Appended to the will is a letter expressing his wishes in the following manner: “Let me be placed in my coffin as quickly as possible after my death, and let nobody outside the household be admitted to my death chamber before I am placed in my coffin. In a word, I do not wish anybody to attend through curiosity to see how I look. Let no photographs be made of my corpse, and let me be buried as soon as possible. For the love of God, do not weep for me. I have lived a life happy enough. The aim of my life was painting, and I gave it all of which I was capable. I might have lived twenty years more, but I could not have progressed any more, so what was the good of it? And how content I should be if no one wore any marks of mourning for me. I always had a horror of it. So, if you cannot do otherwise, wear the least of it possible.”
Ashes in a Golden Receptacle
Carl Schumann, a pedlar who died in May, 1910, at the Home for the Aged in Cincinnati, Ohio, directed that his body be cremated and the ashes tossed to the winds. The will also bequeathed the sum of Fifty Dollars to the Herwegh Maennerchor Society, with instructions that after the cremation the members spend the money having a good time.
The ceremony took place at the crematory at two o’clock in the afternoon, and was conducted by Mr. A. Goldstein, the leader of the Herwegh Maennerchor. While the body was being consumed, the society sang two German songs which were Schumann’s favorites.
When the body was reduced to ashes, they were gathered and placed in a golden receptacle, and as the final words were spoken, they were tossed into the air by Mr. R. Schueschner. The society then began the celebration.
Directions for Cremation
In these days cremation is recognized as a good and lawful way of disposing of our remains; but so late as 1855 it was not so, for we find Mr. William Kinsett, of London, in his will proved in October of that year, stating that, “believing in the impolicy of interring the dead amidst the living, and as an example to others, I give my body, four days after death, to the directors of the Imperial Gas Company, London, to be placed in one of their retorts and consumed to ashes, and that they be paid ten pounds by my executors for the trouble this act will impose upon them for so doing. Should a defence of fanaticism and superstition prevent their granting this my request, then my executors must submit to have my remains buried, in the plainest manner possible, in my family grave in St. John’s Wood Cemetery, to assist in poisoning the living in that neighbourhood.”
Some time after this the matter was frequently discussed in the papers, and public opinion grew slowly in favor of the practice. But it seemed to have been generally doubted whether such a method was in accordance with law and the words in the Church Service, “Earth to earth,” as in 1867 we find a testator directing his nephews to cause his body to be burned “if that can be legally done.” This testamentary wish to be cremated is not confined to recent times, and there seems in the 18th century to have been no difficulty in executors carrying out the directions in this respect in the wills under which they acted. In Dodsley’s “Annual Register” for 1769, under date of Sept. 26, there appears the following statement: “Last night the will of Mrs. Pratt, a widow lady, who lately died at her house in George Street, Hanover Square, was punctually fulfilled by the burning of her body to ashes in her grave in the new burying-ground adjoining to Tyburn turnpike.”
Coffin covered with Calico
Judge E. Y. Terral, of Cameron, Texas, died in August, 1910. His estate was valued at eight thousand dollars. By his will, he directed that no funeral services be had over his body, that no printed notices of his death be issued, that he be buried in a coffin made from rough pine plank covered with black calico and carried in a wagon or hack to the cemetery, and that no marble slab be erected at his grave.