Kat @ Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:38 pm wrote:Thanks for the pics, Tracy!
It's an apartment house now.
I spoke by phone to a step-member of the old Gardner family that used to live there and they had absolutely nothing to say and no knowledge of anything and no interest either!
Hmmmmm......... I wonder if they know something
What is a Picture, but the capture of a moment in time.
They had no interest in my questions in any shape or form. The young man I talked to lived there his first 9 years and could not even describe the interior of the place after not living there for many years.
Does anyone know whether Emma sent flowers to Lizzie's funeral? Was she even notified of Lizzie's death in time to send flowers?
I find it sad that their estrangement seems to have followed them to the grave. I guess I wish something could be found to show that there was forgiveness at the end.
My research of old news items show that Orrin Gardner would visit Emma in New Hampshire and that he brought her the news of Lizzie's death.
See "Looking For Emma," Hatchet, Feb/March 2006.
I'm confused on one point.
"Grave to be bricked"-do we know if the grave was bricked per Lizzie's request, and was this practice over the casket itself, or was the bricking a kind of vault that the casket fit into and then bricked over?
I know we had to buy a vault for my mother's casket to be placed into once in the ground, so I am wondering if she meant this as a vault or a kind of flat brick wall over her casket.
Kind of scary that people have to worry before they die whether or not someone will desecrate their grave. Sad too. I guess she knew people would not give her peace in life, so why so in death?
Pam
Yes: If I am not mistaken. Don't quote me on this one. But I think I remember reading......................and it does make sense.
Today, when the coffin is placed in the gound, (Crane's Coffins that is )as you well know, it is placed in a cement vault with a lid. Of course this is done for several reasons, but the most important one is so the ground and the grave stays level. Otherwise, when the body and coffin decay, the ground would give way and the cemetery would be full of valleys, ditches and craters.
So, the same was done in Victorian times. I believe the bricking over had more to do with sealing the grave and supporting the ground above then it did with grave robbers.
Not sure how it was done. But some method had to be used to avoid the grave from caving-in after a couple of years. Weather it was bricked over, like a wall, or a vault was built, I'm not sure.
Yes a wake was held for Lizzie, After the embalmers car was spotted outside of maplecroft her wake was held in the parlor of the house, Her coffin was covered with 3 cubic yards of cement to ensure her remains lay undisturbed, She did request to be "buried at her fathers feet"
Which is either the final act of a devoted daughter or the act of a petulant killer
I believe shes innocent so i say the first is more likely
Hmmmmm......... I wonder if they know something 
)as you well know, it is placed in a cement vault with a lid. Of course this is done for several reasons, but the most important one is so the ground and the grave stays level. Otherwise, when the body and coffin decay, the ground would give way and the cemetery would be full of valleys, ditches and craters.
