The Mining Journal says that Indiana resurrectionists pack cadavers in barrels of potatoes, and send to Ann Arbor, where the bodies are taken to the college and the potatoes sold to the grocers. This is true, except the potatoes are shipped to Marquette where they bring high prices, owing to their rich gamey flavor.
The Mining Journal was in this case the Marquette, MI Daily Mining Journal, which is now just The Mining Journal — “The U.P.’s most powerful media combination.” Therefore, the article is a bit of an intrastate joke.
Bill talked about this entry once, but he didn’t have much to say about it.
Googling “pack cadavers in barrels” only brings up his article. However, the phrase “cadavers in barrels” gives a hit to an “Irish Culture” site, where we learn that
Resurrection Men were graverobbers who operated in 18th century Ulster. Stealing fresh bodies from cemeteries, they would put the cadavers in barrels of whiskey to preserve them for the voyage to Scotland, where doctors dissected them in the name of science.
When I first read this article, I thought there was a Christian sect involved, but the most common definition of “resurrectionist” is “grave-robber.”
Actually, it’s not a Christian sect, it’s an “international religious community of men within the Roman Catholic Church.”
The two bits I’m unsure of, though, are: Why Indiana and why potatoes?
Perhaps a road trip to Marquette is in order, to go to the library and read their old newspapers.