Philadelphia County PA Archives News.....Machpelah Cemetery Removal 1894-1895
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Philadelphia Inquirer 1894-1895
Machpelah Cemetery


The Philadelphia Inquirer
July 22, 1894

MACHPELAH'S DEAD TO BE REMOVED
Proposed Abandonment of Down-Town Cemetery Likely to Create Trouble.
Descendants Who Will Forcibly Protest Against the Exhuming of Bodies.
Peaceable Overtures by the Officials Rejected by Those Who Want the Grounds at 
Tenth and Washington Avenue to Remain as They are.
  A contest is brewing between the relatives, descendants and friends of the 
dead buried in the Machpelah Cemetery, at Tenth and Washington avenue, and the 
officials of the cemetery, who are determined to move all the bodies now 
buried there to the new ninety-acre grounds on Baltimore avenue, just west of 
Mount Moriah Cemetery.
  The Machpelah Cemetery is the second oldest in town, being opened in 1830, 
and the descendants of the persons originally buried there are among the 
oldest and most conservative families, and they have determined to invoke 
every aid the courts can give them to prevent the raising of their dead.  
Others who are less conservative, at least in the methods they propose to use, 
threaten to resist by force any attempt to disturb the remains of their 
ancestors.
  Yesterday, in response to an appeal sent out by E. M. Allen, secretary of 
the corporation owning the ground, a number of lotholders called at the 
cemetery, and selected the positions they desired in the new cemetery.  Others 
flatly refused to accept the terms offered, even through they were tendered 
larger lots in fee simple in the new cemetery, whereas they now have only 
privllege of burial without any ownership of the ground.  In these contested 
cases a representative of the company explained that when the consent has been 
obtained of as large a number as possible the work of exhuming the dead will 
begin, and those who desire to do so may apply to the courts for injunctions.
A MENACE TO HEALTH.
  The condition of the old cemetery on the north side of Washington avenue, 
extending from Tenth to Eleventh streets, has been a source of worriment to 
the Board of Health for some time.  From the small size of the grounds, their 
long use for burial purposes, and the fact, as one member of the cmetery 
company expressed it, that the bodies of the dead are sown there as "thick as 
herring," the cemetery has been considered a greater menace to public health 
than any other, and since 1890 burials have been prohibited.  For the same 
reasons greater restrictions have been placed about the work of exhuming than 
in any other cemetery, and while elsewhere the work may be done through five 
months, in the Machpelah it is confined to the months of December, January and 
February.  All work in the cemetery which involves any disturbance of the 
earth must be done, also, under the supervision of the Board of Health, and in 
the case of one or two recent removals Medical Inspector Taylor has 
officiated, and has liberally sprinkled the earth, as it is thrown up, with 
chloride of lime.
THE FORGOTTEN DEAD.
  A great many of the lots contain the bodies of persons long dead and 
forgotten, whose friends and relatives have drifted away and for whom no 
claims will be presented.  Among the number is the grave of John Augustis 
Stone, the ??gitted author of "Metamora."  Above the grave is a marble shaft, 
last falling into decay, which bears an inscription telling that it was reared 
to the memory of Mr. Stone by his friend, Edwin Forrest, in 1836.
  In Pursuance of their determination to clear the groudn, with or without the 
consent of all the lot-holders, the cemetery company hopes to vacate by the 
first of next year, and the ground will then be offered for sale to the city 
to be transformed into a small park and children's play ground.


The Philadelphia Inquirer
November 21, 1894, Page 2

SANITARY MEASURES.
Bodies to Be Removed From Machpelah and Union Cemeteries.
  On the renewal of the application of Secretary C. A. Quinby the Health Board 
resolved yesterday to permit the removal from Machpelah Cemetery of the 13,000 
bodies now lying there to a new burial ground in Delaware county.  
Disinterment will begin on the 1st of December, under the supervision of Chief 
Medical Inspector Taylor.  Twelve or thirteen bodies of Chinamen, whose 
remains are to be sent back to their native land, are also to be removed from 
the Methodist Union Ground.
  All the bodies are to be placed in hermetically sealed cases and transported 
in closed cars on the Pennsylvania Railroad from the cemetery to a siding 
adjoining the new grounds.  The time consumed in the operation will be about 
sixty days.


The Philadelphia Inquirer
December 6, 1894, Page 3

RAISING THE DEAD.
First Body Removed from Old Machpelah Cemetery.
  The first of 13,000 bodies was removed from old Machpelah Cemetery 
yesterday, and the rest will follow as quickly as the work of removal can be 
accomplished.  Most of the bodies will be interred at Mount Moriah.  The 
contract for the removal of all the bodies has been given to C. A. Quinby, 
undertaker and Coroner of Media, who proposed to have from eighty to a hundred 
men occupied in the work every day.
  A high board fence is to be erected about the cemetery to keep out curious 
persons.  The bodies as they are exhumed will be boxed, placed in closed cars 
on Washington avenue and shipped to their destination.  Very few bodies were 
taken up yesterday, but the work will soon be actively under way.


The Philadelphia Inquirer
December 7, 1894, Page 3

Removing Bodies From Machpelah.
  Four more bodies were taken out of Machpelah Cemetery yesterday, and the 
general work of removal will begin on Tuesday.  The work is in sole charge of 
Undertaker C. A. Quinby, of 1712 North Twentieth street.


The Philadelphia Inquirer
January 6, 1895

Removal Temporarily Halted.
  Because a lotholder is seeking an injunction, the work of removing the dead 
from the old Machpelah Cemetery has been temporarily abandoned.  It is claimed 
that 300 members of the lot holders' association agreed to the removal before 
the work was begun, and it is thought that the trouble will be adjusted in a 
few days.


The Philadelphia inquirer
January 23, 1895, Page 9

REMOVING BODIES.
Cemeteries Giving Way to the March of City Progress.
  At the Machpelah Cemetery, Tenth and Washington avenue, the removal of the 
bodies will be resumed this week.  Old deeds for lots in the cemetery are 
being exchanged for lots in the North Mount Moriah Cemetery.


The Philadelphia Inquirer
April 23, 1895, Page 3

An Author's Remains.
  The men at work disinterring the bodies in old Machpelah Cemetery yesterday 
came to Lot 33, of Section L., in which the remains of John Augustus Stone, 
author of the tragedy "Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags," were 
interred.  Henry F. Stone, of New York, son of the author, was present at the 
time of disinterent.  The bones were placed in a sealed box and deposited 
temporarily in the vault.  John Augustus Stone was born in Massachusetts, in 
1801, and died in 1834.  He was a strong personal friend of the great 
tragedian Forrest, from whom he won a prize for his "Metamora."

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