A worker digging to make a sanitary sewer line connection for the new $2.4 million, 14,200-square-foot visitors center last year accidentally unearthed human bones beneath Fort Meigs Street. (View graphic showing locations of remains)
“These were definitely skeletons, people-bones. Definitely European in origin, not Indian,” Larry McIntyre, construction supervisor, told The Blade. “They found the hinges from the coffins.”
Archaeologists from the Ohio Historical Society were brought in and quietly excavated several skeletons from what is believed to be the Spafford family cemetery. The remains were sent to the society's anthropology laboratory in Columbus for analysis.
“I do wish I'd have been told. Those are my ancestors. That's my family, you know,” said William Spafford, a family descendent who lives in Maumee, when contacted by The Blade.
Late last fall another worker replacing the stockade fence around Fort Meigs as part of the improvement project unearthed what are believed to be 1,400-year-old prehistoric Native American remains. State historians excavated these too and took them to the same Columbus laboratory.
Martha Otto, curator of archaeology at the state laboratory, said a similar Native American grave was found three weeks ago at Fort Meigs, not far from the first.
“That's desecration,” said Joyce Mahaney, head of the American Indian Intertribal Association in Toledo, when contacted yesterday. “It's so disconcerting. Archaeologists forget that those bones were human beings. They keep them in boxes in basements. ... We get very offended by that. Those are our ancestors. They're not lab animals.”
Judy Justus, a prize-winning Perrysburg historian and author, called the handling of the remains “the biggest secret in town.”
“I suppose they didn't want families and Indian groups making a fuss. They wanted to dig undisturbed,” she said.
It was Mrs. Justus' landmark work on the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, that led some scientists and scholars to the controversial conclusion that the former president fathered at least one of her children. She is the author of several volumes on Maumee Valley history, knows local cemetery records, and helped the state historians with initial identification of the pioneer remains, she said.
The historians agreed among themselves that publicly announcing their findings would only attract onlookers and slow their progress, she said.
Even before work started, the historians knew the Spafford family plot was somewhere in the area. Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent just such an accident. An aerial survey, electromagnetic and infrared scans, and a topsoil analysis were done. Only one possible cemetery site was found, “a football-field's length away” from the new visitor's center, she said.
But no one looked under a small, city-owned roadway that runs between private property and the western boundary of the historical park.
Inside the hole dug for the sewer connection scientists found what research indicates are likely the remains of 4-year-old Chloe Ann Spafford, who died in 1823, and her 12-year-old brother, Darius, who drowned in the Maumee River five years later, Mrs. Justus said. Their bones, along with those of at least three adults, were among those excavated and sent for analysis in Columbus.
At least two more skeletons were left beneath the roadway and an adjacent, privately owned yard, Mr. McIntyre said, and work went forward.
“This wasn't on our property, so I didn't think it was my business to make [public] announcements about what was found on someone else's land,” said Dr. Larry Nelson, the state's Fort Meigs site curator. “Most of the [Spafford] cemetery is west of the road, over the property line.”
James Bagdonas, Perrysburg city administrator, confirmed the settler bodies were found beneath a city street and are, technically, city property. But he noted that the backhoe that dug them up was not working on a city project.
Mr. Bagdonas said he authorized the excavation and bone analysis, but no written agreements were made.
“We're waiting for the analysis. Maybe if we have identifying information we can contact some relatives, and then we can determine the disposition of [the bones]. ... Right now we're thinking of interring them at Fort Meigs Union Cemetery once they're sent back.”
The ancient Indian remains unearthed just inside the fortress walls of Fort Meigs during replacement of the stockade fence are believed to be those of two children and at least one adult interred together in a ritual “bundle burial,” according to Mr. Nelson.
“Bundle burials” were typical in the area and usually date from about 1000 to 1500 A.D., Mr. Nelson said. Indians here were “Fort Meigs Indians, associated with the Sandusky phase of the Mississippi culture.” They periodically brought the bodies of their dead from different locations and held a group funeral, interring three to five corpses in a single grave.
“We haven't said much about it because the excavations aren't complete,” Ms. Otto said. “There's a lot of heavy machinery up there. It's a construction site and an archaeological site.”
The site was carefully studied before the Native American remains were shipped to Columbus for analysis, but the future for them will be different from those of the pioneers.
“The Native American remains will stay [in Columbus] as part of our collection,” Ms. Otto said.
Indian burial grounds are protected from desecration by federal law, said Ms. Mahaney. She said an attorney representing her group will be contacting Fort Meigs officials about the matter.
“Isn't it interesting how there's a double standard for the [pioneer] graveyard and the Native American remains?” she said. “Traditional people believe that those who disturb the dead are bringing bad luck upon themselves.”
The Maumee River bluff where Perrysburg stands has been inhabited off and on for centuries, and modern civic improvements - especially those along the riverbanks - have frequently unearthed evidence of early residents.
Human bones have turned up during Maumee-Perrysburg bridge projects, and bones found in 1995 in Hood Park at the foot of Louisiana Avenue in Perrysburg drew Native American intervention. Those remains were reinterred with ritual honors by Ms. Mahaney's group, which has reburied more than 150 bodies dug up throughout Ohio in the last 15 years.
Mrs. Justus said she is hopeful the Spafford remains will be returned to Perrysburg, where she and several community members are making plans to honor and celebrate them.
“We're honoring the Spafford family at our Founder's Day celebration in 2003. It was Maj. Amos Spafford who named Perrysburg. The family contributed greatly to our history,” she said.
“We're so many generations removed from them, but it's still pretty disturbing to see your loved ones resurrected that way,” said Marie Spafford, William's wife. “I don't see anything wrong with picking them up and moving them a little. Maybe it's high time to put them over at the [Fort Meigs Union] cemetery with the rest of the family. ... Just do it with some dignity. And let us know where so we can maybe go and say a prayer.”
First Published April 12, 2002, 2:36 p.m.