[ 52 ] JENNY LAWRENCE There was a preoccupation and an interest in death that today would be regarded as morbid, but in Miriam's world, young and old died unexpectedly every day. Knowing who had died or who might die was an important matter of social interest. One lugubrious concern of Miriam's was the reordering of the Berry graveplot. Soon after leaving Elmira in 1849, she decided to rebury their child and a sister of Miriam's—who had died some thirty years earlier—in the family plot in Whitesboro, next to Mr. Berry. Curiosity more than horror characterized Miriam's account of the exhumations. It is thirty years since she [Miriam's sister, June] died, but still we were in hope that the coffin would be entire, though we had no reason to think so, as there was no outer box.... The sides were decayed, & the top & bottom had fallen together & crumbled almost to dust. They took off the top, which fell to pieces, & there were the bones of our beautiful & beloved sister all entire— the hands crossed just as they were laid at first.... The bones too were very dark. All the teeth remained in the head firmly excepting one, which was a little decayed & loose. Mary [another sister] remembers perfectly that it was in that condition when she died. They laid the bones in the box provided & reburied them, never to be disturbed again till God calls for them.01 Within a week, her first child was reburied, and Miriam described the reburial to William. There was quite a strong smell when it [the coffin] was opened & John had laid the lid back, but not fastened it. I begged to see it so he removed it & I looked at it a moment. I laid a snow-drop on its little breast & came away, for they did not wish me to stay long. It laid exactly as it was placed at first, with a cotton pillow under the head & the little hands crossed, & the gown smoothed down & drawn over the feet. It did not appear to have fallen away at all. We thought at first that there was a cloth laid over the face, but John took hold of it softly to raise it up & found that it was a thin coat of white mould. We could see all the little features distinctly through it.02 Miriam's baby, father, and sister were all settled together at last, and this was where Miriam, two and a half years later, was laid to rest. As a commentator on life in the nineteenth century, Miriam Whitcher was peculiarly one-sided. She was principally concerned with the social and familial manners of that period. There is almost no reference to national or international affairs in the letters—aside from a descrip- 61M. Whitcher to William Whitcher, May 22,1849. 62 M. Whitcher to William Whitcher, May 25,1849.