The fate of the unclaimed dead

Because the burial procedures at the Erie County Poorhouse have figured prominently in both my research and my novels, I thought it might be interesting to share what I have learned.  The mortality ledgers from the Erie County Hospital (the hospital associated with the Erie County Poorhouse) were perhaps the most important primary sources of data.  These musty old leather bound volumes recorded the details of every person who died at the hospital.  While this medical facility served in one form or another throughout most of the second half of the nineteenth century, I have only examined the records between 1880-1913 (if there are others, I do not know where they are located). 

It is important to be clear that the majority of those who sought medical care at the ECH were not residents of the poorhouse, although inmates were treated there when they became sick or injured.  Most of the folks who came to this hospital lived in the city of Buffalo but could not afford alternative health care.  The records also indicated that the Erie County Hospital may not only have served the poor.  An examination of the occupations listed for patients revealed many skilled professions.  There were jewelers, musicians, confectioners, and book keepers mixed in with the many general laborers that were seen there.  There was even an evangelist.

Regardless of their occupation, these people came to the hospital because they were in need of medical attention.  Unfortunately, many of the patients who were treated at the hospital also died there.  The records were often very detailed regarding the interment of those who took their last breath at the ECH.  Because the county wanted to contain the ever growing costs associated with the poorhouse, great efforts were taken to locate the family members or friends of the deceased so that they could make proper arrangements for burial (thus saving the county of the expense).  Nearly half of the people who died at the hospital were claimed by family or friends.  

Most of the individuals (over 40%) who were not claimed were buried in the poorhouse cemetery. A numbered wooden stake marked their burial location in the event someone might come along and claim them afterall.  In the interest of thrift, the stakes that marked the places of individual burial in the poorhouse cemetery were pulled up each year to be used again, leaving the person interred below all but forgotten  The corresponding grave number in the ledgers indicated the individual's name, age, cause of death, date of death, nativity, occupation and, in later years, the time of death.  I recall collecting data from these records late one night and feeling the crushing sadness as several patients all died within hours (sometimes even minutes) of each other in a single evening.  

There was a small group of individuals in the later decades of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century who were unclaimed by family or friends and were transferred to area medical schools for dissection.  In 1854 New York passed the Bone Bill and it became legal to transfer the unclaimed dead from poorhouses, prisons and morgues for medical education.  Between 1897 and 1913 over 450 unclaimed individuals listed in the mortality ledgers were transferred for use in medical schools.  Who were these people in life?  Was their socioeconomic status a factor in why they were chosen for transfer?  What about their deaths made them likely candidates for dissection?  Was the cause of death important, or was it the time of year the death occurred? The mortality records along with other documentary sources will be critical in helping to find answers to these questions. Stay tuned!