The Strange Graves of Mt. Zion Cemetery
The mystery is on
Mt. Zion Cemetery, located near Catawissa, Pennsylvania, is a tranquil hilltop cemetery that offers sweeping views of the surrounding countryside.
Two graves are encased in metal cages that are three feet wide and six feet long; this peculiarity is what attracts curious onlookers to the cemetery.
The graves are owned by two women. The wife of John F. Thomas, Asenath, is given precedence. On June 26, 1852, following the delivery of her daughter a few days prior, she passed away due to complications. Five months later, her baby daughter Asenath passed away.
Sarah Ann Boone née Thomas, who was Asenath’s sister-in-law and the wife of Ransloe Boone, is laid to rest second. Sarah Ann was John Thomas’s sister. Her death a few days before Asenath on June 18, 1852, was not accompanied with a cause of death.
A third cage, which had been removed in the 1930s owing to corrosion, was uncovered in a newspaper account from the 1960s. People in the town make guesses as to whose grave the cage actually belonged to.
Rebecca Clayton, a relative of Sarah Ann’s who passed away on May 12, 1852, one month before to Sarah Ann, could have owned the cage. Both claims are unsupported by evidence.
Are the cages serving any purpose? For a long time, people have pondered. We think they’re special in the US. Some have speculated, but the truth may remain a mystery.
The first impression is that the cages serve as decorative pieces. Exquisite funeral jewelry was a common way for the rich to flaunt their fortune at this time. The Thomas family had a lot of money and were in the iron business, so the cages might have been a demonstration of their craftsmanship.
If such is the case, then why aren’t additional tombs of the Thomas family adorned with ornamental cages? A greater number of Thomases than Asenath or Sarah Ann are buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery. For what reason aren’t they given acknowledgment?
Cage dwellers are less likely to go scavenging, according to another theory. The discovery of human bones by scavenger animals, including those of murder victims interred in shallow graves in remote forests, was a common theme in historical accounts.
Having said that, superficial is the appellation. Deep graves containing coffin-encased remains, six feet below earth, have eluded animals. If the people were afraid of, were actually animals, there would be no need for small, lockable gates.
A lock can deter a ferocious canine or fox, but it might also deter a more intelligent animal. This brings me to my next hypothesis.
Tragically, many people in the 19th century broke into people’s graves. Researching and dissecting human remains was considered obscene and insulting 150 years ago.
Since people seldom donated their bodies for scientific study, researchers resorted to more underhanded tactics, giving rise to the lucrative body-snatching industry.
The cages, often known as “mortsafes,” used by Mt. Zion Cemetery to deter grave thieves are commonplace in Scotland and England.
This is not the United States where they are located. As far as we are concerned, these two (or three) cages in Catawissa constitute the sole instance of their kind in our nation.
Why were these two graves chosen specifically?
The Thomases would be remiss if they didn’t protect their ancestors’ bodies.
Any of the above stated reasons might be possible.
Thanks for reading.🙂
