History & local legend
A shared grave at Fairview Cemetery in Boyertown holds twenty-five people whose remains could not be identified after the Rhoads Opera House fire of January 13, 1908. Families knew who was missing, and the monument lists names above the inscription 'The Unidentified.'
A hundred volunteers helped dig graves. On January 19, white-gloved pallbearers accompanied coffins from the schoolhouse morgue in a procession of twelve hearses. The vehicles then returned for the remaining dead.
The Pennsylvania Researchers Organization recorded stories of cries and low moaning sounds coming from the common grave, linking the cemetery's ghost tradition to the town's loss.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Researchers Organization, Berks County, Boyertown common-grave entry, archived 2008 (misspells Fairview as Fairway)
- Mary Jane Schneider, From the Ashes at Boyertown, Pennsylvania Heritage, winter 2008, describes the unidentified, volunteers and January 19 burial service
- Photographed PHMC marker and both sides of the memorial to the unidentified
- Boyertown Opera House Memorial, Skabat169, geotagged photograph at the monument in Fairview Cemetery
