Old Cathedral Cemetery, Wilmington, Del. had approx. 3200
burials, some stacked, from around mid 19th century to early 20th
century. I think the Catholic Church bought the, at that time,
unused land from the other cemetery to use as their cemetery. The
burials were of different social standing but many were poorer
Irish immigrants. There were several crypts and what may have been
a section of unconsecrated ground for unbaptized infants. It was
sold to the hospital and paved over for a parking lot in the
1950's. They were reburied at All Saints cemetery. There is now a
new surgical center building on the property.
  MAAR also moved the UAME Cemetery in Wilmington, Del. The church
and cemetery were sold to MBNA for construction. Another one MAAR
moved was the Nowell Cemetery, Harrington, Del. so that United
Parcel could expand their building.
  Several of the crew on the Old Cathedral project had just worked
moving a more recent cemetery in St. Louis?? There was also one
that was moved with worker unrest and controversy (having to do
with union wages), I believe, in Indiana around the same time.
  On the PhilyRoots genealogy e-mail list, there are often people
trying to find where the cemeteries have been moved. I can post to
find out which ones and see if I get an answer.
  While not US, but is European - I gather from the German
genealogy e-mail lists that land is so scarce in Germany that you
pay for something like 30 years interment, at which time the bones
are dug up, placed in a ossuary and the land used for another
interment.
Marge Green
("Hey, Marge" to the other workers)


"Cheryl A. Smith" wrote:
>
> i worked on a crm project in wilmington, delaware that
> was an irish catholic, mostly pauper (19th century?)
> cemetery--if i remember right, it was over 2000
> graves, many multiply stacked.  it was discovered
> during construction of a new surgical center for the
> hospital.  the pauper cemetery was adjacent to another
> still in-use cemetery and church--they were likely
> associated at one point but had since become a parking
> lot.  it would have been fall/winter 1997-1998 by maar
> and associates out of wilmington.
>
> i had thought the graves were moved to the current
> cemetery, though i don't know for sure.
>
> cheryl smith
>
> --- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> > HISTARCHers:
> >
> > Gaye Norton's query about historic graves reminded
> > me of something I've
> > been meaning to ask the list for some time. (Sorry
> > Gaye, this doesn't
> > answer your question!).
> >
> > First some background. I occassionally am able to
> > listen to little bits and
> > pieces of a radio talk show on National Public Radio
> > (in the United States,
> > for the benefit of our European and Australian
> > members), called "Native
> > American Calling." On a show about a month ago, the
> > topic was the consent
> > of a tribal government to a developer to build a
> > golf course. In the course
> > of getting the appropriate cultural resource
> > compliance, Native American
> > graves were discovered. The show, I believe, was
> > discussing the probability
> > that the tribal government was going to allow the
> > graves to be moved in
> > order to allow the development to continue.
> >
> > As can be imagined, most of the Native American
> > callers were indignant. One
> > caller in particular hit a sore point for me, as an
> > archeologist. She said
> > something to the effect of "They wouldn't put a golf
> > course over Arlington
> > Cemetery, would they?" As usual, "they" was not
> > defined, but her
> > implication was that the sanctity most Americans
> > hold for the premier
> > cemetery dedicated to honoring the nation's soldiers
> > was somehow comparable
> > to the sanctity most Native Americans hold for any
> > Native American remains.
> >
> > Now, as an American of European descent, I
> > continually have to remind
> > myself that my perceptions of degree of significance
> > (that is, Arlington
> > cemetery has greater sanctity than a small town
> > church cemetery) is not the
> > same as for many Native American groups. We in the
> > western part of the
> > country are continually reminded by Native Americans
> > that everything is
> > sacred, and that there is no higher and lower degree
> > of significance. (We
> > Euroamericans have a hierachical society; most
> > Native American groups do
> > not, so hierachies may be harder for some of them to
> > think about?). Its a
> > hard difference in value systems for the folks
> > trying to make decisions
> > about what to save and what to mitigate or let go,
> > and its very hard to get
> > around.
> >
> > Now, for my question. How many of you know of
> > examples of moving historic
> > Euroamerican cemeteries to make way for development?
> > The underlying
> > implication by the caller was that Euroamericans
> > would not do this to their
> > own cemeteries, only to Native American graves. I
> > know that is not true,
> > but I don't have case studies. I am particularly
> > interested in cases that
> > are not potters fields, but are cemeteries
> > containing headstones and
> > Euroamerican people with living, known descendents.
> >
> > Thanks for any enlightenment!
> >
> >
> > Cathy Spude
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > National Park Service
> > Santa Fe, New Mexico
> >
> > As usual, the opinions expressed here may not be
> > those of my employer.
>
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