Developers withdraw cemetery disinterment petition — for now
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STEUBENVILLE -- Attorneys representing the developer planning to build senior citizen housing on a forgotten Catholic cemetery at the top of Washington Street hill have withdrawn a petition to disinter any remains found on the property, though they retained the option to refile.
The decision followed a conference with Jefferson County Probate Judge Frank Noble, who has jurisdiction over the cemetery and the remains found in it.
The now-withdrawn petition had confirmed that crews investigating anomalies detected by ground-penetrating radar had already uncovered partial remains of at least 12 individuals in their first few days of searching, with upwards of 83 anomalies still to be investigated. But GPR cannot map objects through "thick, highly conductive materials" like wet clay, so crews were unable to use it in an area they described as a lower, "swampy" portion of the cemetery to look for similar anomalies.
The cemetery -- referred to alternatively as the old Catholic cemetery, Jacksonville Cemetery, Leicy's Field and "Market Street Addition Cemetery" -- was initially established as part of the relocation and consolidation of Catholic cemeteries from downtown Steubenville. From 1878-1880, the watchman's reports submitted to the Steubenville Weekly Herald routinely reported up to five burials a month, leading local historians to project as many as 50 members of the Catholic community per year were laid to rest there over the 51 years it was in operation.
When Mt. Calvary Cemetery opened in the mid-1880s, a news item in the Steubenville Weekly Herald celebrating its opening pointed out that the old cemetery, "...having been filled up, and besides being a swampy piece of ground, had long since been considered unsuitable..." Another reported the remains of 108 decedents had been moved to the new cemetery.
From 1878-1880 alone, the cemetery watchman's reports submitted to the paper routinely reported up to five burials a month in the old cemetery. Local historians project as many as 40-50 members of the Catholic community per year were likely laid to rest there after it opened in 1832.
If records of interment exist, Diocese of Steubenville representatives say the information will be found in the archives of its predecessors: Steubenville was originally in the Diocese of Columbus (1821 to 1868), then the Diocese of Columbus (1868 to 1944). The Diocese of Steubenville wasn't established until 1944. To date, there's been no indication those records have been found or that a search has even been initiated.
Woda Cooper Companies had purchased the property, located behind The Laundromat on Washington Street (Sunset Boulevard/State Route 43), to build affordable senior housing. Crews prepping the site for construction discovered a handful of grave markers in April, bringing the work to a halt. In the weeks since, Woda hired ASC Group as its certified archaeological consultant; it was their investigators who discovered human remains very near the location of two of those stones.
Attorneys Michael Shaheen and Diane Senakievich requested the petition be withdrawn without prejudice, which typically means the petitioners retain the right to refile.
City Manager Mike Johnson said at this point, he assumes Woda and the developers will make changes to and resubmit their petition, which outlines ASC's plan to recover and reinter all remains still on site.
"I assume the judge must have had issues with it, otherwise why would they withdraw without prejudice," he added.
Developer Tom Simons and Shaheen did not respond to requests for comment Monday.