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| Old Grave
Stones are Found Underground in City Today Transcribed and Submitted by Natasha Miles Columbus County, NC  |
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| Old Grave Stones are Found Underground in City Today News Reporter 15 April 1948 "Chief" W B Coleman and his public works crew were puzzled shortly before noon today when they unearthed a dozen or more grave markers as they opened a ditch for the installation of a storm sewer line at the rear of the New York Cafe in downtown Whiteville. The mystery deepened this afternoon when ditchers came up with a skull with teeth intact. Neither the superintendent of public works nor any local citizen viewing the stones remembered a graveyard in that location, nor could anyone account for so many grave markers being found two and three feet underground. The markers were in a pile and the skull was a few feet away. Names chiseled on the stones were legible in most cases. Others will be readable when the dirt is washed off. Some of the inscriptions read as follows: "John Penney, Died June 1, 1910. Age 60 years." "Eli, son of H and MF Farme, Died May 28, 1908, age 12 years. We will meet again." "Aimee Maultsby" (date illegible). "John R Farme, Died Oct 19, 1909." "O G wife of John Nichols, Died April 10, 1898. Age 54 years." One of the greatest mysteries seems to center around the shape of the skull. It appeared to those unitiated in excavating graves that the skull piece had been sawed. Crewman said they believed there were more stones underground. All the markers were chisled in the same pattern. They are small in size and circular-shaped at the top. |
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