Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America

6. “Under the Pecans”: History and Memory in the Graveyard at Carville

{ 147 } “Under the Pecans” HISTORY AND MEMORY IN THE GRAVEYARD AT CARVILLE This is holy ground. I say that because there has been such suffering here. —Sister Francis de Sales The National Hansen’s Disease Center at Carville had many of the marks and establishments of a typical community , and like other communities, it had a graveyard— a place to bury its deceased members. Unlike other communities, however, the shared identity of Carville residents was based on their shared medical diagnosis, Hansen’s disease—or leprosy. For much of the twentieth century, patients diagnosed with leprosy were separated from society through legal quarantine and sent to live out their days at Carville, the National Leprosarium. Many stayed—even after death. { 6 } Memorials, markings, or gravestones serve a much more complex purpose than marking the location of a grave and identifying the individual buried there. They typically convey information about the person and his community of mourners. Often memorials comment on characteristics of the person and the mourners’ relationships with that person. But they are also influenced by religion, ethnicity, regional geography, cultural identity, and the place of a person within the culture, for whatever reason. People express and communicate their relationship with the dead through material expressions— expressions literally carved in stone, concrete, and marble. Cemeteries in general, and particularly in Louisiana, typically reflect cultural identities such as ethnicity, regionalism, and religious affiliation (Kniffen 1967, Nakagawa 1987). The early grave markers at Carville, with only initials, a first name, or a patient number, reflect the stigma of the disease that brought these people together and the need to keep their identities hidden, even in death. There was a cemetery at Carville almost from the beginning, when it was the “Louisiana Leper Home.” Burial on hospital grounds began because patients in a leprosarium typically could not be buried in the church or public cemeteries in nearby towns or villages because of the objections of the public (see Enna and Byrd 1975). The bodies of deceased patients, { 148 } “Under the Pecans” however, could be returned for burial in their hometowns at the request and expense of their families. Residents of the Carville hospital were not buried in the nearby village of Carville. The original burial ground at the Carville hospital is now a courtyard in one of the quadrangles, surrounded by buildings, with a single marker, erected in 1921 and recording burials from 1895 to 1921. A stark reminder of Carville’s past and the loss of identity of Carville’s residents, it lists usually a first name, or the initials, or a patient number. (For details on the conflicting information on the grave markers and patient ledgers, see the appendix.) When Carville became a U.S. government hospital in 1921, the government supplied standard national cemetery grave markers for the burial sites. Typically these were upright markers, forty-two inches long, thirteen inches wide, and four inches thick. Each marker had a full name (first and last) engraved on it. However, it was almost never the real name of the person, since patients were encouraged to change their names when they entered Carville in order to protect their families. Each marker also had a patient number engraved below the name. Some families later added a more personalized marker to the grave. The new cemetery, opened in 1921 when the U.S. government took over, is located in a picturesque setting in a grove of pecan trees near Lake Johansen, in the back of the complex (the area farthest “Under the Pecans” { 149 } from the Mississippi River). Carville residents referred to the cemetery as “under the pecans,” and they said “when I go under the pecans” to refer to their death. The burial sites at Carville, one established in 1895 and the other in 1921, seem to be a reflection of the living history of Carville. Burial is typically in a place with meaningful ties to one’s identity. For many, Carville seemed the most appropriate final resting place. For some, it is the place they came to against their wills and from which they never went “home” again. Those who never left were almost always buried there. Most who did leave and established a life elsewhere often chose to { 150 } “Under the Pecans” The “new” cemetery at Carville “under the pecans.” be buried elsewhere. For some, even some who had lives on the...