Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1880 — A Horrible Sight. [ARTICLE]

A Horrible Sight.

The vault of Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church has caved in, exposing to view an immense number of bodies, the rotted coffins being broken by the falling bricks. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, when the age of sanitary reform began, the health authorities caused the vaults to be closed, and their use abandoned. They were then full. It was estimated that fully 5,000 bodies had been deposited in both. As shelf after shelf rotted away and fell, under its ghastly burden, the coffins were more closely packed, the space at the top grew larger, and room was made for more shelves. The topmost had reached the roof of the arch when the entrances were sealed, and the earth was filled in on top. Again and again, in after years, ,the rain made holes through the ground, and at the old entrance the arch caved in, but the holes were stopped, and no more thought of it. A big shed was built over the vaults, in place of the smaller one that once stood behind it, ahd fifteen or twenty tons of coal were dumped in it. The great weight weakened the arches, and tney fell with a great crash.— New York paper.