634 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

seventeen acres of ground in the village of Flatbush for the purpose of a burial ground. Previous to the purchase of this ground the Roman Catholics had used a portion of ground set apart by the government near the Navy Yard for the use of all denominations, and when the present ground was bought, the remains of nearly two thousand five hundred Catholics who had been interred in the old ground, were removed to it for burial. Since the first purchase nineteen additional acres have been added, making in all thirty-six acres, of which sixteen are already occupied, and at the average rate of burials now, which is about sixty per week, the remainder of the ground will be sufficient for twenty years longer. The cemetery, as before stated, is owned by the church, and while, as in all Catholic cemeteries, there is a portion set apart for the burial of' those whose relatives are too poor to pay for a plot of ground, the remainder of the ground is divided into plots containing, respectively, room for two or four graves; which are purchased from the sexton of the Cathedral in Jay street, and when so purchased, become for burial purposes the absolute property of the purchaser.

Instead of the undulating succession of hills and valleys which make the appearance of Greenwood so picturesque, Flatbush cemetery presents a surface as level from one end to another as an Illinois prairie. From the main entrance a broad carriage-way leads to the chapel, a frame building some thirty-five by fifty feet, with A small tower, in which a clergyman, attached to the cemetery and surrounding district, is always in attendance, and when a funeral enters the cemetery, unless it be that of a very young child, thecoffin is borne into this chapel, and the mourners unite with the priest in reciting the prayers of the church for the repose of the soul of the dead, after which the body is interred. Immediately surrounding the church is the most attractive part of the cemetery to be found, for it is here that, as evidenced by the piles of monumental marble which surround it on all sides, are the graves of the wealthiest and best known classes of the Catholic community. Close by the church is the grave of the Rev. Father McDonough, the founder of the cemetery, who died in 1853. A plain and somewhat time-worn marble slab records the fact. In the same row are two similar slabs covering the last resting places of Father Schneller, the former pastor of St. Paul’s church in Court street, and Father Curran, formerly pastor of the Roman Catholic church in Astoria. All the monuments in the immediate vicinity of the chapel are of the most beautiful and some of them of the most costly character.

At Flatbush, also, is the Potter's field, connected with the county institutions.