Evening journal., 1914-07-03
Piles UP
MORE HUMAN bones
Joint Building Site Yields
Remnants OF Bodies Buried
Century Ago
CURIOUS CROWD
SEES THE WORK

The excavation work upon the site
of the new joint city and county
building. on the block bounded by
Tenth. Eleventh, King and French
streets. Is attracting more interest
than any construction work that has
been started I'm this city since the
construction of the DUPONT Building,
and crowd OF several hundred men,
women and children are lined along
both King and French streets watch
ing the two large steam shovels at
work
The excavation is proving doubly
interesting owing TO the fact that
there is an old grave yard and a
Potter's field upon the site, and many
homes of persons who walked the
streets of Wilmington several gen
erations ago are being brought TO
light by the big steel shoyels. The
crowd of OnlOokers watch every mo-
tion of the shovel and gaze at the
dirt as ID is scooped up. Occasionally
Is heard the cry: There's another
bone" or There's another skull,
and the driver on. the team upon
which the dirt Is loaded viii pick out
the bones and throw them upon the
ovor-increasing pile. It's rather grue-
some work. picking out remnants OF
bones that were once part of the h1-
man body. and the colored drivers Of
the team touch the skulls rather care
fully
In addition TO the many bones and
skulls which have been unearthed, a
very interesting old tombstone was
uncovered by Daniel Morgan and
Samuel McDonough this morning.
One OF the young men noticed small
point of white marble sticking out OF
the ground He called his compan-
ions attention to Il, and tog ther
they succeeded In working the stone
out of the ground II proved TO be
a marble slab, about two feet long by
lS inches wide and about two inches
thick. The stone was very, roughly
hcwn, but was so well preserved that
the words carved upon II were easily
discornable. The words were as fol-
lows: "Jarou Cooper who died Feb
ruary 2, 1902. aged AZ years"
The stone was found In the middle
/ of the site, and It is expected that
when the grave where the stone was
D
/ bones of Cooper. who walked the
streets of Wilmington I'm the trying
I period of the Revolutionary War, will
be disclosed to the curious view of
the twentieth century generation
This morning when the nose of the
shovel, which Is working at the Tenth
and French streets end. dug into the
earth it prodded It's way through 9
fairly we'll preserved coffin, The
shovel lifting the cover entirely from
the coffin and depositing II in ih'
wagon Tho next shovel full brough
up the remains of the coffin and will
it what few bones that remained OF
the body that had been buried in IL
In addition TO the many human bones
that have been uncovered, several
large bones were brought 10 light
this morning that were evidently the
Z bones of some large animal, such as a
horse or cow A few persons, who
Z have well oiled imaginations, remark
ed that the bones might be those of
some prehistoric animal and as such
very valuable.
Al any rate almost every shovel load
of dirt reveals some new remnant of a
former generation, and 1t is needless
TO saw that many persons who are
spending almost the entire day watching
the big shovel in operation are get
ting almost as much pleasure thereirom
as they would 10y attending circus.
Yesterday afternoon the skull of what
must have been an immense man, al
most giant was uncovered by The
shovel at Eleventh. and King streets
The skull was m almost perfect condi
tion except that the lower jaw bone
was missing, and it had a small holt
in one temple MS though crushed by
some blunt instrument, causing many e
wonder Il thc former owner of the skull
had met death in a violent manner.
Shortly before noon another tomb
stone was uncovered, this one being
slightly smaller and older than the
FIRST one. The stone was found 10y
several men. digging with shovels
and the wording upon it was almost
Chlitorated with age. The inscrip'
: tion however, was made out TO read
as follows.
Eleanor. wife OF Prymes Grant
1899"
BOYS with shovels Immediately be.
gan to dig holes in the ground in
the vicinity of the holes where thes,