Some 200 gravemarkers are missing from St. Elizabeths Hospital cemetery, but now one has been tracked down. Sanders, president of Alexandria-based Four Sales Ltd. estate sales, explains how the historic marker of an insane Civil War soldier was returned.
Who was Jordan Mann?
He was an 18-year-old volunteer to the 12th Missouri Calvary… After about a year of service, he was deemed to have gone insane or lost his mind and was transported by some other soldiers to St. Elizabeths, which was at the time the U.S. government’s home for the mentally ill.
When did he die?
He died a year after coming to St Elizabeths. He died of Typhoid fever… It’s interesting, the hospital is a good place to get sick.
How did you get involved?
We were called by the family of Guy L. Schultz who was a resident in Clinton, Md., and when we were cleaning out the house, meaning picking out items that were resellable at auction on behalf of the family, we found the gravemarker in the garage behind some other things. How it got there is a mystery that no one will be able to answer because anybody who might have known is no longer with us.
How did you figure out its importance?
The markings on the gravestone itself…We decided we weren’t going to be involved in the sale of an item of historical significance that was improperly removed from a government facility.
So was it put back in the cemetery?
There are 450 known gravesites in the cemetery, and there are only 250 gravemarkers left. Of the balance, the 200 that aren’t there, some were wooden and they’ve disintegrated and disappeared, and some were stone marble that were improperly removed. For them to get this back was a very big deal. I think for the time being they have placed it temporarily in storage. It will become part of a historic display.
— Kytja Weir
