By Connie Farrington.
We’ve been digging around for the graves of Joseph, Grace, and Jacob Ball, murdered in Tylerville in 1915 and dug up in a Potter’s Field in Haddam in 1921 for the well-publicized trial of Emil Schutte.
So far, we haven’t found the location of that Potter’s Field. Daniel Hearn’s 2019 book, “Legal Executions in New England,” reports the following about the 1921 investigation of the Ball family murder. “At first the gravediggers could not remember exactly where they had buried the three decedents. Many other coffins were disinterred and opened by mistake before the right ones were found.”
If they couldn’t remember the 1915 burial spots in 1921, certainly no one remembers them now. So where might this Potter’s Field be? And why is it called a Potter’s Field?
A Potter’s Field is for the burial of unknown, unclaimed, or indigent people. In the book of Matthew, before hanging himself, Judas returned to the high priests the 30 pieces of silver they had paid him to betray Jesus.
Considering this “blood money,” the priests decided not to put it in the church treasury. Instead they used it to buy land for the burial of strangers, criminals and the poor. Prior to this purchase, that plot of land had been the site where potters collected high quality clay to produce fine ceramics. Thus that plot of land was unusable for agriculture and was called Potter’s Field.
The Potter’s Field in Washington Square, Philadelphia, near Independence Hall, was used for yellow fever victims, prison inmates, and mass burials for Revolutionary War soldiers.
So where is Haddam’s Potter’s Field in which the Ball family was interred, dis-interred, and hopefully re-interred. Any ideas?
