
simply laid on.  It took about a day to make a coffin.  There were many home 
made coffins, especially in the country.
     The undertaker did not have the laying out of the body.  He did no 
embalming.  The family and friends renewed the clothes, moistened with soda 
and water on the face and hands to prevent discoloration or "mortification 
settin' in" as the expression was.  This explains the necessity of "setting 
up" with the corpse and on which occasion refreshments were laid out for the 
friends.
     In the late 60's and early 70's there was a frequent custom of burying 
the dead on one's premises.  The Harper children who died then were buried in 
the front yard of their home because the family were not in sympathy with the 
Rohrbough Cemetery management.  When the new (Highland) cemetery started Mr. 
J.W. Harper moved his children there.  Most front yard graves were abandoned 
about the same time.  George Putnam's son was buried in a field back of the 
present Dawson home (the old Putnam place) but was moved to the old cemetery 
when the field was sold 1875.  The first Mrs. Wm. McCoy was buried in the 
McCoy yard on the Kingston road, then removed to the old and later to the new 
cemetery.  These few examples illustrate the custom.
     When the new cemetery was planned the Railroad Company would not sell 
them land for the purpose lest it spoil the sale of lots out there.  J.W. 
Harper bought the land from the Railroad and then sold it to the town at the 
purchase price.
     Of course there was a simple hearse those days but often it could not be 
used since the roads out there were so bad that it took a lumber wagon to 
carry the coffin.
     Interview taken  July 1934.


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