The Mystery:
Was Walter Newberry buried in a rum barrel?
Is George Pullman really buried under steel and concrete? Was Walter Newberry buried in a rum barrel? And who is the Girl in Glass? Geoffrey Baer explores with Adam Selzer.
While aboard a ship from the United States to France in 1868, businessman Walter Loomis Newberry (whose bequest created Chicago’s Newberry Library) died at sea. In those days, it was common to bury the body at sea. Instead, the crew took a more, shall we say, spirited approach. According to the Newberry Library, Newberry’s body was preserved in a cask of Massachusetts Medford Rum until the ship arrived in France several days later. However, contrary to the legend, he was not actually interred in the cask of rum at Graceland Cemetery. But when Newberry’s wife died many years later, an article in the New York Times contained a headline that read, “Buried in a Cask of Rum,” and reignited the old rumor that “A grave was dug and the cask, still containing Mr. Newberry’s body, was put into it and covered up.” Local historian and author Adam Selzer told Geoffrey Baer that all evidence suggests that Newberry was properly buried in an actual coffin. “But there’s a terrific illustration that went out at the time with all these guys in top hats and curly mustaches rolling in the barrel [containing Newberry’s body] under cover of darkness,” Selzer said.
