By Blake Chambers
Washington Times-Herald
WASHINGTON —
Plans by the Lighthouse Recovery Center to expand and remodel its facility on CR 250N have been put on hold because the area the center wants to build on may be a human burial ground.
Lighthouse founder Pete Aldrich has been working with Vince Sellers of the Daviess County Historical Society to try to ascertain the exact location of the burial ground relative to the area where Aldrich would like to begin work. According to Sellers, records maintained by local cemetery historian Barbara Waggoner indicate there are more than 100 pauper graves somewhere in the vicinity of what used to be known as the County Farm before it was donated to the Lighthouse.
Sellers said records maintained by the historical society indicate that the first person buried at the site was a confederate Civil War veteran from Georgia. The last burial at the site was in 1940.
Waggoner’s book, which Sellers says contains “a list of all people buried in every cemetery in the county,” suggests the burial ground was generally located south of where the Lighthouse building currently sits, and north of the county road. Sellers’ uncle who lived in the area all his life also remembers it being in the area south of the house and remembers a general cemetery marker south of the garden.
However, he told Sellers the marker was knocked over by a farmer and later ended up in the fence row south of the house.
But where exactly are the graves? At the moment, no one seems to know. Ultimately, the only way to find them will be to dig, everyone agreed.
The process Aldrich must follow before he can begin digging will be complicated and expensive. Already he has retained the services of Jeff Myers, an archeologist with American Resources Group out of Carbondale, Ill.
Myers has spent time reviewing historical society records and has submitted a proposal to the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology, the state agency that regulates burial grounds.
In the proposal, Myers, on behalf of the Lighthouse, has asked the IDHP for permission to perform a magnetometry survey on the area in question.
Myers said he hopes to receive a reply from IDHP “any day now.”
Magnetometry, according to Myers, is “similar to a metal detector at an airport.” First, the topsoil will be stripped from an area about 150 feet by 250 feet. After that the area will we wetted down, a process Myers says can sometimes be revealing because of chemical changes to soil if it is or has been disturbed.
“The magnetometer will then be used to try and locate any metal below the surface. It’s common for people to be buried wearing “rings, tie tacks, eye glasses,” Myers said. Even rivets in shoes could conceivably generate a reading.
Interestingly, Sellers believes some of the paupers who were buried at the county farm may have been interred with Mason jars, containing information about the deceased.
If that is true, the Mason jars, as well would show up in the magnetometry scan.
If what Myers calls, “cultural features” are discovered, all digging must stop. Aldrich says if a grave is found in the area being studied, he will have to abandon plans for any construction in that area as the cost of disinterring and relocating the graves would be prohibitive.
