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STEUBENVILLE -- Neither Woda Cooper Companies nor the archaeological consultant overseeing the search for more human remains at the old Catholic cemetery behind The Laundromat at the top of Washington Street Hill has produced a human remains treatment plan for city inspection, officials said Wednesday.
Earlier this week, consultants discovered human remains -- a jawbone and several teeth, along with “the outline of the casket, including a handle” -- in a location very close to grave markers memorializing Patrick Hargrove, who died in the mid-1860s, and Bridgitt Hargrove, who died a couple of years later.
No additional discoveries have been reported to the city, but on Wednesday two tents were erected -- one shielding the excavation near the Hargrove gravestone from public view and the other farther up the hillside behind the laundromat.
City Manager Mike Johnson said the city requested a copy of the plan -- created with the consultant’s help and approved by the State Historic Preservation Office -- nearly a week ago. The plan was supposed to be in place before ground disturbance began in areas suspected of containing human remains, but as of Wednesday evening, Johnson said the city had not received a copy.
Law Director Costa Mastros said earlier this week that Woda’s attorney advised the company would file a petition with Jefferson County Probate Court this week or next.
Under the Ohio History Connection’s archaeology guidelines for cemeteries, the plan should attempt to address the cultural affiliations of the remains; strategies for preserving the burial site in place or, if preservation is not feasible, scientifically and respectfully disinterring the remains; guidelines for analyzing any remains and where the bones or artifacts will be stored; and protocols for reinterring any remains found.
The Diocese of Steubenville, meanwhile, said in a statement issued Wednesday morning that it is “prepared to assist … in any way,” based on any further archaeological work and probate court rulings.
“Burials in the old cemetery occurred prior to the existence of the Diocese of Steubenville,” the statement said, noting the Diocese of Steubenville was established in 1944. Before that, the area was part of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and later the Diocese of Columbus.
“Burials in the old cemetery ceased in 1883, when, as the Diocese of Steubenville has always understood, all graves were moved to the then newly formed Mt. Calvary Cemetery,” the statement continued.
Ownership of the property where the old cemetery is located was transferred from the Diocese of Columbus to the Diocese of Steubenville in 1947, the statement said. The Diocese of Steubenville sold the property in 1977.