HARDWOOD RECORD 







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Manufacture of Coffins 



There was a time in this country when there were no 

 lactory-made coffins in which to bury the dead. Every 

 . ommunity had a carpenter who was expected to make 

 1 offins for his neighbors as needed. He kept on hand a 

 t.w hundred feet of seasoned lumber for that purpose, and 

 wlien death occurred in the neighborhood he got busy and 

 had the coffin ready within a few hours after he was fur- 

 nished with the measurement. It was a custom in many 

 rural communities to measure the corpse, not with a rule 

 or measuring tape, but with a stick which was cut off the 

 exact length of the body. The stick was sent to the coffin 

 maker and was the only measure used in producing the 

 coffin. When a horseman was seen riding along the 

 country road carrying a "coffin stick," everybody knew 

 at once that somebody was dead and little additional an- 

 nouncement was necessary. The coffin maker kept the 

 sticks, properly labeled, and in the course of years he ac- 

 cumulated quite a collection of these mortuary souvenirs. 



It was not very unusual for people in the country and 

 in small villages to provide and keep on hand lumber for 

 their own coffins. When the coffin was needed, the neces- 

 sary lumber was supplied to the maker, who then made the 

 coffin at some reduction in price. However, the custom 

 of the individual keeping on hand lumber for his own coffin 

 was bv no means general. 



(To be continued) 



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