In this business you get to see some really unusual things. About as unusual as it gets was the appraisal of a scrap yard on Chicago’s south side. Now one could make the case that there are a lot of bodies buried in strange places in Chicago – but those are typically “hidden” bodies – mobsters, etc. This site, however, has a nice little funeral plot complete with a fence surrounding it – in the middle of an active scrap yard. Here is the story:
Andreas von Zirngibl was born in Russia on March 30, 1797, and was a soldier in the army that fought Napoleon at Waterloo in 1816. He made his way to Chicago where he had a farm and where he died on August 21, 1855. In his will, he decreed that he be buried on his own land and that his grave be kept sacred, no matter what happened to the land. His grave still stands, surrounded by the rust and rubble of the American Fastener Salvage yard which sprawls north and east of East 93rd Street and South Ewing Avenue.
