"THE FIRST LANCASTRIAN CREMATED.
How one of the Founders of the Society Exemplified His Principles.
The sun went down and the moon rose up. Twilight melted into moonlight, and the lamps of the little chapel in the Lancaster crematorium cast "a dim religious light" through it, that was in striking contrast with the silvery effulgence flooding all out-of-doors at 8 o'clock last evening.
Through the long avenue that runs between fragrant corn fields guests invited to the private ceremony and curiosity seekers, on foot and in carriages, wended their way to the crematorium; for it was generally known that the body of the late George Brubaker, politician and lawyer, was to be cremated. He was the first member of the society who had died since its establishment and his was the first body of a Lancastrian disposed of by the new method.
The visitors crowded the room. It was hot. The night was close and still, and the radiation from the furnace materially heightened the temperature. There were quite a number of ladies present, and several persons from outside the city. The all waited in solemn silence for the ceremony, which was novel to most of the assemblage.
The arrival of the body was not noticed. The hearse had driven up; the corpse was removed to the inner room, prepared for the iron crib, enveloped in the alum-steeped shroud, laid upon the catafalque and covered with the pall, before Dr. M. L. Davis' unlocking of the door signaled to the assemblage that the ceremony was about to begin.
When the wheeled bier had been brought out into the chapel, before the door of the retort was opened, Rev. J. Max Hark, standing by the son of the deceased, H. C. Brubaker and his two sons, read an extract from that matchless fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians; and after that the great iron door was unbolted, and for a moment the rosy light of the interior was seen. Then with celerity and without a hitch of the apparatus the body was reverently placed in the retort, the door closed and in a few seconds the quick processes of decomposition were at work. In little over an hour were finished the labor of the worm and the decay of the grave that go on for years and overlap the centuries.
A boys' choir, under the direction of Prof. Matz, chanted "A Few More Years Shall Roll;" the clergyman uttered a brief prayer and benediction, and the spectators went out into the cool evening air.
As they looked across to the further banks of the Conestoga, whereon the moonlight slept, they saw a light veil of smoke hanging momentarily above the crematorium; and then, "in soft stillness and the night" a gentle breeze, which had arisen to "kiss the trees," scattered it. "Better thus," said an old man leaning on his staff, "than the slow rot of earth."
Dr. Napoleon B. Wolfe, of Cincinnati, was among the spectators. He says he has erected in the cemetery at Columbia, on his family lot, a monument that cost as much as the entire Lancaster crematorium. He thinks the latter money better spent., and he is a convert to cremation.
E. H. Rauch, of the Carbon Democrat, who was a deputy under Mr. Brubaker when the latter was register of wills, was a spectator. He is ardently in favor of cremation, and says that in his town, where the cemeteries are filled and nearly every foothold on the steep hillsides has been occupied, cremation must soon be resorted to as a necessity."
Lancaster Daily Intelligencer. 25 August 1885
How one of the Founders of the Society Exemplified His Principles.
The sun went down and the moon rose up. Twilight melted into moonlight, and the lamps of the little chapel in the Lancaster crematorium cast "a dim religious light" through it, that was in striking contrast with the silvery effulgence flooding all out-of-doors at 8 o'clock last evening.
Through the long avenue that runs between fragrant corn fields guests invited to the private ceremony and curiosity seekers, on foot and in carriages, wended their way to the crematorium; for it was generally known that the body of the late George Brubaker, politician and lawyer, was to be cremated. He was the first member of the society who had died since its establishment and his was the first body of a Lancastrian disposed of by the new method.
The visitors crowded the room. It was hot. The night was close and still, and the radiation from the furnace materially heightened the temperature. There were quite a number of ladies present, and several persons from outside the city. The all waited in solemn silence for the ceremony, which was novel to most of the assemblage.
The arrival of the body was not noticed. The hearse had driven up; the corpse was removed to the inner room, prepared for the iron crib, enveloped in the alum-steeped shroud, laid upon the catafalque and covered with the pall, before Dr. M. L. Davis' unlocking of the door signaled to the assemblage that the ceremony was about to begin.
When the wheeled bier had been brought out into the chapel, before the door of the retort was opened, Rev. J. Max Hark, standing by the son of the deceased, H. C. Brubaker and his two sons, read an extract from that matchless fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians; and after that the great iron door was unbolted, and for a moment the rosy light of the interior was seen. Then with celerity and without a hitch of the apparatus the body was reverently placed in the retort, the door closed and in a few seconds the quick processes of decomposition were at work. In little over an hour were finished the labor of the worm and the decay of the grave that go on for years and overlap the centuries.
A boys' choir, under the direction of Prof. Matz, chanted "A Few More Years Shall Roll;" the clergyman uttered a brief prayer and benediction, and the spectators went out into the cool evening air.
As they looked across to the further banks of the Conestoga, whereon the moonlight slept, they saw a light veil of smoke hanging momentarily above the crematorium; and then, "in soft stillness and the night" a gentle breeze, which had arisen to "kiss the trees," scattered it. "Better thus," said an old man leaning on his staff, "than the slow rot of earth."
Dr. Napoleon B. Wolfe, of Cincinnati, was among the spectators. He says he has erected in the cemetery at Columbia, on his family lot, a monument that cost as much as the entire Lancaster crematorium. He thinks the latter money better spent., and he is a convert to cremation.
E. H. Rauch, of the Carbon Democrat, who was a deputy under Mr. Brubaker when the latter was register of wills, was a spectator. He is ardently in favor of cremation, and says that in his town, where the cemeteries are filled and nearly every foothold on the steep hillsides has been occupied, cremation must soon be resorted to as a necessity."
Lancaster Daily Intelligencer. 25 August 1885
"THE FIRST LANCASTRIAN CREMATED.
How one of the Founders of the Society Exemplified His Principles.
The sun went down and the moon rose up. Twilight melted into moonlight, and the lamps of the little chapel in the Lancaster crematorium cast "a dim religious light" through it, that was in striking contrast with the silvery effulgence flooding all out-of-doors at 8 o'clock last evening.
Through the long avenue that runs between fragrant corn fields guests invited to the private ceremony and curiosity seekers, on foot and in carriages, wended their way to the crematorium; for it was generally known that the body of the late George Brubaker, politician and lawyer, was to be cremated. He was the first member of the society who had died since its establishment and his was the first body of a Lancastrian disposed of by the new method.
The visitors crowded the room. It was hot. The night was close and still, and the radiation from the furnace materially heightened the temperature. There were quite a number of ladies present, and several persons from outside the city. The all waited in solemn silence for the ceremony, which was novel to most of the assemblage.
The arrival of the body was not noticed. The hearse had driven up; the corpse was removed to the inner room, prepared for the iron crib, enveloped in the alum-steeped shroud, laid upon the catafalque and covered with the pall, before Dr. M. L. Davis' unlocking of the door signaled to the assemblage that the ceremony was about to begin.
When the wheeled bier had been brought out into the chapel, before the door of the retort was opened, Rev. J. Max Hark, standing by the son of the deceased, H. C. Brubaker and his two sons, read an extract from that matchless fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians; and after that the great iron door was unbolted, and for a moment the rosy light of the interior was seen. Then with celerity and without a hitch of the apparatus the body was reverently placed in the retort, the door closed and in a few seconds the quick processes of decomposition were at work. In little over an hour were finished the labor of the worm and the decay of the grave that go on for years and overlap the centuries.
A boys' choir, under the direction of Prof. Matz, chanted "A Few More Years Shall Roll;" the clergyman uttered a brief prayer and benediction, and the spectators went out into the cool evening air.
As they looked across to the further banks of the Conestoga, whereon the moonlight slept, they saw a light veil of smoke hanging momentarily above the crematorium; and then, "in soft stillness and the night" a gentle breeze, which had arisen to "kiss the trees," scattered it. "Better thus," said an old man leaning on his staff, "than the slow rot of earth."
Dr. Napoleon B. Wolfe, of Cincinnati, was among the spectators. He says he has erected in the cemetery at Columbia, on his family lot, a monument that cost as much as the entire Lancaster crematorium. He thinks the latter money better spent., and he is a convert to cremation.
E. H. Rauch, of the Carbon Democrat, who was a deputy under Mr. Brubaker when the latter was register of wills, was a spectator. He is ardently in favor of cremation, and says that in his town, where the cemeteries are filled and nearly every foothold on the steep hillsides has been occupied, cremation must soon be resorted to as a necessity."
Lancaster Daily Intelligencer. 25 August 1885
How one of the Founders of the Society Exemplified His Principles.
The sun went down and the moon rose up. Twilight melted into moonlight, and the lamps of the little chapel in the Lancaster crematorium cast "a dim religious light" through it, that was in striking contrast with the silvery effulgence flooding all out-of-doors at 8 o'clock last evening.
Through the long avenue that runs between fragrant corn fields guests invited to the private ceremony and curiosity seekers, on foot and in carriages, wended their way to the crematorium; for it was generally known that the body of the late George Brubaker, politician and lawyer, was to be cremated. He was the first member of the society who had died since its establishment and his was the first body of a Lancastrian disposed of by the new method.
The visitors crowded the room. It was hot. The night was close and still, and the radiation from the furnace materially heightened the temperature. There were quite a number of ladies present, and several persons from outside the city. The all waited in solemn silence for the ceremony, which was novel to most of the assemblage.
The arrival of the body was not noticed. The hearse had driven up; the corpse was removed to the inner room, prepared for the iron crib, enveloped in the alum-steeped shroud, laid upon the catafalque and covered with the pall, before Dr. M. L. Davis' unlocking of the door signaled to the assemblage that the ceremony was about to begin.
When the wheeled bier had been brought out into the chapel, before the door of the retort was opened, Rev. J. Max Hark, standing by the son of the deceased, H. C. Brubaker and his two sons, read an extract from that matchless fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians; and after that the great iron door was unbolted, and for a moment the rosy light of the interior was seen. Then with celerity and without a hitch of the apparatus the body was reverently placed in the retort, the door closed and in a few seconds the quick processes of decomposition were at work. In little over an hour were finished the labor of the worm and the decay of the grave that go on for years and overlap the centuries.
A boys' choir, under the direction of Prof. Matz, chanted "A Few More Years Shall Roll;" the clergyman uttered a brief prayer and benediction, and the spectators went out into the cool evening air.
As they looked across to the further banks of the Conestoga, whereon the moonlight slept, they saw a light veil of smoke hanging momentarily above the crematorium; and then, "in soft stillness and the night" a gentle breeze, which had arisen to "kiss the trees," scattered it. "Better thus," said an old man leaning on his staff, "than the slow rot of earth."
Dr. Napoleon B. Wolfe, of Cincinnati, was among the spectators. He says he has erected in the cemetery at Columbia, on his family lot, a monument that cost as much as the entire Lancaster crematorium. He thinks the latter money better spent., and he is a convert to cremation.
E. H. Rauch, of the Carbon Democrat, who was a deputy under Mr. Brubaker when the latter was register of wills, was a spectator. He is ardently in favor of cremation, and says that in his town, where the cemeteries are filled and nearly every foothold on the steep hillsides has been occupied, cremation must soon be resorted to as a necessity."
Lancaster Daily Intelligencer. 25 August 1885
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