Post by Graveyardbride on May 6, 2015 5:01:37 GMT -5
Mystery Gifts Appear on 19th Century Graves
EASTON, Penn. – Gifts arrive for William and Lucy Barnet on holidays. Some years they come as frequently as once a month. No one is sure how often. Sometimes, it's a toy. A bouquet of plastic roses. A handful of loose change. As far back as anyone can recall, presents have arrived consistently at the grave of two Easton children who died more than 160 years ago. The identity of whomever is leaving the gifts has been a secret for decades at least – and possibly more than a century.
The weather-scarred stone that bears Lucy's and William's names stands beneath a concrete canopy a few hundred yards from the North 7th Street entrance to the 59-acre cemetery. The stone figure of a sleeping child is atop the tomb. Rain and snow have washed away some details. The side of the marker that faces the road that winds past the cemetery's chapel reads Lucy Minturn Barnet. She died February 2, 1853, three months before her second birthday. One day last week, a stuffed Snoopy in a red, white and blue top hat lay on its side just above Lucy's name. A doll baby rested in the sculpture's arms. There were plastic flowers, a toy man riding a surfboard and a recently minted penny.
The name on the opposite side of the box is William Henry Barnet, whom the inscription claims was lost at sea March 31, 1848, when he was 17-years-old. On this side of the marker, someone arranged a row of matchbox cars, Thomas the Tank Engine figurines and a figure in a football helmet.
Are the tributes at this grave a family tradition that has continued through the ages? Has a club or local organization adopted the Barnets as their own? Or is there no organization at all; rather, has the somber reality of two lives plucked so swiftly struck a chord with many different passers-by?
No one knows. No one has ever seen a gift-giver. On their walks through the garden of stone sculptures – much of it more than a century old in the section where Lucy and William are buried – caretakers sometimes see color popping from the Barnet stone. That's when they know something new has arrived.
No one knows how long the gifts have been arriving either. One groundskeeper has worked at the graveyard more than 30 years and says the gifts have been coming since before his time.
"I love the fact that somebody pays tribute to them," Superintendent Jeff Mutchler says. Mutchler has been in charge of the cemetery little more than a year. Sixteen decades is the oldest grave at which he's seen a regular flow of gifts, but he doesn't find what's happening at the Barnets' grave surprising. The acres of monoliths connect with the living in strange ways, he indicates. Sometimes, phone calls come from thousands of miles away requesting that fresh flowers be placed on a decades-old grave.
On Saturday, the Friends of the Easton Cemetery, a newly created community support organization for the historic burial ground, will host an event that underscores the importance the stone slabs and sculptures have for some. Marianne Greenfield of Delphi, N.Y., will visit to demonstrate methods for cleaning headstones. Many of the stones – the Barnet tomb included – are blackened with mildew or marred by acid raid. From about 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the group hopes guests will learn how to clean the stones, then wash as many markers as possible in three hours. .
Wandering through a cemetery and kneeling at graves may seem morbid to some, but there's so much history at Easton Cemetery, explains organizer Kay Wolff. And many people every year come to stroll among the stones to see who is buried there. Could one of them be the Barnet's gift giver? Wolff says she doesn't know.
The Morning Call found few historical records concerning the Barnet family. If the old newspapers and handwritten documents at the Marx Local History Room at the Easton Public Library are accurate, Lucy and William were the children of David and Louisa Barnet, who, in the mid 1800s, lived in a home at 18 South Fourth Street. David Barnet was born June 27, 1803. At the time of his death on November 23, 1861, he was a director of the Easton Bank. An old Easton directory from the mid-19th century listed David Barnet as "a gentleman." On January 30, 1831, David Barnet and Louisa Berlin were married. They were members of Trinity Episcopal Church on Spring Garden Street in Easton.
The couple had at least three children. On December 11, 1831, William Henry was born. He attended Lafayette College for one year. He "sought a sailor's life, and on his first home voyage was lost at sea, March 21, '48," according to a dusty book called Record of the Men of Lafayette: Brief Biographical Sketches of the Alumni. Lucy was born on February 2, 1853. She died 20 months later in Lambertville, N.J. Lucy's death is listed in the oldest book of records at Trinity Episcopal – one dating to 1819 – written in cursive. There is no record of her baptism. The Rev. Canon Andrew T. Gerns, Trinity's current rector, said it's possible members of his parish are leaving the gifts, but he'd never heard the story about the grave and didn't know for sure. Another child, Francis V. Barnet was born in 1841. He survived into his 60s and died in 1907 in Phoenixville, Penn., where he'd been an attorney.
Descendants also were difficult to ascertain. A man named Frank Barnet was born in 1915, worked at Bethlehem Steel and died in 2002. Today, his son, Richard Barnet, lives in North Carolina. Richard Barnet says the spelling of his last name (one “t” instead of two), comes from the town of Barnet in Great Britain. He said he knew his ancestors hailed from Easton, but is unsure if he is related to William or Lucy.
Is the gift giver a descendant of the family? Mutchler says he hopes the identity remains undiscovered. The person, or persons, have chosen to carry on in secrecy, without fanfare, and as far as Mutchler is concerned, this should continue. Mutchler doesn't want to see sanctity disturbed. "What they're doing is honorable," he observes. "Soldiers do it for soldiers. Mothers do it for children. It's the way we're made."
The 164th anniversary of Lucy Minturn Barnet's birth is May 25. Mutchler says if the presents are associated with specific events – like a birthday – he hasn't noticed. But it seems that for someone, the sculpture of the sleeping child atop Lucy Barnet's grave is a reminder that she will remain a toddler forever. Will she receive a birthday gift?
Source: Bill Landauer, The Morning Call, May 5, 2015.