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Archaeologist: Cranston bones from state poor farm PDF Print E-mail
Written by DeadGirl   
Monday, 03 July 2006
June 30, 2006


CRANSTON, R.I. --Bones found along a Cranston highway are from a forgotten cemetery that served a 19th-century poor farm, archaeologists have determined.

A worker taking a walk on lunch break found the remains last week near Route 37, and police initially treated the area as a possible crime scene. But the bones belong to people who died at the former State Farm, which included a work house, an almshouse, a prison and an insane asylum.

Michael Hebert, an archaeologist for the state Department of Transportation, said he searched through historical records and determined the cemetery was probably used between 1875 and 1916. His great-grandfather was sent to the State Farm workhouse for failing to make child support payments.

Records show that roughly 500 people died every year at the farm and about a quarter of those were buried by the state, Hebert said. As a result, anywhere from several hundred to 1,000 graves could lie under the highway.

"It just makes you wonder, who were these people?" Hebert said. "As one of Cranston's detectives put it so well, if we don't protect them now, who will?"

The cemetery had probably been forgotten by the time Route 37 was built over it in the mid-1960s, Hebert said. Archaeological surveys weren't required when the road was built and records don't mention the removal of any bodies.

Lead nameplates found during the excavation date from 1916, the last year the cemetery was used, Hebert said. He believes the bones collected by police are from an outer cemetery row exposed by recent heavy rains.

By Thursday, eight complete or partial skeletons had been unearthed from the rectangular, closely spaced graves. Wood from the coffins now resembles shredded bark, and the bones are colored by the surrounding soil.

Once the recovery work is finished, state authorities must decide where to rebury the remains, Hebert said.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/06/30/archaeologist_cranston_bones_from_state_poor_farm/
 
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