The cemetery

Old Meeting House

    That Yarrow was buried in his backyard would not have seemed as odd in 1823 as it does today.  This isn't because people were routinely buried in their yard; they weren't.  Rather, this is because Yarrow's yard backed on a cemetery.  The old Presbyterian cemetery was located between 33rd and 34th Streets and Volta and Q.  The Tudor style house in this photograph is believed to have been used in connection with the cemetery.  But it is also thought that this building later served an African American congregation, and the graves of several African Americans have been found north of Q Street, meaning they were in the same block as Yarrow's.  In fact, one of those graves was located perhaps less than 100 feet from the back of Yarrow's property.  All this suggests that the African American congregation at this church was burying its dead on the periphery of the old Presbyterian cemetery on the north side of Q Street, perhaps as far as Yarrow's backyard.  Hence at the time, the rear of Yarrow's yard was so close to the cemetery that it would not have seemed unusual to bury him back there.