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MIDDLETOWN, OHIO
History & Genealogy

1892 Old News


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1892

April 7, 1892  Middletown Signal Weekly. Middletown, Ohio

Disturbing the Sleep of the Dead

    The river is very high and the waters are ravaging the old cemetery south of the city at an alarming rate.  In the past twenty four hours a strip the length of the cemetery and ten feet in width has been washed away and beyond doubt, bodies have been carried off by the mad flood.  It seems that it is the duty incumbent upon our citizens to remove the remains of the bodies interred in this place.  A number of them were Middletown’s first inhabitants, and their efforts in the infant’s behalf did much to push it forward as one of the most thriving cities in the Miami.

  In view of their services in by gone days, our neglect to give them internment in a safe spot seems ill-respect to the memories of our city’s founders.  When the cemetery was visited this afternoon the ground covering a grave from which the body had never been removed, was parted in large cracks and ere long the body will be in the water.
April 14, 1892     Middletown Signal Weekly, Middletown, Ohio
 A  find in the Old Cemetery
    Otto and Frank Dell and Mr. Martindale were in the old cemetery below the city Sunday afternoon.  It will be remembered that the recent floods have been cutting into the burying ground.  While the gentlemen were in the place a large bank caved in and they observed that the remains in a grave had been exhumed and in a short time would fall into the water.  They quickly secured the remains in the grave and found that the body had been intered [sic] there had been that of a babe.  The cranium was all that remained, the trunk and extremities having decayed.  The skull however was well preserved and had one small tooth in the jaw bone.
April 21, 1892     Middletown Signal Weekly, Middletown, Ohio
Open Graves
    The river is still making its ravages on the old grave yard south of the city.  A great number of people visited the place yesterday where the ghastly remains of persons who were buried years ago are exposed to view.  The graves are being washed out and the bones lie bleaching in the sun or are carried to the sea by the tide.  One grave which was washed open exposed the head and body still intact and clinging to the grave, the very outlines of the grave are shown where many years ago the old grave digger had made a bed for a weary traveler whose race was run.  Above this corpse loved ones wept, and with bleeding hearts stood round they grave.  But they too have passed away and the remains they laid in the grave are exposed to view by the mighty waters, and carried on the waves to the mighty ocean.  A young M. D. of this city secured some of the bones for his cabinet.
July 21, 1892    Middletown Signal Weekly, Middletown, Ohio
Cemeteries
The New and the Old and What People Think of Them
    The feeling in the matter of the removal of remains and monuments from the old cemetery by those who so desire, seems to be that the prices are not extortionate; that the old ground should be preserved in its beauty, and that it should not be permitted to be torn up and despoiled ruthlessly by those who want to remove their dead.  But that a decent respect for the rights of others and the common dictates of justice demand that when a body is removed the lot should be left in such condition as is presentable and in conformity with the surroundings.
 There may be no good reason, however, for requiring the removal of the foundations to monuments, as the lot is still in possession of the party who owns the foundation, and he should certainly have the privilege of leaving the same on his lot as long as it does not present an unsightly appearance or in any way interfere with the unsightly appearance or in any way interfere with the rights or privileges of others.  True, he may sell or give the lot to some other person but when he does he gives him what is contained therein and for any artificial obstructions, requiring extra work in digging a grave in such a lot, the owner should be required to pay the sexton.
    But to insist upon the removal of these foundations it is thought is demanding too much, and it looks as if it indeed were too much.  When the Middletown Cemetery Association requires an expenditure of money for this useless piece of folly says one individual, “it looks as if they are only desirous of obstructing the inevitable.”
    The old cemetery will go. Another decade and the place will be in the center of the city, where a progressive generation will neither desire nor permit a burying ground.  It is will therefore to care for our dead now, and seeing it is only a question of time until removal is necessary, while we are still able, it is better to preserve the sacred remains of those we love and place them in a safe place, than leave it to the ruthless hands of strangers in years to come.  Thus while there is no charge of extortion on the part of the old cemetery association there is a feeling that they are demanding unnecessary work from those who desire to move.  A number of our best people who have lots in the old cemetery are purchasing a resting place for their dead in the new necropolis and in a very short time will begin the removal of the remains.  So it can readily be seen that the new cemetery is timely and for it we should be thankful to the enterprising gentlemen who are laying it out and making it fit for interment.
July 21, 1892  Middletown Signal Weekly, Middletown, Ohio 
THAT MONUMENT
Mrs. Magie Replevias Her Property,
and the Same Is Being Removed to Woodside.
  Tuesday Mrs. Rachel Magie appeared before Squire Hedding asking for an order of replevin to secure the following property, which she claims is wrongfully detained by the Middletown Cemetery Association and belongs to her:  One granite pedestal, a marble statue, two grave markers, and two corner-stones.
  These are present on her lot in the Middletown Cemetery, where her husband is buried.
  She seeks to remove the remains to Woodside Cemetery, and the Directors of the Middletown Cemetery Association ask that she pay the charges as set down in their rules, which require that all excavations, refilling, and other work about the cemetery be made by the sexton, under the supervision of the Trustees, and that he receive enumeration for the same as follows;
            For exhuming body, $10
            For removing brick or stone in vault-wall in grave, $5
            For refilling excavations, 75 cents per square yard
            For sodding and repairing, 5 cents per square foot.
            For removing foundation stone under monument $3 per perch
            For raising the grave a metallic casket, $5
            For receiving and recording written request for removal and issuing license for same, $2
  The rules further provide that when a body and a monument is removed that all stone foundations for monuments, etc., shall also be removed and the excavation refilled which it is claimed is but justice for those whose dead are buried there and which if the association permitted people to tear up without regard to the rules would soon be an unsightly place.  In accordance with these rules the association asks Mrs. Magie to pay $75, there being 13 perch of stone to remove and the excavation to be refilled together with other requirements as set forth by the cemetery rules.
  The association should not be accused of fighting Mrs. Magie or any other association.  They are willing that the lady shall have her own and they are perfectly willing that the removal shall be made.  On the other hand Mrs. Magee and her agents think the charges exorbitant and hence entered suit for the recovery of her property, when Constable Naughton replevined the same.
  Theodore Marston and J. K. Thomas were called to appraise the property which they did, valuing it at $750 and Mr. Stewart, of Hamilton, who had the contract for removing proceeded and the work and the finest monument in the cemetery will before another day be removed to beautiful Lakeside.
   The case will come up for hearing next Saturday at 9 o’clock.
   Mrs. Magie claims to have been damaged to the amount of $100 for the unlawful detention of her property since she first asked to be permitted to remove the monument.…..vcm: cut off copy
August18, 1892     Middletown Signal Weekly, Middletown, Ohio
VICE AND SHAME
The Old Graveyard South of the City a Rendezvous for the Vicious
To the editor of the Signal:  
  The people on Fifth street west of Main are expressing themselves in very emphatic language on the actions of certain parties who gather in the old churchyard south of the city where rests the remains of the oldest inhabitants, and make the place a rendezvous for all that is immoral.
  Here, in the afternoons, drunken brawls are the order of the day, and drunkenness and licentiousness reign at night.  Even the young and innocent are enticed from the pat of rectitude.  A little boy was given intoxicants a few day since, and became so drunk that he had to be stowed away in a shed.
  The orgies down there around a beer keg, where libertine and harlot mingled in revelry and sin, have aroused the indignation of the neighborhood, and they are about to make it extremely interesting.
  But a few nights ago there were a number of men and women there indulging in actions that were extremely vicious.
  Men with other men’s wives, women with other women’s husbands, the licentious and vicious, make this a retreat that should receive the attention of the officers.  A raid on this gang would expose one of the vilest cancers that is eating the life out of the morality of the town.      

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