Day 209 - Salt Lake City Cemetery & a Mystery

"All that we are is a result of what we have thought."
-Buddha

Visited the Salt Lake City Cemetery for my first time this afternoon.  It was so peaceful and so beautiful.  The old headstones are my favorite.  Some were so old they seemed to be crumbling and others you couldn't read half of what was carved on them.  The variety of names and headstones was really amazing to see all together in one place.  War veterans, children, old headstones, brand new headstones, Jewish, Catholic, LDS, Indian, even a paupers field.

The Jewish cemetery was beautiful.  Some of the tombstones had what I assume is Hebrew written on them.  Why do family members place little stones on their families tombstones?  It seems a very sweet tradition.

Some of the tombstones were sad.  Little children-The Angel Monument for anyone who has lost a little child and the Wheelchair Monument for the little 9 year old boy were touching.  We ran across one that was a bench and the little 2 year old boy's family had left him some toy cars to play with.  I almost cried with that one.

Family members like these sisters that went within a month of each other, what illness did they have?  Ages 3, 7, 12 and Mary most likely sick on her 12th birthday.

But these two were the ones that moved me the most.  Their testimony shouts what they believe, even in death and maybe because they were always my heroes that I was especially excited to see them.  I didn't know they were buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery.  

Firm in the Faith of the Gospel

"My body sleeps for a moment, but my testimony lives and shall endure forever."

So much history here.  I would love to learn the stories behind all the people buried here.  I bet there are some really interesting ones.  We ran into one gentleman, and his son, who was their visiting his grandfather.  He told me his grandfather came into the valley with Brigham Young.  How cool is that!

The first pioneers to the valley almost starved to death that first year and then the crickets came and started eating their harvest before the Lord sent seagulls to eat the crickets.  I bet that gentleman has some amazing family stories to share!

There is even a mystery that surround the Cemetery.  The Unsolved mystery of Jean-Baptiste.  Jean-Baptiste was employed as the first grave digger for the Salt Lake City Cemetery.  The death of Moroni Clawson set off a chain of events that would etch Jean-Baptiste into the pages of Utah's Mysteries and Urban Legends forever.  Here is the story:

Those who knew and loved young Moroni Clawson were no doubt saddened by his death in January 1862 and may have even witnessed his burial in the city cemetery on the north bench of Salt Lake City. Several days later, however, their private grief turned public. An event had occurred that, according to outraged citizens and public officials, could not pass unnoticed and without severe consequences.

Only weeks before his death, Moroni Clawson had been arrested for participating in the sensational robbery and assault of Gov. John W. Dawson whose stormy relationship with the Mormons had prompted him to flee the territory. When the young man escaped from the penitentiary on January 17, he was pursued and shot down by a Salt Lake police officer. Since no one came forward to pay for a proper burial, Henry Heath of the city police department purchased, with his own money, Clawson's burial clothes. After witnessing the burial, Heath was surprised to learn a week later that, while uncovering the grave to move the body to a family cemetery, George Clawson, Moroni's brother, had discovered that the corpse was completely naked!

Heath quickly organized an investigation of the strange occurrence. Finding no evidence at the grave site, he continued his inquiry at the home of gravedigger Jean Baptiste. His wife invited the officers into the house. While there they noticed a stack of boxes in a corner of the room. One of the officers peeked inside a box and found neatly folded burial clothes. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Jean Baptiste had collected nearly 60 pairs of children's and adult's shoes, clothing, and personal belongings by robbing some 300 graves. He was arrested and sent to jail.

When news of the lurid discovery spread throughout the city, residents expressed both their horror and loathing of the crime. Mobs gathered at the jail, threatening to lynch the grave robber. Hundreds thronged to the city courthouse during his trial. In reaction to the situation, Brigham Young assured worried residents that the bodies of their loved ones would rise up in the resurrection wearing the original clothes in which they were buried. Meanwhile, police officers tried to correct part of the problem by putting all the burial clothes found in Baptiste's home in a large box and burying it in a single grave in the cemetery.

Still, the question of what to do with Jean Baptiste remained. Shunned even by his fellow inmates, he was not safe within or outside prison walls. Arguing that the prisoner's safety could not be guaranteed, city officials had Baptiste secretly placed in a wagon at night and taken across the Antelope Bar to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. He was soon moved to the more remote Fremont Island in order to prevent his wading ashore to the mainland.

Jean Baptiste's life in exile on Fremont Island was short-lived. Only three weeks after his arrival cattle herders came to the island to survey their animals. They discovered that a heifer had been killed and its hide tanned for leather. Lengths of wood had been torn from a small ranch house on the island, presumably to construct a raft. Leaving behind only these small traces of his existence and possible escape, Jean Baptiste was nowhere to be found.

The mystery of the eventual fate of Jean Baptiste has never been solved. When hunters found a skeleton with an iron clamp around its leg near the mouth of the Jordan River in March 1893, an article in the Salt Lake Tribune retold the story of Jean Baptiste and speculated that the skeleton belonged to the unfortunate convict. The Deseret News contested this theory by recording the statements of police officers Henry Heath and Albert Dewey confirming that Jean Baptiste was not wearing a ball and chain around his leg when he was placed on Fremont Island. This controversy added yet another puzzling element to the Jean Baptiste story. Even today the bizarre tale of his grave robberies and island exile remains a mystery in the annals of Utah history.