Mourning the Dead in Bodie, Importance of Grave-site Service!
When death occurred in the late 1800s, no one contacted a “funeral home,” no calls were made to “Morticians to handle the burial arrangements.” No one had to go through the “process of contacting the right people” to carry out the task for burying the deceased. Mainly because there were no “funeral homes or funeral directors.” Up until the early 19th century, “the task of preparing the dead for burial,” was seen as a very simple, dignified Family Affair.
During pre-Civil War times, the funeral process followed a typical pattern . One in which people generally, died at home surrounded by their friends and family.
Upon their deaths, the body was laid out by close relations, who washed and dressed the body in a shroud or “winding sheet” made of muslin or wool. Afterwards, the deceased , was placed in a simple pine coffin, often constructed by a family member or neighbor.
It was during this time that the body would remain at home, in the parlor for one to three days. Relatives, neighbors or close friends would “voluntarily watch over the body,” keeping a Round-the-Clock Vigil. Depending on the weather, a large block of ice may have been placed beneath the coffin, with smaller chunks distributed about the unembalmed body.
On the day of the Burial, Hymns were sung, Psalms Read, a Discourse and Eulogy was delivered. As family and friends paid their final respects to their loved one, during “a in-home-service” held often at the home of the deceased.
When the “final goodbyes were said,” so began the journey of the deceased to their “final resting place.” Depending on the distance, the Coffin would be carried by Pallbearers on foot, or conveyed in a Horse-Drawn Wagon through a sombre procession to a grave, pre-dug and awaited by a Sexton.
Upon lowering the Coffin into the ground, “final grave-site words” were spoken by anyone who wished to speak. Shortly after, Mourners would toss a branch, some straw, or a handful of earth onto the coffin lid as a ritual farewell gesture before the grave was filled. As the onlookers stood by and watched or, as more often then not, the mourner’s performed the “task of filling in the grave themselves.”
This was the Mourning Vigil. Every stage of the Process, from the “laying out of the corpse,” to the sewing of the shroud; the watching of the body and the construction of the coffin; the carrying of the coffin and the digging of the grave, each step was conducted, for the most part, by family and friends of the deceased.
The “Mourning Virgil” was an intimate affair, full of catharsis and closure, as Mourners partook in the Ritual of Honoring the Dead.
How President Garfield Monument became in the Bodie Cemetery!
~~~President Garfield’s - Bodie Masonic Cemetery -“Dedicated Monument” instead of William Bodey “cast-iron marker”!!
The “1881 proposed William Bodey grave-marker,” got changed from a simple “cast iron marker” to a “9-foot Granate Stone Monolith.”
~~~~Time passed, and the Bodie-town-folk forgot all about the idea of “the grave marker for Bodey.”
~~(Bodey’s remains were in an unknown, unmarked, unkept location in one of the three areas of the cemetery. Forgotten by all, “who had raised funds” for the grave and Monolith marker.)
~~~With President Garfields long lingering, suffering from an assassins bullet, and then his death on September 1881. The citizens of Bodie got swept up in the “national- mourning of the Garfields death.” The citizens sentiment changed and it was decided to “Dedicate the Monument" to the 20th President instead of the Mining districts founder William Bodey.
~~William Bodey’s grave is still unknown and “unmarked,” and its “location is lost to history.”