I am lucky to be in my part of the country, which is close to the major casket manufacturers of eastern Indiana and allows for next-day delivery. Caskets arrive on the manufacturer’s delivery trucks, covered by a quilted drape, similar to furniture delivery covers, to defend against dents and dings in transit. Back in the 1960s, I used to enjoy accompanying my older brother to the train station to pick up special-order caskets from the now-defunct National Casket Company, whose home office was in New York. National was known for its many high-end copper and bronze caskets, and when transported by train, the units were encased in wood-slatted crates for protection. The crates were made with top-shelf pine, and each end was branded with the words National Casket Co. I discovered that funeral directors were very careful in dismantling the casket crate, not just to avoid damaging the precious cargo but also because they wanted to salvage the high-grade lumber. I have been told that there is many a funeral home that used that crate material as paneling for garages and basements, and even conspicuously displayed the logo.
Batesville and Aurora Casket companies have developed ingenious touch-screen technology for a whole new casket-selection experience. Bereaved family members can custom design their loved one’s casket with the mere touch of a finger, selecting the casket shell, color, pinstripes, corner art, and interior fabric and color. The hands-on family participation generates better sales for the funeral home, but families still want to be able to see and touch a real casket before making their final selection.
I participated in a point-counterpoint discussion on a PBS television show recently, which pitted me against an advocate of “green” burial. The gentleman promoting green burial immediately railed at me with stabbing criticism of my practice of “planting dead bodies pickled with formaldehyde in a steel box that shall rust and decay, thereby fouling the water table and poisoning our water supply for generations to come.” I attempted to defend my profession by assuring him that the casket is inserted into a concrete burial vault in the grave and that most cemeteries do not infringe on the water table. Not to be appeased, the gentleman presented his case with the thought that all cemeteries nationwide should be forced to set aside a certain area of the grounds for those who desire a green burial. Such a burial entails placing the unembalmed body into a large burlap-like sack, and placing the sack into the grave. In theory, the body would decompose naturally and rapidly and pose no environmental threat to society. There is no legal requirement for a body to be embalmed before burial, unless the deceased is to be shipped across state lines or died from a contagious disease. Many funeral homes, however, do require embalming if you are planning a service that includes a viewing or visitation. Many times during the show the gentleman made sure that his toll-free telephone number and website were mentioned to hawk his green burial sacks. I was happy that the discourse between us ended with the gentleman understanding that traditions in different areas of the country dictate funeral customs. The West Coast differs greatly from my area of the country, which happens to prefer burials in the ground. Also, I think my green-burial rival paid attention to me when I explained that a dead human body in only a burlap sack would be fair game for coyotes and other animals. Unless the body was buried very deep, there is no question that animals would be onto the scent of decomposing flesh very soon after interment. This possibility was one of the earliest reasons for a casketed burial.
The casket does not sit in the dirt in the grave, of course. A burial vault is the box-shaped concrete receptacle into which a casket is placed. The burial vault, constructed of concrete and reinforced with steel, resists the entrance of air, water, and any other elements of the grave.
Such grave liners originated many years ago after some unpleasant incidents following the burials of a few wealthy early Americans. Rich people were known to be buried not only in their finest clothing but also with precious jewels. The gravedigger, perhaps a private contractor or even the undertaker himself, would return to the cemetery under the cover of darkness, dig up the fresh grave, open the casket just wide enough to get a hand inside, and then remove the fancy jewelry and sometimes even gold-filled teeth!
When the wealthy Vanderbilt family buried a beloved aunt in the 1890s, fear of grave robbing prompted the family patriarch to have a wrought-iron fence installed into the grave to surround his late aunt’s fine casket. Unfortunately, grave robbers were still able to reach through the wrought-iron bars, open the casket, and remove some precious jewelry from the fingers of the deceased. To prevent robbery, the casket needed to be completely encapsulated.
Such atrocities led to the use of rough wood boxes installed into the grave, placement of the casket into the box, and nailing down the lid of the box. Eventually, bedecking deceased loved ones in expensive jewelry went out of style, so crude wooden grave boxes were still considered acceptable liners. But as cemeteries began to fill up with more and more decedents, Mother Nature taught us that wood did not hold up well underground. Changes in weather, insect activity, and moisture caused many a box to decompose, thus causing the grave to partially cave in. Cemetery caretakers and bereaved family members were not happy with such a condition—the caretaker had to keep filling in the area with more and more dirt, even planting English ivy or myrtle on top to help hide disappearing earth.
Steel vaults soon became a trend. A thick seven-gauge plate of steel was placed into the bottom of the grave; after the casket was placed on the base plate of steel, a domelike lid was lowered into the grave, and the domed top of the vault and the bottom plate snapped together at six connecting points. The air-seal principle then came into effect. Just as when turning a glass upside down in a sink full of water the air pressure keeps the water from entering the glass, in the air-seal burial vault, pressure keeps water from the casket in the grave. Steel burial vaults were rather expensive, so a lot of people scratched their heads to come up with a more economical way to protect a loved one’s casket from not only grave robbers but also the ravages of the elements.
The arrival of concrete ushered in the notion of a manufactured burial box, created by pouring the economical material into a mold to form a tub-like structure and then crafting a corresponding lid to construct a concrete box. Concrete is solid enough to prove an ideal barrier against moisture and other elements. Also, the dirt used to fill an adult grave is of tremendous weight, and with vehicles and other cemetery machinery traveling overhead, a stout burial vault not only keeps the grave from collapsing but also protects the casket and its resident.
A concrete burial box is just what it sounds like—a large grave liner with a lid. The lid is placed on top, where it sits flush with the leading edge of the bottom portion. It possesses no sealing properties and is not air- or watertight. In contrast, a vault is constructed with reinforced steel rods for added strength, much like a sidewalk. It also carries some degree of protection, since it is constructed tongue-in-groove and equipped with a thick, tar-like sealant. The bottom of the vault features the molded tongue around the top edge, and the corresponding groove in the lid meets and somewhat improves the protection of the casket. A mastic of tar-like material is introduced into the groove of the vault bottom to successfully seal the vault. Over time, many innovations have been added to burial vaults to increase their strength and durability, such as reinforcing the concrete with steel rebar and adding stainless steel, copper, and even bronze sheets to line the interior of the vault. Vault manufacturers have resorted to dressing up their products with such costly amenities as copper, bronze, stainless steel, and fiberglass liners, and even lids decorated with religious emblems and pastoral scenes. As with “sealer” caskets, the Federal Trade Commission prohibits funeral homes from warranting results—although manufacturers can choose to do so. Also, because of a lack of training or downright deception, some cemeteries still sell unsuspecting consumers inexpensive, non-protective concrete boxes, all the while referring to them as vaults.