Century-Old Discovery Sheds Light on Cemetery Practices, Revisited at History Museum

A century-old discovery in a North Tonawanda cemetery, recently highlighted at a lecture at the North Tonawanda History Museum, sheds light on a practice that was once "fairly common" in burial grounds. According to a Buffalo News report from December 18, 1920, the exhumation of nearly 100 bodies from Sweeney Cemetery for the widening of Thompson Street revealed an unexpected density in one particular section.

Buffalo, New York • Sat, Dec 18, 1920

THREE OR FOUR BODIES FOUND IN EACH GRAVE

Discovery Made in Widening Street in North Tonawanda.

NORTH TONAWANDA, Del. 18. – Perry Barron, sexton of the Sweeney cemetery, today completed the extensive work of exhuming nearly 100 bodies from a section of the burial ground destined to be consumed by the city's expansion of Thompson Street.

The large-scale operation, spurred by the long-considered widening of Thompson Street between Payne Avenue and Bryant Street to a substantial 66 feet, saw most of the exhumed remains reinterred. Many were moved to the section of Sweeney Cemetery reserved for the Sweeney heirs, a portion of land turned over to the city for this very purpose. Other bodies found new resting places in various cemeteries across the Tonawandas and nearby areas, with a significant number transported to Forest Lawn in Buffalo.

However, an unusual and surprising condition was encountered when Sexton Barron's team reached the Potter's Field section of the cemetery, which also fell within the path of the street expansion. This section, initially estimated to be large enough for approximately six individual burials, yielded a startling twenty bodies upon excavation.

Investigators discovered that plain wooden boxes, likely containing the unidentified victims of accidents and diseases within North Tonawanda, had been unceremoniously piled three or four deep in various spots within the plot.

Beyond the immediate task of widening Thompson Street, which has been under consideration for many years, city officials are also preparing plans for the complete paving of the thoroughfare next summer.