So way back in the day, for a time there was a type of coffin that was available for purchase which was dang near indestructible! The Fisk Cast-iron coffin. Now most of us know that despite everyone’s best efforts, our earthly remains will return to dust at some point, no matter what the casket manufacturers try to tell you. But in the case of the Fisk iron coffin, they were amazingly preservative. And they were apparently pretty popular amongst the elite of the late 1800’s as we are still digging these things up by accident on the regular.
By 1923, the Fisk Company had gone out of business and a lot of the population had never even heard of them. So when an old iron coffin got unearthed, it was big news. And it would draw a crowd from miles around who were interested in taking a peek at the contents.
In Avoyelles parish at the Joffrion family cemetery, an aged man who cared for the grounds made a startling discovery while cutting grass one day, the old brick vault of Captain JC Joffrion had become broken and the edge of a really old relic of an iron coffin was peeking out. Captain Joffrion (a steamboat captain) had died in St. Louis in 1870. His remains had been hermetically sealed into the iron coffin and his body had been brought to the home place in Mansura to rest. When his coffin popped out that day, his son Joseph did the only reasonable thing and took his daddy’s coffin to Bunkie and put the ancient corpse on display!
A special thing about the Fisk Iron Coffin is that it had a lid which covered a viewing glass, so once the iron lid had been pried off, old Captain’s mummified body was visible but protected by the intact glass. Joffrion invited folks to come see for themselves and they jumped at the chance.
The oldest of the old timers walked right up and said that Captain looked just about as good as he did the day he was buried! With the exception of his eyeballs now appeared to be missing. But his hair and even his beard were still intact after 56 years. Captain’s grandson, AA Gremillion went to the local paper in Alexandria and had them run an invite as well. All were welcome to come the Captain’s coffin and his well preserved body. For an admission fee, of course.
On July 18, 1923, the State Health department got wind of the fact that Joffrion was charging people a nickel to look at his daddy’s mummified corpse and immediately went to Bunkie and shut the whole thing down! The horrified health inspector ordered them to re bury the Captain at once. And as far as I could tell in records, this is what happened. But did they bury him at the old home place again, I don’t know. The rest of the Joffrion family is buried at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Cemetery in Mansura so I suspect he may have ended up there in an unmarked grave to prevent any more post-mortem wandering.
The following year in 1924 in St. Tammany Parish, worker were preparing a gravesite for a member of the Bulloch family when one of the grave diggers hit something metallic with a pickaxe. Curious, he knelt down and was amazed to see a small metallic coffin. Once he cleaned the viewing window he could clearly see the imaging of a very young girl who appeared to be perfectly preserved. He summoned Dr. HD Bulloch who was fascinated with the find. They reported that the girls face was so well preserved that the pores of her skin could be seen and even her tiny eyelashes and eyebrows. The only thing they noted was that her burial shroud had turned brown. They unearthed a name plate which read Gilbert. Discussion with locals lead to the conclusion that the child had been buried for around 60 years maybe longer. Unfortunately, when the pickaxe hit the coffin, it punctured a hole in it. Once the air began to come into contact with the body, she began to decompose rapidly and her skin took on a discolored appearance. I believe that she was reburied nearby in an unmarked grave. There are a few Gilbert’s that are known to be buried in that cemetery. But the actual identity of the child was never discovered.
But before either of these two cases, an old iron coffin was unearthed in Shreveport in 1901. On the morning of May 28, 1901. Workers were grading a section of road when the plow struck something hard. The force of the plow had actually pushed the coffin partially out of the ground and exposed the remains. When the worker who was using the plow walked around to see what he had hit, he literally came face to face with the well preserved corpse of a young lady. Terrified, he began to scream and ran down the road as fast as he could to get away from the startling sight. One might assume that he may have never gotten over his fright!
Soon a crowd had gathered as authorities tried to figure out who the girl was. Most striking was the thick mane of auburn hair that framed her face. Her burial clothes still perfectly preserved. The area had been known for a disposal area of murder victims previously but this was no murder victim, nor had any of the victims been buried in anything other than a hastily dug trench. Recently the town of Shreveport had made great strides in removing the criminals from the area. It had been cleaned up and divided into tracts to sell for houses. Nobody knew of a burial ground having ever been in the area.
And again what happens with those who have been buried in Fisk Coffins began to occur with this young lady. Due to the damage to the seal of the coffin, she began to decompose rapidly and the powers that be quickly gathered her up, coffin and all and reburied her unceremoniously in the Potter’s Field. This is likely to have been in the corner of Greenwood Cemetery where, even to this day, this area is still set aside for indigent burials. But alas, they did not mark her grave and so we don’t know where this young mystery woman’s grave is exactly.
For further reading and to look at a couple of the mummies that have been unearthed in other places, here are a couple of links!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-fisk-mummy-case
Mary Camp Roberts
For The Love of History 