My friends - I apologize for having been away from the List for a longer period than I would have liked, but a number of extracurricular activities has severely limited my time in the past couple of weeks. Recently, one of the JP List subscribers - our good friend, Shannon McFarlin - inquired here about an unusual burial container which had, through soil erosion and heavy rains, had surfaced in Henry County, Tennessee in 1960. Shannon is preparing a retrospective article for the autumn edition of "Paris!" magazine about this unusual event. She and I undertook to try to discover more about the unusual burial container, resembling a sarcophagus, with a head glass, in which a small child had been placed, and, in 1960, the face of the child, very well preserved, could be seen through the glass. This was the item that was exposed from its resting place in 1960. Shannon's article will, I am sure, be excellent reading and I look forward to learning more about that 1960 event. The subject of burial containers is not one which I have discussed here in the past, in any detail, if at all. So, I will spend a few lines of this posting to give a few facts about burial customs and containers. Today, most people use the terms "coffin" and "casket" interchangeably, but there is a technical difference between the two. A coffin is six-sided, broader at the shoulders than at the foot, while a casket is rectangular in form(which is what we use today in most cases). The burial of the dead has varied in custom from time to time, moving from simply digging a grave and placing the body into it and then covering it up, to the massive rituals expressed by the Egyptians, back again to simple burial of the body often without an enclosure, and then, in America, the use of simple pine boxes, with the last rites generally occurring within no more than two days after the death of the individual, due to the decomposition process before embalming was discovered and used widely. Last rites were usually held in the home of the deceased, or at the cemetery, or, occasionally, in a church or other public place. Gradually, toward the end of the 19th century, and as embalming become more common, churches and "undertakers salons" became the place of choice for a funeral. Pine coffins, in the 19th century, could be had from most carpenters or cabinet makers for around $5.00, plus the cost of hardware, such as handles, etc. A hardwood coffin could cost as much as $30, exclusive of the hardware. Embalming, available as early as 1840 in the US, did not come into use to any great extent until the time of the War Between the States, when it became imperative that slain soldiers' bodies be preserved for shipment back to their families. The process was used by progressive morticians prior to the WBTS, but the use of embalming in that war greatly expanded the use of it during and after the war. If a mortician handled the preparation of a body in the late 19th century, the living relative or individual who was paying for the funeral would be charged extra for embalming(usually about $3-$5), and for any burial clothing beyond a simple "wrapper". A "robe" would cost about $1.50, and a full suit or dress could cost as much as $8.00. In some cases, the funeral director would also handle the erection of the grave marker, which could be an additional charge of perhaps $10.00, unless the family requested granite or marble, which could add another $20 to the cost. It was, however, usually left to the family to erect the marker themselves. Wooden containers were not the only choice available, however in some places. That brings us to the device containing the small child which appeared in Henry Co., TN in 1960. This was a Fisk Metallic Burial Container, Model # 1. They were available in sizes from 29 inches to 84 inches. They were expensive(about $40-$50)and were advertised as the best burial containers available, sealed so completely that an embalmed body could stay preserved indefinitely. The containers always had a viewing glass in the head region. The 1960 incident substantiates the claim, as the child within appeared to be almost perfectly preserved, even though this young person had passed on perhaps 100-110 years earlier. We know that the child died between about 1850 and 1860, since Fisk introduced Model # 2 in 1858. Model # 2 did not resemble a sarcophagus nearly as much as did Model # 1, hence we can date, within about a decade, the time of this child's passing. We can also deduce that the family to whom she belonged was reasonably well to do financially, as the cost of these metallic containers was not inexpensive. Unfortunately, the identity of the child was never established and a private reinterrment for it occurred several months after the container washed up. I have seen one or two other Fisk containers in photos of the grave removals in the TVA archives. But they were unusual in the JP region of both KY and TN in the 1850's. I intend to bring another of Gordon Wilson's narratives later this week. -B =====================================================================