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Courtesy of the Parks Department
Perhaps it would have been nice to have had the mystery of the Washington Square Park tombstone prolonged until Halloween, but the case has seemingly been cracked! In just under a week the unearthed tombstone has been dusted off and, the NY Times reports, belongs to one James Jackson who died in September of 1799.
The New-York Historical Society believes that he resided at 19 East George Street (the former name of Market Street), and was a watchman and grocer. They say, “There are many fewer Jacksons than I would have expected in the directory. Chances are this is him." It's suspected he may have died from yellow fever, which was rampant in the city at the time.
The inscription on the stone, which was just 2 1/2 feet underground, reads: “Here lies the body of James Jackson, who departed this life the 22nd day of September 1799 aged 28 years native of the county of Kildare Ireland.” And while the body hasn't been found yet (it may have been moved when the area was developed), parks commissioner Adrian Benepe declares: “They’re going to try to unravel the mystery of James Jackson and how the headstone came to be there," as well as find his body.
An archaeological consultant for the parks department told the paper that finding a headstone in the area is "very unusual. In fact, I’m stunned.” While it was a potter's field (which wouldn't have contained headstones), the park also was the grounds for at least one church cemetery, as the Inside the Apple folks stated yesterday.
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It's suspected he may have died from yellow fever, which was rampant in the city at the time.
Yellow fever is still rampant in the city, judging by all the couples I see that ... oh wait, you mean the disease. Never mind.
jealousy is a terrible thing.
Probably TMI, but I literally snotted on my desk when I read that. Nice one.
Ditto! Nice one, LOLOL.
LMAO:))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Awesome, you're my hero today.
lol, Peter.
the tombstone looks like it is in great condition for over 200 years old. good things!
The city will be sending out a bill for 200+ years of overdue cemetery fees.
Now we find out the guy is Irish. What happens next?
Peter, I can't believe there's never been an equivalent to jungle fever until just now, well done.
Can someone please tell me what a "potter's field" is? Sounds like a nice community garden like those we see in Alphabet City these days, but from the 20,000+ bodies supposedly buried there to what I think I've read about it being a military training grounds and then a military burial grounds, potter's field sounds misleading to me.
I've heard "Yellow Fever" used to describe white guys who dig asian girls for years. However, allow me to offer "Pink Eye" as a term for what the girls in those relationships suffer from.
Potter's Field.
A place for mass internment of the corpses of those whose families can't pay for burial, or unidentified corpses. 2000 a year are now buried this way at Hart Island:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island,_New_York
How far we've come.
Hmmm. Just thinking that it's a very good thing indeed that the name on the tombstone was JAMES Jackson, otherwise this amazing find might have been written off as a terrible publicity stunt.
This is so cool. I freakin love this story. It's so neat when old New York pops up.
With swine flu lurking on the sidelines perhaps it would be best not to dig up corpses of people that died of contagious diseases...
i guess someone just watched Night of the Living Dead
Another reason to be cremated. In 200 years all of our graves will be paved over for a Walmart parking lot.
This is really interesting, as it would appear that the burial was not in consecrated ground - wonder if there is an interesting story re that? If the land had belonged to Jackson it might have been part of a family burial ground but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Thank you for writing about this, it is fascinating! I am an expat New Yorker (born and raised in Manhattan) who blogs about old New York from afar at a Virtual Dime Museum (I'm a Barnum fan!)
http://thevirtualdimemuseum.blogspot.com
I'm so surprised at Gothamist's reporter first lifting parts of my story at the Washington Square Park Blog which broke this story in their first entry --
Compare WSP Blog post Monday 10/26 (which broke the story):
http://washingtonsquarepark.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/more-on-possible-tombstone-discovery-at-washington-square-park-discovery-could-date-back-to-18th-century/
to this :
http://gothamist.com/2009/10/26/washington_square_park.php
There is basically no attribution except a brief mention in that piece that a reader wrote in to WSP blog, as if all the reporting - and breaking of - the story did not also come from WSP Blog. In addition, WSP Blog first announced the discovery of the tombstone the previous Friday 10/23. In their follow-up story above, again, they neglect mentioning the site where they first got their information (but are quick to mention the New York Times and Inside the Apple).
Gothamist has lost my respect and support with this. I wrote to the editor privately and she declined to respond. At the least, they should be respectful to their fellow bloggers.
Sincerely,
Cathryn Swan
Washington Square Park Blog.
Cathryn, I just sent you an email (I apologize for not replying to you immediately, but not only am I working on Gothamist, I'm also overseeing other Gothamist LLC sites and issues).
We are thrilled that you broke the story last weekâand mentioned you in the initial 10/26 post. We're sorry you're unhappy with not being mentioned in every followup, but the later stories about the tombstone were from Inside the Apple (10/27) and CityRoom (10/28) while your most recent story is the 10/26 one.