On February 6, 1913, a grave was being dug in the Roberts Cemetery (now known as the Gonzalez United Methodist Church Cemetery). It was located in the small logging community known as" Roberts" Florida, near Gonzalez. While digging, the laborer struck something hard and metallic. Digging deeper, the man found an iron coffin where one should never have been. He removed the coffin to the surface and saw the coffin was in a corroded condition, ravaged by time! Confused as to what to do, he decided to do nothing until he contacted someone of authority. He notified some people in the community who all decided to wait until the following day. When the grave digger returned the next day he found the glass window on top had been broken during the night. Obviously, someone thought the occupant may have had valuables worth stealing. But, research showed no records of such a burial in the cemetery although the villagers felt it belonged to a Civil War soldier that had died during the conflict.
But of course, the question of where such a coffin came from surfaced during the subsequent discussions. The coffin itself was patented in 1848 by Almond Fisk, a cast iron stove merchant. He developed the air-tight coffin to allay the three fears that plagued the people of the mid-1800s. One was the practice of accidentally burying people alive. So, the Fisk coffins had a window on top to ensure they were really dead. A metal window cover came with it to be inserted upon burial. Also, it was air tight which prevented putrefaction, which also helped if the person had to be transported a long distance. And the iron coffins were almost impossible to break into, which would thwart robbers like those in Roberts. However, such a coffin was expensive and could easily cost $100 versus a $2.00 pine box. This itself, made it popular only among the wealthier patrons. History reflects that distinguished persons such as Dolly Madison, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun, and President Zachary Taylor had all taken advantage of such a coffin. A final concern of the times was also the spread of disease. Those encased in an airtight coffin were incapable of infecting anyone else.
But back to our unknown corpse. The Civil War had been over for 48 years, but so many veterans were still living in the area. And any of them or the 1913 inhabitants of Roberts would surely have known of a local soldier that had died hereabouts during the war. The villagers would also have known who among them had the money to purchase such an expensive coffin and any wealthy neighbor would be well-known to all.
The mystery was finally solved when Thomas Freeman (1849-1927) read the 1913 article about the discovery of the iron coffin. He came forward and said he recalled a ship owner named "Gilbert" from Brooklyn, NY that came to Muscogee (formerly Holman's Ferry) from Milton in 1873. Being a ship owner, his presence in a lumber town most likely was either about building ships or shipping lumber. Either way, the next day Gilbert came down with Yellow Fever (1873 epidemic) and died 24-hours later. A Pensacola banker, Charles Leonard LeBaron contributed the iron casket for use to bury Gilbert so far from home. Who knows, maybe the banker was doing business with Gilbert at the time. LeBaron also sent his representative to witness the funeral, attended only by Freeman and the three grave diggers. A stone marker was never erected and any wooden cross would have deteriorated over the next forty years thus becoming unmarked. In the meantime, the villagers opened the casket and found that Gilbert was dressed in clothing popular in 1873. His hair was still parted smoothly and his features were exactly like the day he was buried. Onlookers gathered to see if anyone could recognize the gentleman, but none could.
The cemetery today still has 89 unmarked adult graves so I imagine that Gilbert is one of them. Freeman himself was one of the organizers of the old Southern States Land & Timber Co that formed in 1889. He was prominent in the area's timber business up until his retirement. Two of his daughters were Escambia County school principals in 1927. Freeman passed away suddenly on October 20, 1927 at his home at 522 North 7th Avenue and was buried in St. John's Cemetery.
Recently, iron coffins have surfaced nationwide as municipalities have spread out over vacant land that are actually long lost cemeteries. Many times, construction workers have called the police thinking they have discovered a murder victim stuffed in a metal box. Only after investigation, the police find the bodies are 100-150 years old. The reason is that the bodies look as if they died a short time hence. Any damage to the iron coffin however will expose the corpse to the elements of time with totally different results. In 2016, a woman in Queens was found in one that was buried in 1856. The investigators could see smallpox lesions on her face through the coffin's window, which showed her caused of death. Another was a young girl who had a bouquet of blue flowers still lying on her chest from her 1870 burial. Her face could be seen through the glass and still looked as angelic and natural as if alive.
Pensacola News Journal 2-9-1913, Roberts Cemetery
Another story by CBS News 9-20-2007
Recently excavated Fisk Iron Coffin
Actual Fisk Iron Coffin viewing pane with metal cover
Flowers of a young San Francisco girl buried in 1870
The Roberts Mystery Finally Solved,
Pensacola News Journal 2-11-1913
Pensacola News Journal 2-10-1913
Pensacola News Journal 10-21-1927. Oddly enough there is a Thomas Freeman Jr. (1883-1926) listed in St. John's Cemetery but not our Thomas Freeman Sr. (1849-1927). But there is a grave with the name Freeman lying between Thomas Freeman Jr. and Flora Freeman (he married Flora McKinnon in 1874), which I'm sure is our Good Samaritan citizen of 1873.
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