A True Tale of Grave-Robbing Horror, Part I

John Scott Harrison, born October 4th, 1804, bears the unique distinction of having been both the child and father of US Presidents. His father William Henry Harrison was the ninth President and holds the record for the shortest tenure, having died of pneumonia on the 32nd day of his presidency. John Scott’s son Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President, serving one full term from 1889 to 1893. The Honorable John Scott Harrison was a Congressman from Ohio, a gentleman farmer, a family man and a highly respected member of his community, but if he is remembered at all today, it is for what happened to him after his death, a true tale of horror that caused a nation-wide sensation.

After a peaceful death in his bed at Point Farm the night of May 25th, 1878, John Scott Harrison was buried in the family plot overlooking the Ohio River Valley in Congress Green Cemetery, North Bend, Ohio. The funeral took place on May 29th. As family and friends walked to the grave for the burial service, they were dismayed to see that the still-fresh grave of their kinsman Augustus Devin had been disturbed. John Scott’s daughter Sarah was married to Augustus’ uncle Thomas Jefferson Devin, and the families were very close. In fact, John Scott had visited Augustus two weeks before the 23-year-old died of tuberculosis, only to unexpectedly follow him to the grave just a week later. At first the funeral party thought wild hogs might be responsible for the churned-up soil at Augustus Devin’s grave, but upon closer inspection they found the young man’s body was gone, stolen by body-snatchers, the reviled resurrection men who made their living by trafficking the dead.

Horrified by this discovery and concerned that their father might suffer a similar indignity, Benjamin and his brothers John and Carter took additional measures to secure his final resting place. The grave was already brick vaulted with a thick stone bottom. They placed three large, heavy stone slabs eight inches thick on top of the metal casket — the largest at the head and the two smaller ones at the foot — and poured cement over them to create a solid block weighing nearly a ton. The grave was kept open for several hours until the cement dried. It was then filled and the family paid a watchman a dollar a night to guard the grave for 30 nights. Having seen his father safely to his eternal repose, Benjamin Harrison, a distinguished attorney and already a prominent figure in the Republican party, returned to his home in Indianapolis to prepare for a speech he was giving at the Republican State Convention on June 5th.

Benjamin’s youngest brother John Harrison went to Cincinnati with his nephew George Eaton to find and reclaim young Augustus’ body before the grieving mother had to be told it was gone. There was little question in their mind where the body had wound up. It was almost certainly sold to a local medical school, the primary receivers of stolen human flesh. While the Anatomy Act of 1832 had ended the illicit cadaver trade in the UK by supplying anatomy schools with bodies of unclaimed indigents, the federal system in the United States left that kind of legislation to individual states, and the notion of handing over the bodies of the poor for dissection offended American religious and moral sensibilities so much that few states made such provisions. This combined with the explosion of new medical schools in the mid-19th century (in 1800 there were 4 medical schools in the whole country; by 1876 there were 73; by the end of the century there were dozens more) to create a massive demand for anatomical “materiel” that the resurrection men were only too glad to fill.

An item in the Cincinnati Enquirer on the morning of May 30th gave Harrison and Eaton a valuable clue to the possible whereabouts of the missing body:

A Mystery.

About three o’clock this morning, a sensation was created on Vine street by a buggy being driven into the alley north of the Grand Opera house. It proceeded about half way through to Race street, when something white was taken out and disappeared. Several men started in to see what was going on, when the buggy drove out to Race street and left rapidly. The general impression was that a “stiff” was being smuggled into the Ohio Medical College.

This small blurb and the outrage to a well-connected family with legal clout was sufficient for John Harrison and George Eaton to secure a search warrant that very day for the Medical College of Ohio. Armed with the warrant, Harrison and Eaton, accompanied by former Cincinnati Chief of Police Colonel Thomas E. Snelbaker, Constable Lacey and Deputy Constable Tallen of the Cincinnati police, went to the college and insisted on searching the premises. They were accompanied by the very apprehensive janitor, A.Q. Marshall, who protested that the officers of the college should be present before they turned the place upside down.

The party proceeded to search every room on all five floors of the building, from cellar to garret. In the cellar they found a chute that opened onto the alley between Vine and Race Streets where the buggy had been seen dumping a suspicious white bundle at 3:00 o’clock that morning. This was how the resurrectionists surreptitiously delivered cadavers to the medical school. No need for daylight transactions that might raise awkward questions; no need for the faculty to interact with the grave-robbers in the presence of the evidence of their crimes. Another chute, this one running vertically from the cellar to the top of the building, was connected to it. The search party looked into both chutes, illuminating the darkness with their lamps, but saw nothing.

Most of the rooms upstairs were empty too, though they searched every lumber pile, box and closet. Then they came upon a dissection room. A student was using it for its intended purposes, cutting into a partial body — the head and chest of a black woman — merrily slicing away at the already putrefying flesh. Walking briskly past this macabre scene, they found a box of assorted limbs cut from cadavers and kept for later use. Mixed in with the arms and legs was the intact body of a six-month-old baby.

Disgusted and disturbed, they moved on to the top floor of the building. By this time, the police had allowed the janitor to leave, ostensibly to notify the school officers of the search, but Colonel Snelbaker was smart enough to have him followed. Instead of running off to alert the faculty, Mr. Marshall went upstairs to a room at the southeast corner of the building. He realized he was being shadowed so he turned around before entering, but it was too late. The cops now knew there was something worth hiding in that room.

John Harrison, George Eaton and the three police officers entered the suspicious room, finding boxes, a few bones, papers and assorted junk. In a corner of the room near a window was a windlass. A rope ran from it into a square hole in the floor, presumably reaching the bottom of the long chute in the cellar. This is how the bodies were moved from the cellar to the dissection rooms: they were tied to a rope and lifted by the windlass at the top of chute. Snelbaker saw that the rope was taut as if something heavy was tied to it. He turned the windlass and slowly the body of a man emerged from the hole, the rope tied around his neck and under one arm. He was naked except for a tattered shirt and a cloth covering his head.

John realized before the face was revealed that it could not be his cousin Augustus. The body was that of an old man in comparatively good health, not of a youth emaciated by the ravages of consumption. He was about to walk away when Snelbaker urged him to check, just in case. They pulled the body into the room and laid it on the floor. Blood trickled from a loosely stitched neck incision, forced out by the pressure of the rope. Slowly and somberly, Snelbaker loosened the rope around his neck so the cloth covering his face could be lifted.

Harrison had been right; it wasn’t the body of Augustus Devin. Under the cloth was the face of an elderly man, discolored and bruised from the rope and careless treatment at the hands of the resurrection men. He had short white hair and a snow-white beard cropped an inch below his chin. John Harrison staggered, suddenly weak at the knees. “It’s father,” he rasped, and collapsed to the floor. The body of the Honorable John Scott Harrison, buried in a cement-reinforced bricked vault less than 24 hours earlier, had been stolen from the grave, stripped of his clothing, shorn of his distinctive waist-length beard, and dangled from a rope in the cadaver chute of a medical school.

~~ TO BE CONTINUED ~~

Coming attractions

I won’t be posting a full article today because I’m working on a special Halloween treat for all you boys and girls. For the first time in The History Blog history, I am writing a multi-part story. It is a macabre tale full of chills, thrills and shocking twists that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hammer Horror movie, only it’s all true.

The first part will go live (or is it? ) at the stroke of midnight tonight.

[audioplayer file=”http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/vincent_price_laugh.mp3″ titles=”Can you dig it?”]

Ancient cemetery unearthed in Batroun, Lebanon

An archaeological survey in advance of new construction in the city of Batroun, about 20 miles north of Byblos on the Mediterranean coast of northern Lebanon, has unearthed an ancient burial ground. Archaeologists from Lebanon’s Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA) found 17 graves with skeletal remains at the site of a planned addition to the San Stephano Resort. Initial osteological examination found the remains of men, women and children.

Preliminary estimates date the graveyard to the 2nd or 3rd century A.D., a period when the city prospered under Roman rule. These estimates are based mainly on the type of interrals: coffin burials. The wood has not survived, but the coffin nails have. There are few grave goods — a coin, an iron ring and two modest pieces of Greek pottery from the Hellenistic period — but nothing clearly datable to the Roman period. A Roman-era necropolis was found nearby during construction of the main road, so this may be a continuation of the same burial ground.

Batroun is one of the most ancient cities in the world, although the date of its founding is ambiguous. Ancient sources appear to differ on the matter, and it’s hard to pin down because the name of the town changes. The city of “Batruna” is mentioned by Rib-Hadda, the king of Gubla (Byblos to the Greeks), in EA 79 of the Amarna letters, a collection of diplomatic correspondence to Pharaoh Akhenaten incised on clay tablets in the 14th century B.C.; some scholars believe this Batruna is Batroun. However, 2nd century B.C. Greek historian Menander of Ephesus is quoted in Flavius Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews (Book VIII, 13, 2) saying “the city Botrys in Phoenicia” was founded by Ithobaal I of Tyre, the 9th century B.C. Phoenician king whose daughter Jezebel became infamous thanks to the Biblical account of her marriage to Ahab. The Greek name for Batroun is Botrys, Bothrys or Bostrys.

As the Rib-Hadda was appealing to Akhenaten for military aid against the nomadic Apiru or Habiru people who were in league with his enemy Abdi-Ashirta, the Amorite king of Amurru, it’s possible that Amarna-period city of Batruna was sacked and then refounded by Ithobaal in the 9th century. It was subsequently conquered by the Assyrians, Alexander the Great, the Arab Iturean tribes and the Romans. It was part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch when on July 9th, 551 A.D., it was all but destroyed by a massive earthquake that levelled many Levantine cities. It reappears in the historical record in the 12th century when Crusaders took it from the Emirate of Banu Ammar.

Whatever the exact date of its founding and gaps in occupation, Batroun is one of the most ancient cities in the world. It has notable archaeological remains from the Phoenician, Hellenistic, Roman and Crusader periods, including a protective sea wall the Phoenicians built by adding masonry to a natural formation of petrified sand dunes. The wall is 740 feet long, the longest Phoenician structure still in existence, and is up to 16 feet high in parts.

Roman remains include a rock-cut theater which is on private property but is open to the public and irrigation channels, some of which have been integrated into the modern canal system. The earthquake claimed a great deal of the Roman city, so the discovery of the burial ground is highly significant. The remains will be removed to the Directorate General of Antiquities in Beirut for further analysis and study. Radiocarbon dating should confirm the date of this necropolis.

Rare Pictish cross slab found on Orkney

The Orkney Islands at the northern tip of Scotland have a uniquely rich archaeological patrimony going back 8,500 years to the Mesolithic era. Because the coastal areas of the archipelago are highly susceptible to erosion, particularly in the winter when storms and tides batter them mercilessly, archaeologists keep a sharp eye out for any artifacts or remains that may have been exposed by erosion.

That’s what Dr. Hugo Anderson-Whymark was doing on the East Mainland coast when he discovered a stone slab jutting out of the cliff face. He saw that it wasn’t a natural stone, but had been shaped and carved with designs. Much of the carved surface was obscured by its position in the cliff. Dr. Anderson-Whymark was able to see part of the carving, a beast or dragon in an S-shape that is characteristic of Pictish design from the 3rd to the 8th centuries. Because more storms were expected within days, the stone had to be recovered as quickly as possible or risk literally falling off a cliff.

The Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA), with the aid of Historic Environment Scotland which provided funding for the excavation and conservation of the artifact, sent a team to excavate the slab. Once it was removed, experts identified it as a Pictish cross slab from the 8th century. The stone, 2.8 feet long by 1.8 feet wide and 3.6 inches thick, is incomplete and weathered, but an intricately carved cross stood out on the front face with the dragon/beast at its side. The rear face, even more weathered than the front, featured another beast with what looks like a beak holding a staff.

Nick Card, senior projects manager at the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute’s Orca, said: “Carved Pictish cross slabs are rare across Scotland with only two having been discovered in Orkney.

“This is therefore a significant find and allows us to examine a piece of art from a period when Orkney society was beginning to embrace Christianity. Now that the piece is recorded and removed from site, we can concentrate on conserving the delicate stone carving and perhaps re-evaluate the site itself.”

Once the stone is cleaned and conserved, ORCA hopes to put it on public display.

Dr. Hugo Anderson-Whymark scanned both sides of the cross slab as soon as it was free and clear, before it was cleaned. Here’s the 3D model created from the scan.

Oldest library in the world renovated, digitized

Founded in the 859 A.D. by Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant who was herself highly educated and who dedicated her considerable inheritance to the creation of a mosque and school in her community, the University of Qarawiyyin in Fes, Morocco, is the oldest degree-granting institution in the world. The Al-Qarawiyyin library has been in continuous operation since the 10th century and is believed to be the oldest library in the world. After years of neglect, the library is undergoing extensive renovation as part of a renewal program that will restore the Medina, Fes’ walled pedestrian historic district built in the late 8th, early 9th century. In a fitting tribute to its founder, the person in charge of the restoration is a woman, Canadian-Moroccan architect Aziza Chaouni.

Inside the library are ornately carved wooden window frames and archways, colorful ceramic tile designs on the floors and elegant Arabic calligraphy engraved in the walls. The high ceilings in the reading room are adorned with gold chandeliers.

“There is a big restoration because there was a need for the building and the manuscripts to be preserved,” said Abdullah al-Henda, part of the restoration team that’s been working on the restoration since 2012. “There were problems of infiltration, of sewage, degradation of walls, some cracks in different places in the library.”

The library is replete with extremely rare, some unique, volumes. There are more than 4,000 manuscripts in its collection, including a 9th century Quran written in beautiful Kufic script on camel skin, the earliest known Islamic hadiths, and an original manuscript of the Mukkadimah, a universal history written in 1377 by philosopher Ibn Khaldun which many scholars hold to be the first exploration of fields we know as sociology, historiography, demography and other social sciences. It’s particularly meaningful to have a book written in his hand, because after university he began his career as a calligrapher for the Chancellery in Tunis. When he moved to Fez shortly thereafter, he got a job writing royal proclamations for the Sultan.

“When you read a book, you travel in history. When you see a manuscript that is nearly ten or more centuries old, you travel in time. As I said, the library gives you a spiritual bond for these and other reasons. Since I arrived at Al Qarawiyyin Library, it never crossed my mind that I would leave it,” said deputy curator Abou Bakr Jaouane.

These priceless texts need conservation as well. Some have been damaged by the moisture and decay plaguing the building itself. Now that the restoration of the structure is almost complete with new gutters, solar panels and air conditioning, the manuscripts finally have a room suited to their preservation. It is climate controlled with a custom temperature and humidity settings as well as a state-of-the-art security system. The restored library also has a new laboratory for the treatment and conservation of its historic manuscripts.

Right now, only curator Abdelfattah Bougchouf has access to the rare manuscripts kept in the secure room. With the help of experts from the Institute of Computational Linguistics in Italy, that will soon change. All 4,000+ manuscripts are being digitized in the new laboratory. This will make them widely available to students and researchers all over the world. About 20% of them have been digitized so far. The scanning process will also highlight any small holes and areas in need of conservation that are not necessarily evident to the naked eye.

The library will reopen to the public in May 2017.