The Pauper Cemetery
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 37° 43.153 W 088° 33.183
16S E 363123 N 4175797
See photo gallery, mass burials are in the foreground, head stones in the background, under the trees.
Waymark Code: WM8CJG
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 03/12/2010
Views: 3
Marker Text:
THE PAUPER CEMETERY This cemetery, called the pauper Cemetery has burials going as far back as 1849 contains stone markers with record of 263 burials at least 60 of which were children. These records indicate that not only people from the Poor Farm were buried here but it was the county burial site for unknown vagrants, murder victims, people killed in the nearby coal mine, abandoned and deceased children. "Colored" and Caucasian were buried side by side from the very beginning, death being the only criteria for a place. The custom of the time was for those not having a funeral to be buried the same day which brought about the following justifications in the burial notes: "Run over by a train at Wasson" "Gun shot wound" "Unknown baby girl found in sewer" "Gunshot wound administered by Chief of Police" "Shot by Charlie Birger at Ledford" "Daddy" "Lithuania-wife still in Europe" "Found dead in ditch" "Carnival worker" "Murdered" "Left leg of Charlie Yates-O'Gara #3 coal mine accident".
A historically linked marker is listed in the web link below. The house where these poor people "lived". Well worth the read.
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