“Workmen, who are employed in making excavations for the new steel plant at the Burgess Steel and Iron works made a ghastly find Wednesday afternoon.”
“William Kimle and Doc Brennan brought their pics and shovels in contact with a wooden box which turned out to be a walnut coffin containing the bones of someone buried years ago. The earth was taken from around the casket, (which was in a good state of preservation) carefully and its contents removed.”
“An examination by William Warner, an employee in the steel department, leads him to believe the skeleton was that of a woman. He bases his opinion on the fact that the jaw bones were small, and the teeth, also. In fact, all the bones were of small construction. The teeth were really beautiful. They were perfect in preservation and arrangement.”
“The coffin and the bones were ordered stored away under a bridge way near the place of excavation. It was thought they would be safe. But no. Curiosity seekers and relic hunters visited the place last night sometime and carried away the skull and most of the coffin and the bones.”
“The place where the ghastly find was made was formerly an old cemetery, the first burying place of the city. One of the oldest citizens said this morning that he remembered when a little red brick Catholic church stood where the Burgess now is, and the burying ground adjoined the church. He remembered also when the cemetery was removed and many of the bodies were taken up and re-interred in the new grounds. Several years ago coffins were found when excavations were made at the lower mill.”1
