Woman's Disabilities,
A Wife Has No Claim
To Her Husband's Remains.
WOMAN'S DISABILITIES.
A WIFE HAS NO CLAIM TO HER HUSBAND'S
REMAINS.
From the Philadelphia Times, March 14.
Magistrate Smith made up his mind yesterday that he could not issue a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Wynkoop and Dr. B. C. Snowdon for the removal of the body of Samuel W. Wynkoop from the receiving vault of the Odd-fellows' Cemetery in defiance of Mrs. Wynkoop's claims, but that they could be sued for the larceny of the grave-clothes and coffin. Accordingly the warrant was made out in that way. In connection with the affair a remarkable coincidence in the shape of a precedent has been discovered. In 1857, Col. F. M. Wynkoop, a veteran of the Mexican War, died at Valencia, Schuylkill County, from a gunshot wound accidentally received. The body was taken to the residence of his brother-in-law, Thomas J. Atwood, at Pottsville, and, in accordance with the wishes of deceased, was interred with military honors in Mount Laurel Cemetery, Pottsville, in a lot owned by his mother. The widow, Mrs. Anna McK. Wynkoop, assented to the burial, providing that afterward the remains should be removed to Philadelphia. Mrs. Angelina C. Wynkoop, the Colonel's mother, hearing that the widow had made arrangements to exhume the body, made application to the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill County to forbid trespass upon or opening the grave without an order from her daughter or son. She was successful, and then the widow filed a bill in equity against the brothers and mother of her dead husband. The case was carried to the Supreme Court on an appeal by Angelina C. Wynkoop and others from the decision of the lower court, enjoining them from preventing the removal of the remains from Mount Laurel Cemetery to Laurel Hill Cemetery. The Supreme Court held, Judge Reid delivering the opinion, April 21, 1861, that a wife has no right or control over the body of her deceased husband after its burial; that the disposition of the remains of the deceased husband belonged exclusively to his next of kin.
Source:
Unknown, "Woman's Disabilities, A Wife Has No Claim To Her Husband's Remains," The New York Times, New York, N.Y., Monday, 18 March, 1878, p. 8.
|