Kansas City daily journal., 1896-12-23
REVOLUTIONARY RELICS.
Bayonets, n Cannon Ball, Coins and
Skeletons Found at the jerome
Park Reservoir Site.

Park Reservoir Site.
From the New York Sun
Revolutionary relics are not infrequently
this city. The finding of five gold guineas
of England in the excavations for the
Jerome park reservoir last August sharp
ened the eyes of every man of the 500 en-
ployed on that work and several minor
finds have been recently reported.
"It was only on Tuesday that we came
across two human skeletons at the north
end of the reservoir in the property of the
old Dickerson and Van Cortlandt estates"
said H. B. Reed, the assistant contractor.
THE skeletons were nearly complete, and
the bones, although brittle, were in a fair
state of preservation. In sandy soil they
might have lain for a hundred years, but
he soil hereabout is of such a character
that buried bones would not last for half
that period. The bones when found were
so easily broken that great care was
necessary to preserve them for the city
officers. The skulls were well shaped, in
dicating that the two individuals. were
white men and probably intelligent ones.
Police Captain Donohue removed the
skeletons and will no doubt give them a
the bones was in an old garden that has
been cultivated for years past They lay
about three feet below the surface, which
Is deeper than a gardener would till the
soil, and so they were never turned up I'M
til now. 1t would be difficult to say how
long ago the bodies were placed there, but
it was neither recently. nor could it have
been as early as revolutionary times.
''There have been, however, several
articles found in the reservoir that un-
doubtedly date back to the colonial period"
continued Mr.. Reed. when you remem-
ber that Kingsbridge, according to Coop
er's tale of The Spy was one of the live
liest skirmishing grounds of the revolution,
it will not seem strange that We have
found traces of the old battles Many
trees in the vicinity are SCARED with the
shot and bits of shell. Some of our men
recently dug up two old bayonets and a
cannon ball. These were found on the west
side of the reservoir, on the grounds of the
Ogden Giles estate. The spot is one of the
two that claim the old name of Fort In
dependence
THE bayonets differed greatly from the
present model. Their blades were eighteen
inches long, and We're stiffened by third
edge that made them triangular in cross
section. Bayonets of 1864 are of similar
shape, though smaller, but the present
army uses n fiat knife bayonet. We found
the old bayonets lying on the rocks under
about two and half feet of earth. They
happened to rest in corner that had
never been disturbed by tho farmers. The
steel was fairly preserved under a thick
coat of rust. a large collection of smaller
weapons was found across the Harlem
river at Fort George in the excavation for
hotel not long ago.
"As to the gold pieces we found last
August" the contractor continued, there
were five of them. Curiously enough they
were all turned up in single shovelful of
earth by one of our Italian laborers. APP
parently they had been dropped there over
a hundred years ago in a purse of which
every thread had gone to decay. The coins
were guinea pieces of the reigns of George
II. and George Ill If I remember rightly,
the dates ranged from 11i9 TO 1776. The
coins were larger and thinner than the
present gold sovereign, and the light yellow
color indicated very pure quality of gold.
On one face was the head of the king, and
the reverse bore the British coat of arms
We found the money near Sedgwick ave-
nue., at the southwest corner of the reser-
voir under an old revolutionary redoubt.
Traces of the fort still remain in the
roughly outlined earth works in n group of
trees behind the house formerly occupied
by e f. Eames. The coins were distributed
among those in charge of the reservoir. We
paid the gold value without regard to n
possible premium that might be set upon
them by coin collectors. They will be the
most interesting souvenir of our work on
tho new reservoir and / do not expect to
duplicate that discovery in all the 800 acres
included within the three-mile boundary of
Jerome park and its additions"