One Body Was Returned to Bontoc

A short newspaper article in The Inter Ocean published on October 22, 1905 confirms that the body of an Igorot man who died at the 1904 World’s Fair was returned home to Bontoc and was buried.

Transcription:

Use Father’s Coffin for Storing Things

In this connection, the Governor of Lepanto-Bontoc tells a story regarding the body of an Igorrote who died at the St. Louis fair last year. The body was embalmed and sent back in a handsome, zinc lined, quartered-oak casket. When it reached the wilds of Bontoc, members of his family recognized the body, but when they got their lamps on the coffin for a second inspection, their grief was suddenly checked. The father’s body was immediately taken out of the casket and sent to the regular burying ground in the regulation manner, while the casket in which it had made the journey from the big city on the Mississippi was used to store camotes, and the plain pine box in which the coffin was inclosed was used for firewood.

A man sitting on pine coffins in Bontoc from The Bontoc Igorot by Albert Ernest Jenks.

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Interpretation:

There were three Igorot men in my list of 17 people who died during the 1904 World’s Fair: Suyon, Danoan, and Mariano Virlano. The person who was referred to in the article could be one of those three men. However, I can only confirm that Suyon and Mariano were from Bontoc.

Suyon was 30 years old when he died on July 15, 1904. His body has not been located, but his brain is still preserved in the Smithsonian. It is also possible that his body never left St. Louis.

Mariano and Danoan may have been associated with the Philippine Scouts or Constabulary. Danoan was briefly buried before being disinterred and repatriated to the Philippines in 1905. Danoan’s remains were noted as being sent home in a “metallic casket” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 20, 1905), which does not match the description of the quartered-oak casket in the October article. Therefore, it is more likely that the body belonged to Mariano or Suyon.

The article states that the man was buried, but that his casket was repurposed for storing sweet potatoes. I have not found any other information on the specific location his body was buried other than it was in a place typically used for burials in Bontoc.

A sketch of the Bontoc region from The Bontoc Igorot by Albert Ernest Jenks.

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If you have any information about Suyon, Danvan, or Mariano Virlano, please contact me at langholzjanna@gmail.com.