February 19, 1902 - HALF A CENT A BODY
As published in the Buffalo Courier:
SERVICES, INTERMENT AND COFFIN, ALL FOR HALF A CENT A BODY
Remarkably Low Price at Which Undertaker Eckhert Is Under Contract With the City to Bury the Pauper Dead-Investigation
An Investigation if the morgue may be soon under way. The alleged traffic in dead bodies, which has been hinted at and implied in a dozen different ways ever since the arrest of Coroner Boller, will, it is said, call for a continued and through investigation.
The fact that County Undertaker Eckhert has a contract to care for all the bodies at a rate of one-half cent per body, furnishing coffins and burying them also for t his insignificant sum, is believed to call for some more plausible reason than the statement that he does it because he descures a portion of the orders fro funerals of those bodies that are claimed.
There is a decided movement among the members of the Board of Supervisors to prevent any traffic in cadavers. It is hoped ti abolish the abuses of the present system and to get rid of the present method of handing dead bodies.
A record is supposed to be kept of all bodies received at the Morgue. If a body is claimed the name of the undertaker is place opposite the entry. If it is unclaimed, the University of Buffalo can demand it, and in case it is no wanted there it can be buried in the Potter's Field. If the Medical college takes it, the abbreviation, "M.C." while if it is burned the initial "E," for Eckhert, is marked down.
It is proposed to abolish the County Undertaker's office. As the County Undertaker has the contract for taking care of the bodies and bringing them to the Morgue, he can take his time. For this reason, it is said, bodies have remained out several hours before the wagon arrived. No one else can take a body away, this undertaker holding the contract. It is hoped to have someone employed at the Morgue to handle these cases and where bodies are buried in the Potter's Field, to have the city handle them, instead of a professional undertaker.
SERVICES, INTERMENT AND COFFIN, ALL FOR HALF A CENT A BODY
Remarkably Low Price at Which Undertaker Eckhert Is Under Contract With the City to Bury the Pauper Dead-Investigation
An Investigation if the morgue may be soon under way. The alleged traffic in dead bodies, which has been hinted at and implied in a dozen different ways ever since the arrest of Coroner Boller, will, it is said, call for a continued and through investigation.
The fact that County Undertaker Eckhert has a contract to care for all the bodies at a rate of one-half cent per body, furnishing coffins and burying them also for t his insignificant sum, is believed to call for some more plausible reason than the statement that he does it because he descures a portion of the orders fro funerals of those bodies that are claimed.
There is a decided movement among the members of the Board of Supervisors to prevent any traffic in cadavers. It is hoped ti abolish the abuses of the present system and to get rid of the present method of handing dead bodies.
A record is supposed to be kept of all bodies received at the Morgue. If a body is claimed the name of the undertaker is place opposite the entry. If it is unclaimed, the University of Buffalo can demand it, and in case it is no wanted there it can be buried in the Potter's Field. If the Medical college takes it, the abbreviation, "M.C." while if it is burned the initial "E," for Eckhert, is marked down.
It is proposed to abolish the County Undertaker's office. As the County Undertaker has the contract for taking care of the bodies and bringing them to the Morgue, he can take his time. For this reason, it is said, bodies have remained out several hours before the wagon arrived. No one else can take a body away, this undertaker holding the contract. It is hoped to have someone employed at the Morgue to handle these cases and where bodies are buried in the Potter's Field, to have the city handle them, instead of a professional undertaker.
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