March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Hancock pit yields human remains

HANCOCK — Gone but not forgotten, some Hancock County residents who have been dead for 100 years were being investigated this week by the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department after their remains were discovered in a gravel pit.

Soil erosion over the years may be the cause in the partial unearthing of an old family grave site located near a gravel pit on East Side Road in Hancock, according to Chief Deputy Richard Bishop.

A Hancock resident notified the Sheriff’s Department Saturday that his son had found what looked like two human skulls at the gravel pit. Bishop met with the man and his son who led him to the site of where the skulls were discovered. One of the skulls, Bishop said, still had remains of hair, and bedding from its coffin appeared to be attached to the bone.

Bishop checked the top of the gravel pit for evidence of graves and found three overturned gravestones. The stones appeared to be the only monuments in a small, quite possibly abandoned, private family cemetery, Bishop said.

One stone was located directly in line from where the skulls were found, lying face down about 10 feet from the edge of the pit. The stone noted the deaths of Dea Sylvanus Butler, who died Oct. 14, 1882, at the age of 75 and his wife, Joann, who died April 23, 1898, at the age of 83.

Although the two had been buried 16 years apart, their wooden coffins had been placed close to each other in one gravesite, Bishop said. The two skulls found last weekend may well be the remains of the Butlers, he said.

The second overturned stone, also near the edge of the pit, marked the death of 83-year-old Betsy, wife of John Stratton, who died March 3, 1881. About 25 feet from the edge of the pit was a third overturned stone, the grave marker for Helen Stratton who died Nov. 7, 1872.

Bishop said the Sheriff’s Department was attempting to locate any living descendants of the Butler and Stratton families so they can claim the remains.

Lamoine contractor Richard King, who owns slightly more than 7 1/2 acres of the pit including the land where the old family cemetery is located, said he was not aware of the old cemetery until he was informed by Bishop of this weekend’s discovery of the human remains. The last time King had hauled gravel out of the pit was about two years ago from a point about 200 feet from where the overturned stones were discovered.

The Lamoine contractor had purchased the property about six years ago. The remaining portion of the pit, 1.6 acres, is owned by the town, according to Town Clerk Lynda Warford. The town has no record of the small cemetery, she said.

King agreed that soil erosion might have played a part in the partial unearthing of the gravesite. Another contributing factor in the weakening of the slope of the pit’s edge may be tracks made by all-terrain vehicles which King said he noticed when he inspected the area Monday. King added that another possible cause relating to the soil erosion might have been the removal of about four feet of gravel near the slope done sometime ago by someone who had hauled gravel without his permission.


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