As a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace,” four pallbearers wearing white gloves used ropes to lower a casket into the ground at Perrysburg Union Cemetery yesterday, putting to rest the bones of seven settlers accidentally unearthed by a construction crew three years ago.
Descendants of Amos Spafford, who moved to Perrysburg in 1810 and gave the city its name, said they were satisfied the ceremony put an end to the saga that began when the unmarked graves were dug up near Fort Meigs in Perrysburg in the summer of 2001.
“I'm very pleased with the way things turned out,” said Tonia Spafford Cannon of Denver. “The ceremony was tastefully done.”
No DNA tests were done on the bones, but an anthropology professor at Ohio State University said the remains are of seven individuals. Records show that 14 pioneers had been buried on the Spafford farm next to Fort Meigs, according to Judy Justus, a local historian who helped arrange yesterday's Founders Day events.
The Rev. Terry Powell of First United Methodist Church, Perrysburg, and the Rev. Phillip Jones of First Presbyterian Church, Maumee, presided over the brief ceremony under a bright morning sun.
Seven family members placed lilies atop the antique toe-pincher coffin; the Spafford Bell - which first rang from the Samuel Spafford Exchange Hotel when it opened in Perrysburg in 1823 - tolled seven times, and seven white doves were released during the benediction.
Twenty-two Spafford descendants from five states attended the ceremony, which was followed by a luncheon, a slide show, and the dedication of an Ohio Bicentennial historical marker honoring the Spaffords and Perrysburg.
Mrs. Cannon, 46, was one of several Spafford heirs who had asked Perrysburg city Administrator Jim Bagdonas for the bones to be interred close to the site where they were unearthed - under a street next to the new Fort Meigs State Memorial Visitors' Center.
But after visiting the location in person for the first time yesterday, Mrs. Cannon said she believes the bones will be safer from vandals in the cemetery, which is about a mile from the original burial site. “I think this is great,” Ms. Cannon said. “And I don't think the remains will be moved for a very long time.”
Her father, William F. Spafford, 77, of Denver, said the cemetery site was “a good compromise” reached by the 12 Spaffords and the Perrysburg officials who consulted them.
William L. Spafford, 74, a retired Jeep worker from Maumee, said Perrysburg Union Cemetery already contained the graves of 23 Spaffords. “It's like an old homecoming,” he said.
Keith Custer of Witzler-Shank Funeral Home, who handled the arrangements, said the expenses were minimal - less than $400, he estimated - because the antique casket and the burial plot were donated.
After the service, the Spafford clan gathered for a tour of Fort Meigs followed by the luncheon, enjoying the opportunity to get reacquainted or to meet for the first time many of their out-of-town relatives.
First Published May 11, 2003, 11:22 a.m.
