Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1871 — A Curious Case. [ARTICLE]

A Curious Case.

X-gentleman named Charles McGrath, a resident of Rockwood, Ontario,* was •topping in the city yesterday for a few hours, to await the departure of a train over the Great Western Railroad, and he put our reporter in possession of the facts connected with a rather curious affair which he had just succeeded in satisfactorily arranging. On the lfltn of July a brother of McGrath, named William, aged about twen-

ty-soven years, died at Rockwood, b< ing an inmate of this gentleman’s ftmlly. The mother livos at Amboy, 111, and aa other members of tho family are buried there. McGrath determined to take the corpse of his brother there for interment. He ac cordlngly telegraphed the mother to that effect, and the body Was sent by expitss on the 18th, McGrath following the next day. He arrived at Amboy to find that the body had not yet reached there, noi did it appear next day, nor the next Knowing that some mistake had occurred, McGrath questioned the express agent more closely, and to his surprko found that a family of his mother's name, living shout three miles from the village, haa taken from the office his brother’s body, the agent finding among his papers the rfeceipt given by them. The coffinbox was marked “W. McG.,” with black paint, while tho express receipt read that the body of one “W. McGrath” had l>een received at Rockwood for shipment to Amboy. Procuring a conveyance, McGrath rode out to the locality indicated, and found that tho body received by the family had been buried, the people having yet hardly ceased to weep. He broke in upon their grief with the assertion that they had been burying a strange corpse, and there was an immediate excitement. The strange McGrath immediately denied the statement, and brought out a letter from one Thomas McGrath, his son, at London, Ontario, saying that his brother Walter was dead, and that he should express home the corpse for burial. They claimed to have looked at the body, recognized the features of the deceased, and were for having the intruder arrested at once. He held to this statement, however, and desired the body exhumed, offering to point out certain scars which would convince them that William McGrath could not be Watler McGrath, although there might be a resemblance between the two. The iamily would not consent to this, and Charles took counsel of a lawyer. Tho express agent was again consulted, but he could give no further information than that his records showed that tbe body of “W. McGrath ” had been received and turned over. That it was shipped at Rockwood instead of London was a point in favor of the claimant, butthe McGraths-still held firm, as the letter did not state particularly that the corpse would be shipped ot London. The lawyer was puzzled to know how to proceed. If Charles McGrath was correct the body could be recovered without serious difficulty; if he was wrong it would be hard with the man who dare disturb the sanctity of the grave. While waiting and pondering a letter arrived for the strange McGraths, and they were not slow in making its conten's known. > The writer stated mat owing to the difficulty of finding an embalmer it was, thought best not to forward the remainfi, but to inter them at London. This was evidence enough to them that they had buried an unknown man, and they readily consented to opening the grave. Alter the epf; fin was taken out, it was opened to fiat 1 isfy them that they had been greatly deceived. They, however, claimed that they had not seen their dead son for about eight years, and were, therefore, prepared to believe that his features had undergone change enough to make them resemble those of the corpse before them. They had gazed long at the face of the dead, wept bitter tears over the son’s untimely fate, and never once dreamed that the face was one which they had never seen before. The body waa removed to the village, and next day buried by its proper friends. Me-, Grata was yesterday returning home from his Western journey, and not only had with him copies of the two letters to the McGraths, to show that his statements were true, but a copy of the express receipt and a receipt for the services of the undertaker who buried the body the second time. —Detroit Tribun*