coffin proved difficult; it weighed some and Power and the members of the Monument Association were mostly in their 60s (the youngest was 56). They were relieved to find that the seals on the coffin were intact and that Lincoln's remains had not been disturbed. The following July, Kennally or some other member of the conspiracy asked Power to bury the coffin. He said that the unventilated basement was almost impossible to enter in the summer weather and also moving the heavy coffin had been brutally hard on himself and the other aging Monument Association members. Power, who had recently celebrated his 70th birthday, said that he suffered from crippling pain for months afterward and had no desire to do it again. The coffin therefore sat in the basement for another year. Finally, a group of men in their 30s were hired to move the coffin and on November 18, 1878, the coffin was moved and reburied in a shallow grave on the far end of the labyrinth. After receiving anonymous threats in the mail, the coffin was dug up two days later to make sure it was still there. In 1880, Power and his associates formed the "Lincoln Guard of Honor" to serve as the custodians of Lincoln's remains. Other than its members, only Robert Todd Lincoln knew of this organization. In 1882, after Mary Todd Lincoln died, Robert instructed the Guard of Honor to bury his mother's coffin wherever they kept his father's. Both coffins remained in the basement until 1887, when they were encased in a brick vault, at which time Lincoln's coffin was opened to verify his remains were still there. Tomb reconstruction and exhumation The original tomb, built on unsuitable soil, was in constant need of repair. In 1900, a complete reconstruction was undertaken, Lincoln's remains were exhumed, and the coffin was placed back in the white marble sarcophagus. On April 25, 1901, upon completion of the reconstruction, Robert Todd Lincoln visited the tomb. He was unhappy with the disposition of his father's remains and decided that it was necessary to build a permanent crypt for his father. Lincoln's coffin would be placed in a steel cage deep and encased in concrete in the floor of the tomb. On September 26, 1901, Lincoln's body was exhumed so that it could be re-interred in the newly built crypt. However, several of the 23 people present feared