Here is an interesting chapter describing the early cemeteries and customs in New Orleans. I scanned the pages into word pad, so the divisions you see are page breaks etc. It is a very interesting read. I will send it in 3 parts.  I hope you enjoy it!  Penny T Cemeteries { pgs 186- 198}THE cemeteries of New Orleans are truly cities of the dead. In place of marble and granite slabs set in green lawns or hillsides under trees, one finds closely built-up, walled enclosures filled with oblong house-like tombs, blinding white under the hot southern sun. The deceased reside in the midst of the great living city of their descendants. Very little is known concerning burial of the dead in Colonial times. Interment was beneath the surface of the ground, and there are no remains of tombs or monuments, or even slabs, bearing a date earlier than A graphic picture of the condition of the epidemic in Five dollars an hour failed to hire enough of them. Some of the dead went to the tomb still with martial pomp and honors; but the city scaven. gers, too, with their carts went knocking from house to house asking The death rate per thousand from 1800, the older graves having disappeared. After 1803 the rapid increase in population, together with the inroads made by yellow fever and cholera, created a real municipal problem. New cemeteries were established and old ones enlarged to meet the situation. Rigid regulations regarding methods of burial were issued. Interment in the ground was forbidden, and brick tombs were required in all cemeteries, which were enclosed within high brick walls. The recurring epidemics of yellow fever, however, sent so many dead bodies to the cemeteries that these regulations could not always be carried out. At times the burial grounds were so overtaxed that the only possible way of disposing of the dead was to bury them en masse in shallow trenches as on the field of battle. It is estimated that more than 100,000 are buried in the old St. Louis cemeteries on Basin and Claiborne Streets alone. 1853, drawn by Cable in Creoles of Louisiana, describes a lack of gravediggers: if     there were any to be buried. Long rows of coffins were laid in furrows scarce two feet deep, and hurriedly covered with a few shovels full of earth, which the daily rains washed away, and the whole mass was left, 'filling the air far and near with the most intolerable pestilential odors.' Around the graveyards funeral trains jostled and quarreled for places, in an air reeking with the effluvia of the earlier dead. Many' fell to work and buried their own dead.' Many sick died in carriages and carts. Many were found dead in their beds, in the stores, in the streets .... Cemeteries 1800 to 1880 in some decades was appalling. The lowest figure was 40.22 from 186o, to 1870, while the highest was 63.55 from 1830 to 1840. The manner in which rain and water seepage hampered burials is vividly described in A grave in any of the cemeteries is lower than the adjacent swamps, and from ten to fifteen feet lower than the river, so that it fills speedily with water, requiring to be bailed out before it is fit to receive the coffin, while during heavy rains it is subject to complete inundation. The great Bayou Cemetery (afterwards St. Louis Cemetery The method of tomb burial in New Orleans is unusual. The tombs, which usually consist of two vaults, with a crypt below in which the bones are kept, are carefully sealed to prevent the escape of gases from the decaying bodies. Sometimes they are built in tiers, resembling great, thick walls, and are called' ovens.' After a period of time prescribed by law, the tombs may be opened, the coffins broken and burned, 1!-nd the remains deposited in the crypts. By this method a single tomb may serve the same family for generations. The oven vaults line the walls of the cemetery. In some of the graveyards single vaults can be rented for a certain period, after which, if no disposition is made of the remains by relatives when the period expires, the body is .removed and buried in some out-of-the-way corner of the graveyard, the coffin destroye~, and the vault rented to some other tenant. This seemingly heartless procedure was the only possible manner of interment in the restricted areas of the old burial grounds. Thesystem is giving way to burial in the ground in the more modern cemeteries where family tombs do not already exist, but although it is quite safe nowadays to bury the dead beneath the ground, many tombs are still built. 188 Economic an.d Social Development 189 Cemeteries There have always been certain exceptions to the practice of tomb burial. In the Hebrew cemeteries burial has always been in the ground, and only marble and granite slabs and monuments are seen. The Potter's Field and Charity Hospital Cemetery, where the unclaimed or destitute poor are buried, present another and quite different appearance. The Charity Hospital Cemetery on Canal Street, for instance, has the appearance of a well-kept green lawn. Close examination, however, discloses the existence of small square stones in rows, flush with the ground and marked with numbers. These stones mark the graves of white persons at the Canal Street entrance and of Negroes at the Banks Street end. Only "a few rows of stone markers are visible, since the entire cemetery has recently been raised about three feet. Underneath the present surfaCe are the forgotten graves of many thousands buried there since the cemetery was established in the 1830'S. The absence of trees in the older graveyards is due to the fact that in so constricted a space the roots would cause an unsettling of the walls and tombs. Flowers, except cut flowers in vases, and lawns are also lacking, since there is no place for them to grow. However, on All Saints' Day, November I, Orleanians make up for the lack of flowers, every tomb displaying a remembrance in floral form. The observance of All Saints' Day is a distinctive Creole custom of European origin. Other sections of the country decorate graves on May 30, Memorial Day, or, in Catholic cemeteries, on All Souls' Day, the day following All Saints', but in New Orleans neither of these days is observed in that way. "The Confederate dead are remembered on June 3, while Protestants and Catholics alike fill the cemeteries with flowers on All Saints' Day". In former times the Creole ladies made the day an occasion for the display of winter fashions, and iron benches can still be seen before some tombs where it was the custom for members of the family to sit and receive friends during the day. During the week preceding November I, Negroes can be seen hard at work cleaning and whitewashing the tombs. Gilt paint is sometimes used to make more legible the inscriptions on the tombs and on the blocks of marble used as bases for flower containers. New Orleans is flooded with flowers, chiefly chrysanthemums, which have become defi- - nitely associated with the occasion. The plants are grown in the city and surrounding countryside, and are sold at hundreds of shops, along with cut flowers imported from California and elsewhere. The floral decorations make the cemeteries gay with spots of white, yellow, and bronze. Uere and there painted palm fronds, paper flowers, and ornate wreaths made of beads are to be seen. The same wreath is sometimes brought out year after year. Although a solemn occasion, the city takes on a holiday air. Crowds of people swarm through the burial places. From dawn until dusk the long procession continues, while hundreds of vendors supply refreshments and toys to pacify the children. New Orleans has more than thirty cemeteries at the present time (1937 y. The first Colonial cemeteries and some later graveyards stich as Locust Grove Cemetery, now the site of"the Thomy Lafon Negro school and playground, are no longer in existence. Many of these cemeteries are controlled by church congregations, and several are city property. Almost everyone now has a section for Negroes; and there are no exclusively Negro cemeteries. An Old Spanish document in the Cabildo, dated 1800, and dealing with an auction sale of lots in the old cemetery on Rampart Street 'in front of the Charity Hospital,' mentions that shortly after the founding of the city' the dead were buried on the grounds where later the capitular houses were erected and now stand, and that due to the increase in the population of the city, the said cemetery was transferred to the city block that corners with Bienville and Chartres Streets, being located on tbe second block coming down from the levee of the river toward "the' cathedral,' on a plot now bounded by Bienville, Chartres, Conti, and Royal Streets. The cemetery was maintained here until 1743, when it' was moved to the ramparts opposite the Charity Hospital of that day, on the square between Toulouse, Burgundy, and St. Peters Streets. In 1788 it was moved beyond the ramparts and a little further south. Basin Street was cut through afterwards and the ground from Rampart to Basin Street detached from the cemetery. Human bones dug up as late as 1900 in this area indicate that it onc~ formed a part of the burial ground. Treme Street (Marais) was cut through in 1838 and the graveyard confined to the river side of the street. The present St. Louis Cemetery No. I, with the strip on Marais Street, formerly called the AmeJ:ican Cemetery, is all that now remains of the original Basin Street burial ground. Soon after 1803 a strip in the rear of the Basin Street cemetery was set aside to serve as a burial piace for the Protestants. As the nature of yellow fever was not understood, every conceivable method of protection was tried. It was felt, for one tbing, that contagion spread from the cemeteries, and the City Council carried on a prolonged controversy with the wardens of the Cathedral in an effort to remove St. Louis Cemetery to some other location. In those early days all the ground between Rampart Street and Lake Pontchartrain was a The suburban towns of the period above New Orleans, which were afterwards absorbed into the city, also had their cemeteries. Lafayette Cemetery No. I, at Washington Avenue and Prytania Street, was the first planned cemetery in New Orleans, the lanes being laid out in symmetrical order and provision made for driveways for funeral processions. The first Jewish cemetery, at Jackson Avenue and Benton (Liberty) Streets, dates from the 1820'S. It was closed in 1866, but stilI exists in.tact and is well cared for. St. Joseph's, on Washington Avenue 'and Loyola, was established in 1850. In Bouligny, or Jefferson City, the Soniat Street Cemetery began to be used about 1850, while the Hebrew cemetery.of the Congregation Gates of Prayer, farther out in HurstvilIe (on Joseph Street), was established in 1852. Carrollton Cemetery goes back to the 1830'S.   swamp laced with bayous and foul with stagnant water and refuse from the city. Bayou Ridge Road and Bayou Metairie were the highest places. It was decided to leave the old cemetery as it was and establish a new cemetery on Claiborne Avenue reaching from Canal to St. Louis Streets. The square at Canal and Claiborne was afterwards reclaimed. A new Protestant cemetery was also established at the head of Girod Street. The ground now occupied by the City Yard and the Illinois Central Hospital was subsequently detached. Girod Cemetery was in use before 1820, and St. Louis Cemetery No.2 on Claiborne Avenue dates from 1822. The city found it necessary to esta.blish a pauper burial ground in 1833, and a location on 'Leprous Road' was selected. 'Leper's Land' was the name given to the neighborhood on Galvez Street, between Carondelet Canal and Bayou Road Ridge, because Galvez (17771785) banished the lepers, of whom there was a dangerous number in his day, to that neighborhood, and Miro, his successor (1785-1792), built a house for them there. The new cemetery was situated on the bayou on the present site of St. Louis Cemetery NO.3, and is referred to in old city directories as the Bayou Cemetery. ,As the city grew and the yearly epidemics continued, more and more burial grounds were needed. The present group at the head of Canal Street began about 1840, the Fireman's, Cypress Grove, and St. Patrick's being among the first. After the Civil War the Metairie race track was 'turned into a cemetery and has become the finest in the city. The Hebrew cemeteries on Frenchmen Street and Elysian Fields, and St. Roch's also date from this period. Mark Twain once said that New Orleans had no architecture except that found in its cemeteries. He had the public buildings of the city in   Cemeteries mind, and his statement was truer when made in 1875 than it is today. There are many beautiful tombs in the modern cemeteries, especially in Metairie. The material used ranges from the soft, cement-covered brick of early days, found chiefly in the St. Louis Cemeteries, to the finest of marble and granite carved and shaped into many striking and effective designs, and representing outlays'of thousands of dollars. All styles and combinations of styles of architecture are to be found - Egyptian, Greek, and Gothic. The prevailing color is dazzling white, but striking effects are also secured with gray and red granite. A feature of some of the old tombs in St. Louis Cemetery No. I is the use of small wrought-iron fences topped with a cross of the same material enclosing a little space in front of the tomb. Every large tomb has a place for flower vases, and most of the 'oven' vaults have a small shelf for the same purpose, some of which are never without floral offerings. The prevailing design in tombs is a rectangle with a rounded top, but diminutive temples, Gothic cathedrals, and irregular designs of various kinds are to be found in all cemeteries. Many mausoleums erected by societies are scattered through all the burial grounds. Sometimes these are plain square 'beehives,' but often they are unusual in design, like the mound tomb of the Army of Tennessee in Metairie, and the Elks' tomb in Greenwood. Fewer epitaphs are to be found in the New Orleans cemeteries than elsewhere. The large number of people usually buried in a family tomb and the consequent lack of space on the slab make anything more than the name and dates impracticable. Wordings in many different languages are found; French and English, however, are most frequent. Perhaps the outstanding epitaph, at least from the old-fashioned Southern point of view, is the rhetorical tribute to Albert Sidney Johnston by John Dimitry, carved on the rear wall of the vault of the tomb of the Army of Tennessee in Metairie. In Girod Cemetery there is a forgotten tomb in which Jane Placide, the once-famous actress of the American Theater, rests. James H. Caldwell, manager of the theater and notable for many activities in early New Orleans history, had her tomb built and selected the epitaph. They were lovers, and Caldwell's tribute, in the verses of Barry Cornwall, were often on the lips of romanticists: There's not an hour Of day or dreaming night but I am with thee; There's not a breeze but whispers of thy' name, And not a flower that sleeps beneath the moon But in its hues or fragrance tells a tale Of thee. DeBow's Review of September 1852: NO.3 on Esplanade Avenue) is sometimes so completely inundated that inhumation becomes impossible until after the subsidence of the water; the dead bodies accumulating in the meanwhile. I have watched the bailing out of the grave, the floating of the coffin, and have heard the friends of the deceased deplore this mode of interment. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ