On Thomas Paine's bones and what happened in Mahad (Maharashtra) in 1927. Thread.

The most reviled man in early 19th century America (because he wrote The Age of Reason) died a pauper in the worst kind of squalor, his body covered in cankers. Denied burial at the Quaker burying ground, he was buried in the orchard of his home in New Rochelle, New York State.

Only six mourners showed up for his funeral. No eulogies were offered. Marguerite Bonneville, a woman he had rescued from France, who became his caretaker in his final years, recalled his interment in this manner:

I, placing myself at the east end of the grave said to my son Benjamin, “stand you there, at the other end, as a witness for a grateful America.” Looking around me and beholding the small group of spectators, I exclaimed as the earth was tumbled into the grave:

“Oh! Mr. Paine! My son stands here as the testimony for the gratitude of America, and I, for France!”