While speaking to Father Crimmins, I got mixed up in my genealogy about the Emmets. He noticed it, when I said something of Thomas Addis Emmet who is buried in St. Paul’s churchyard, on whose monument are graven those Irish lines:
Do mhiannaig se ard-mhathas chum tir a bhraith;
Do thug se clu, a’s fuair se molah a dtir a bhais—
He contemplated great good for the land of his birth
He shed lustre, and received commendation in the land of his decease.
“Thomas Addis is not buried under that monument at all,” said Father Crimmins, “he is buried in that graveyard near the Christian Brothers’ School in Second street, between First and Second avenues”—
“How is that, Father Crimmins?” said I.
“I’ll tell you,” said he: “Some people are not found out to be great till they are dead; when Thomas Addis Emmet was dead to the people of New York, they found out that they had lost a great man; they resolved to erect a monument to his memory, and they erected it in the most revered spot in the city. St. Paul’s churchyard was that spot, that time.
“Nor are McNevin’s remains buried either, under that monument erected to him in St. Paul’s. McNevin was the second husband of his wife. Her first husband’s name was Thomas. He was buried where that monument is. The twice-widowed woman’s name was Riker. She was a sister to Recorder Riker. The Rikers belong to Newtown, Long Island, and have their grave in Newtown. Mrs. McNevin meant to be buried in the grave of her own family and she had McNevin’s remains laid in that grave. Then, when it became a matter of public importance to raise a monument to the memory of McNevin in New York City, there was no difficulty in the way of getting that site for it in St. Paul’s churchyard.
“McNevin’s remains are buried in Newtown; and in the next plot are the remains of another United Irishman—William Sampson. In years gone by, I used to take my boys with me to that graveyard a couple of times a year; decorating the graves, twining the flowers of the two graves into one connected wreath, representative of the two men who were united in Life, being united in Death.”