100 THE BOROUGH OF THE BRONX 



Some of these grave stones may have been new and un- 

 tarnished when Washington's Continentals in their retreat from 

 Long Island, trudged along the old Colonial road which winds 

 around the little hillock, and when Lafayette revisited this country 

 in 1824. The noted French General, after crossing the famous 

 "Kissing Bridge" which stood to the right of Southern Boulevard 

 and Lafayette Lane, "paused in silent meditation at the grave 

 of Joseph Rodman Drake," and then passed thru the narrow 

 lane which was afterwards widened and named "Lafayette Avenue" 

 in his honor. 



Surrounding one plot in the old cemetery was attached a rusty 

 iron chain. It has long mouldered away from all but one of its 

 fastenings to which it still clung creaking and rattling like a dun- 

 geon fetter as the wind tossed it to and fro. Close by lay a shat- 

 tered marble shaft which the angry winds had hurled from its 

 pedestal and tall weeds and rank growth were blotting out its 

 inscriptions. Decadence due to neglect was manifest everywhere 

 in this ruined city of the dead. 



Facing the entrance of the cemetery from the south stands a 

 plain marble shaft seven feet high which marks the grave of 

 Joseph Rodman Drake. 



Whatever fitness there may have been in burying Drake in 

 that particular spot, was lost in the neglect into which his grave 

 was afterward permitted to fall. 



In 1891 the Brownson Literary Union in appreciation of his 

 genius restored the monument to a semblance of its former neat- 

 ness. The inscription reads: 



Sacred 



to the Memory 



of 



Joseph R. Drake, M.D. 



who died Sept. 21st 



1820 



Aged 25 Years 



None knew him but -to love him, 



Nor named him but to praise. 



Renovated by The 



Brownson Literary Union' 



July 25, 1891. 



