Young Laura Canon's grave desecrated
The following is a copy of a story in the Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL from 1935 about
nineteen year old Laura Canon who died in the early 1860s two weeks before her wedding. She was buried in her wedding dress in the family cemetery in Red Banks, Marshall County, MS.
Buried in Wedding Dress
Another, sadder story tells of a young lady whose wedding day was not far away when she became ill and died. Shrouded in her wedding dress, she was laid to rest in the old cemetery on the Canon Plantation, before the Civil War. Seventy years later ghouls uncovered her grave.
The following account was clipped from The Commercial Appeal of May 2, 1935:
"Apparently incited by a 70-year-old tale of buried antebellum treasure, ghouls yesterday desecrated the graves of aristocratic Southerners who were buried in the private cemetery before the Civil War.
Early this week, residents of the Red Banks community in the vicinity of the old Canon plantation, eported seeing the strangers with "divining rods," which are supposed to be sensitized to buried metal.
Yesterday, a farmer in search of a lost calf, found that half a dozen or more graves had been laidb bare. Several bodies were missing.
In one of the graves, and in a copper coffin, lay the body of a young girl, supposed to have been Laura Canon, who died before the Civil War. She was richly dressed (note - in her wedding dress - poster), her face and features perfectly preserved. A net, like a bridal veil, covered her bright red hair.
The grave of another member of the family, M. H. Canon, who was born in Lindburg County, N. C. in 1807, was also opened and the coffin glass broken. The body was missing. A third vault containing the body of Cornelia E. Canon Houston, wife of W. C. Houston was entered. Mrs. Houston was born in 1822 and died at the age of 47. Her long red hair, a characteristic of the Canon family aided
in identification.
Shortly after the war, stories were circulated that valuable jewels and gold coins had been hidden in the graveyard. Many had searched fruitlessly in the vicinity, but until yesterday none had violated the
sleep of the dead."
My addition:
Traditionally, the Canons had auburn hair. Even after so many generatioins, my hair, which is black, bleached out when I was a lifeguard one summer to auburn.
More Replies:
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Re: Young Laura Canon's grave desecrated
Florence H. King 8/02/00
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Re: Young Laura Canon's grave desecrated
Raiford Pittman 6/15/01
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Re: Young Laura Canon's grave desecrated
Raiford Pittman 5/28/01
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Re: Young Laura Canon's grave desecrated