Old Catholic Cemetery’s Grave Sites Restored

Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE -- Excavated grave sites at a forgotten Catholic cemetery at the top of Steubenville’s Washington Street hill have been restored.

An equipment operator was at the site in the past week, pushing dirt into the holes left behind by an archaeological crew tasked with determining whether there were still human remains on the property, located in a field behind the Laundromat.

The cemetery had been abandoned in the mid-1880s, when the new, larger Mount Calvary Cemetery opened nearby. While some remains were moved to the new cemetery, local historians from the start had voiced concern that dozens had been left behind.

Plans by the Woda Cooper Co. to build a new, affordable senior citizen housing complex were derailed in April by discovery of a handful of grave markers. The company brought in a consultant, ASC group, to investigate, only to have them uncover human remains.

ASC researchers located at least 12 distinct sets of human remains, and last month Woda’s attorney, Michael Shaheen, told city officials ASC Group “now estimates that there are well in excess of 100 sets of remains, if not double that number, that the diocese left behind” when the old cemetery closed in 1883.

Flora VerStraten-Merrin, president of the Jefferson County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society and critic of the project from the start, had voiced concern that the excavated grave sites had been left as-is and wanted to know Woda’s plans for the site going forward.

She confirmed Monday she had “reached out to the archaeologists, and I am sure they have reached out to the powers that be” in the days before the equipment operater refilled the grave sites. Her goal, she said, was for “a respectful ending--(them) covering the graves, (installing) nice fencing and a historic sign.”