A quartercentury of cremation in North America ; being a report of progress in the United States and Canada for the last quarter of the nineteenth century; to which have been added, as an afterthought, a few words about the advance in Europe during the same period.

  • Cobb, John Storer.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A quartercentury of cremation in North America ; being a report of progress in the United States and Canada for the last quarter of the nineteenth century; to which have been added, as an afterthought, a few words about the advance in Europe during the same period. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    17/208 (page 5)
    intended building was constructed. Beyond this it was found impossible to go, as the necessary funds were not to be obtained. The La Crosse Cremation Society, however, still maintains its organization in the hope that sufficient interest may yet be aroused to enable it to carry its project to completion. About the same time a building was erected in San Antonio, Texas, and was itself reduced to ashes before it could be put to its intended use. In 1886 we do not find any new societies formed. For all that, this is a notable year, for it sees the opening of the first crematorium established and con- ducted by an undertaker. Again it is Pennsylvania that comes to the front. Pittsburg falls into line and cremates fourteen bodies. New York's number has increased from ten to eighty-five; and although, as a consequence of this growth, Lancaster's number has fallen to fourteen, yet the total number for the year is found to be one hundred and fourteen, which is con- siderably more than double that of 1885. Speedier headway is now made. The next two years see the number of appliances increased two- fold. Three are added in 1887 and two in 1888. The former year is hardly born ere the fires are lighted in Ohio, and at Cincinnati a body is subjected to the influence of their purifying power. Before its first six months have fled California makes it notable, and Los Angeles achieves the distinction of being the first place upon the continent to establish a crematory plant within the confines of a cemetery. By this time Michigan is earnestly at work, and Detroit does not allow the final month to close without being pre-