Grave Situation
Workers Move Skeletal Remains To New Resting Place
By Scott Nicholson
Bodies found on the new Watauga High School site are being moved to a permanent resting place a few

hundred yards away.

Workers found eight sets of skeletal remains on the site Tuesday, and by noon Wednesday had unearthed three more grave sites. All contained bone fragments with the exception of one, where evidence suggested an infant had been buried in a blanket but no solid artifacts were found.

One virtually intact skeleton was found, believed to be an adult female. It still wore a necklace, and shoe and blouse buttons were found in the grave that family members believe were made of mother-of-pearl.
A handful of family members observed the proceedings, and though they were reluctant to speak for the record, they expressed relief that the issue was reaching a resolution after a year-long discussion over the existence of the cemetery.

“It’s quite amazing,” Joanne Hartley said. “It isn’t sad. It’s like we found what we’re looking for. It’s a blessing and the truth comes forward.”

Austin & Barnes Funeral Home has been excavating graves at the Hartley Cemetery on the property the county purchased last year for the high school. Up to 25 suspected grave sites were found in a geologic survey, and the county contracted Austin & Barnes to perform the work. Under state statute, only licensed funeral homes can relocate graves.

Tom Whyte, an archaeologist at Appalachian State University, observed on Wednesday and offered insight to some of the discoveries. Cut-steel nails found in various graves put the time of most burials between 1815 and 1880. He also noted that a number of the skeletal remains were those of children, not uncommon given the era and the lack of modern medicine.

Studying one tooth found in a grave, he noted “extreme nutritional distress usually brought on by disease.” An accompanying molar had not yet emerged from the jaw, meaning the victim was probably 7 or younger at the time of burial.

Andy Feimster, a local contractor who was on hand to help remove remains, referred to the child as “cousin” and said he was “four times great-grandfather” removed from Reuben Hartley, the man whose 1857 will provides the first recorded documentation of the cemetery. Feimster also said some of the family members might be sensitive to media coverage of the grave removals.

Jim Hartley, another descendant, took great interest in the material found with the remains, studying charts of steel nails and trying to place their ages. he also said bits of wood had been found, likely chestnut that had been used for coffins. He also marveled at the precise, chiseled shapes of the graves where they had been dug into hard clay with great care.

“Most appear to be young,” he said, observing the most-intact skeleton had been missing only a single tooth. In others, bits of bones and skull were found in various states of decay, with age determinations made both on the size of the bones and the sutures in the skeleton, which are separated in children but grown together in early adulthood.

Mike Austin, who oversaw the excavation, said all the graves were likely to be relocated by Friday. The bodies are being transferred and buried as they are found in Mountlawn Cemetery, which is on property once owned by Reuben Hartley.

Feimster said the discovery of bones finally unearthed the truth that numerous records had suggested, citing a number of documents and plats that referred to the cemetery even though tombstones, markers and boundaries were no longer identifiable. Since scant records exist of those buried there, it’s unlikely the mystery will ever be completely solved.

The relocation ends a contentious time during which some descendants of Reuben Hartley fought to keep the graves where they were, or else have them moved elsewhere on the site and placed under a permanent easement. The school’s project architect issued a report saying the site couldn’t achieve its full potential if the graves remained, and the county commissioners voted to proceed with grave relocations as described by state statute, which allows relocation for an identifiable public purpose.

The geologic survey in the spring suggested nobody had been buried in the Hartley Cemetery after 1904 and that it may have been used in the early 1800s. Nineteen suspected grave sites were found during the survey, and an additional six sites were later found in a nearby plot.

The cemetery was described as covering an acre in Rueben Hartley’s will. Hartley was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a state legislator and once owned thousands of acres surrounding the cemetery.

In 1939, Sallie Ray sold the cemetery property to Mary Hartley Cook. Property around the graveyard was sold to Cecil and Flossie Miller in 1944, and their heir, Joseph C. Miller, paid $10,000 in 2004 to 19 heirs of the Cook family for the cemetery. The county paid Joseph Miller and Bill Miller $1.2 million last summer for 15 acres that includes the graveyard property.

As the commissioners debated the future of the grave sites, including the possible use of two other plots on the 94-acre property, a number of family members became interested in the issue. Some genealogy records linked many prominent local families as descendants and suggested the number of “Hartley family members” now numbered in the thousands and were scattered across the country.

The school is expected to be complete by 2010 and has an estimated price tag of $60 million.