A portion of the Salem United Church of Christ cemetery in Oley Township is
barren of headstones. Workers from a company are preparing to relocate graves
so the church can build an addition.
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Saturday, November 16, 2002
Archaeologists helping to relocate burial plots
Unmarked graves dot Oley cemetery
By Yvonne M. Wenger
Reading Eagle
Archaeologists working on a grave-relocation project at Salem United Church
of Christ in Oley Township are finding more burial plots than initially
thought. “There are quite a number of unmarked graves, which is not uncommon
in historic cemeteries,” said Douglas B. Mooney, principal archaeologist for
Kise Straw & Kolodner, the Philadelphia firm doing the work.
The church at 307 Covered Bridge Road hired Mooney's company to move 57
graves to a common burial plot so the church could build an addition at the
rear of the building.
The graves contain the remains of early members of the church, which dates
back to 1736.
Although there are 57 graves with headstones, Mooney said his analysis shows
the cemetery may contain as many as 100 burial sites.
The exact number of unmarked graves won't be known until the investigation is
completed.
Death and burial records for the cemetery aren't comprehensive, Mooney said.
And he said that limestone headstones, such as the ones at Salem UCC, crumble
and deteriorate over time.
When that happens, the stones often are removed, leaving the grave unmarked
and forgotten.
Archaeologists began searching the cemetery for unmarked graves Nov. 4.
“As archaeologists, we need to recover everything that is there,” Mooney
said. “There are no remains that are going to be missed.”
To determine the placement of a now-unmarked grave, Mooney said the
archaeologists strip the top layer of the soil and look for discoloration in
the underlying dirt.
“We look for the rectangular stains in the subsoil,” he said.
That discoloration, he explained, is caused by exposure to air during the
interment.
Exhumation of remains will begin soon and continue through the winter, Mooney
said.
The time it will take to exhume the remains, which will be removed by hand,
will depend on the number of graves and the state of preservation.
“If they need to be removed, out of all the other possible options, this is
the most dignified approach,” he said.
The process involves marking each plot, exhuming the remains and placing them
into a small box marked with the person's name.
The unmarked graves will be assigned a number and labeled as unknown. But
depending on the preservation of the bones, the archaeologists might be able
to tell the sex and age of the person buried there.
All boxes eventually will be placed in common ground in the Southwest corner
of the cemetery.
The church will preserve the individual headstones.
Church members agreed in February to move the graves after deciding to build
the addition, said Eleanor A. Shaner, a lifetime Salem UCC member.
The cost of the project will be about $637,000, she said.
While the thought of moving human remains is unnerving to some, Shaner, who
has distant relatives buried in the cemetery, said she is OK with the
project.
“I feel comfortable with it,” she said. “I am a Christian that believes what
remains of my ancestors, bones or whatever, will be respectfully removed.”
Relocating the graves to a common burial plot was the church's only option,
said Jeffrey C. Karver, church attorney. Salem UCC needs to grow, and there
is no other space on church-owned land to do it.
“There is a need for expansion,” Karver said. “The actual church structure
was built in 1821 and renovated in 1901. It is a very, very old structure,
and I don't think it's unexpected that it will have to be renovated to serve
the needs of the congregation in 2002.”
Improvements will include two new handicapped-accessible bathrooms, an
elevator, office space and nine classrooms for Sunday school.
The congregation of 350 gave its final consent for the project in mid-October
after the grave relocation received court approval as required by state law.
Oley Township supervisors approved the building plans in September.
“The church plans satisfied township ordinances, and the judge satisfied
legal concerns,” Supervisor James R. Coker said. “And therefore, we were
obligated to approve the plans. We had no recourse not to.”
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Company relocating graves skilled at the unusual task
Kise Straw & Kolodner of Philadelphia, now working at an Oley Township church
cemetery, can draw on its experience, which includes moving burial sites at
Independence Mall to make way for the National Constitution Center.
By Yvonne M. Wenger
Reading Eagle
The Philadelphia firm hired to move graves in an Oley Township cemetery
performed a similar project in one of America's most revered historic
sites. Kise Straw & Kolodner worked at Independence Mall to relocate unmarked
graves at the site of the National Constitution Center, which is set to open
July 4. The center will be the nation's first museum dedicated solely to
honoring and explaining the U.S. Constitution. The building is under
construction near Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. The project involved
removing about 150 graves from an adjoining church cemetery that was founded
in 1752, said Douglas B. Mooney, principal archaeologist at Kise Straw &
Kolodner. Records from the Second Presbyterian Church indicated that 1,500
people were buried in the graveyard, but most of the graves were relocated to
a West Philadelphia cemetery when the church cemetery was abandoned in
1868. Archaeologists found the remains of 98 people in the old cemetery,
Mooney said. He said that the remains of another 50 people were scattered on
the premises, disturbed by 19th century construction. Excavation at the Independence Mall site ended in September 2001, but an undetermined number of
unmarked graves and some relics still remain buried there, Mooney said. The
remaining graves will not be disturbed by construction, Mooney said. “The site
itself is the single best preservation site in the city,” he said. “Parts of
the entire Colonial city block were found below the ground. Established in
1966, Kise Straw & Kolodner has excavated more than five historic burial
grounds in the last three years. The company also offers services in
architecture, urban design and cultural resources. It is working at Salem
United Church of Christ in Oley Township, where graves will be moved so the
church can build an addition. “Our approach is from archaeology,” Mooney
said. “It (grave relocation) is not done in a hurried matter. The handling of
the remains are done by hand and not by machines.”
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Some burial relics may be found intact
How people were interred changed after the Civil War, increasing the
likelihood that items and skeletons will be discovered in the church
cemetery, an archaeologist says.
By Yvonne M. Wenger
Reading Eagle
The condition of human remains that will be unearthed in Salem United Church
of Christ cemetery likely will depend on soil acidity and the manner of
burial. Some of the earliest graves in the Oley Township burial site date to
the 1770s. Douglas B. Mooney, an archaeologist from Kise Straw & Kolodner of
Philadelphia who is working on a grave-relocation project at the cemetery,
said the degree of decomposition typically depends on how much acid is in the
soil and how well the body was preserved. Bodies interred before the Civil War
routinely were wrapped in cloth burial shrouds secured by pins, Mooney said,
adding that wooden caskets were common. Mooney said he wouldn't expect to find
more than pins and some bones in those graves. But after the Civil War, he
said, more emphasis was placed on burials. Bodies often were embalmed and
buried in clothing along with personal items. Caskets made of metal were
sometimes used.“ We could get down there and find a completely intact
skeleton; it just depends on the soil chemistry,” Mooney said. “Or, we could
find one that looks intact, and then when you get down there, the bone just
crumbles.” Mooney also expects that relics such as buttons and jewelry would
be found in some post-Civil War graves. As part of the project, remains and
relics from each grave will be placed in individual boxes. The boxes then
will be placed in a common burial site at the cemetery. Salem UCC is moving
the graves to make room for an addition to the church. “Whatever an individual
was buried with will be kept with that person,” Mooney said. “They were
personal objects intended to be buried with that person and they should stay
with that person. ”The cemetery reached its capacity in the 1880s, but the
last interment was performed in 1914 when an 80-year-old unmarried woman was
buried next to seven siblings who had died in childhood, said Eleanor A.
Shaner, a church member.
