green-wood cemetery

Garrett and I spent a pleasant afternoon yesterday with my friend, Emily. Most of our time together was spent walking through Green-Wood Cemetery. The park-like burial ground was founded in 1838 and is the final resting place for New York residents throughout history, including quite a few notable figures. A portion of the Battle of Brooklyn (also know as the Battle of Long Island) was fought on the site in 1776, though, as far as I'm aware, no Revolutionary War soldiers killed then were buried here. This is, however, where a good many Civil War soldiers and veterans were laid to rest.

During our stroll through the grounds, we tracked down a few graves who belong to people you may recognize. We found Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph language named for him:



And William "Boss" Tweed, the corrupted New York politician who swindled taxpayers out of millions:



We also happened upon one of the Steinway (of piano fame) mausoleums, but I didn't take a picture. And we didn't make it to Leonard Berenstein's grave, Louis Tiffany's or Henry Ward Beecher's. (Next time.)

But at Horace Greeley's monument, which was situated at the top of a steep hill, we found cemetery employees digging up his grave. No one was sure why exactly they were assigned to this task, but it was fascinatingly creepy just the same.

The diggers invited us to take a peek, not that there was much to see, but still. That's generally an offer one doesn't refuse. I positioned Garrett in what seemed to be a safe spot on the hill while I took two steps over to check things out.


Suddenly, one of the diggers yelled out, "The baby!" and took off running. I turned around to find that Garrett, who had probably wiggled in his stroller to watch an airplane fly across the sky, was now rolling, with a fair amount of speed, down the hill. Of course, I took off running as well. He wasn't going too fast, so was easy to catch up with, and he ended up being no worse for the ride. In fact, I think he was pretty oblivious to the whole thing. So, no harm done.


But it makes me wonder, what with Halloween just around the corner and all ...had Greeley's ghost, taking advantage of his open grave, decided to have a little fun with my son? I suppose we'll never really know....