Up to 36,000 Buried in Chicago’s Old Potter’s Field : Developer Unearths a Grave Situation

Graveyards have long figured prominently in Chicago lore, so many of their occupants having managed to make it to the polls come election time. But the latest graveyard story to be unearthed here may be hard to top.

A few months ago, workers on the northwest side were excavating land for a new private housing development when they uncovered some bones--old human bones. That, in itself, is not so unusual. Contractors in these parts occasionally stumble over Indian graves or unmarked family plots from the 19th Century.

But the more they dug, the more they uncovered. There were fragments of arms, legs, ribs and skulls by the shovelful.

As Many as 36,000 Bodies

This was not some makeshift resting place for a few isolated corpses but rather the former site of a large public cemetery. From 1855 to 1912 it was the main potter’s field for Cook County. The state then took over the land for an insane asylum and continued to bury dead patients there for at least another decade and possibly longer.

Prairie fires and rot long ago had obliterated the modest wooden crosses and other traces of a graveyard that once dotted the landscape. Still, cemetery historian Barry Fleig said he has found proof of at least 15,000 burials that had taken place at the 26-acre site over the years. Extrapolating from gaps in the records, Fleig estimated that the ground is filled with as many as 36,000 bodies, including 117 of the approximately 300 known victims of the 1871 Chicago fire.

“It’s well documented,” said Fleig, an official of the Chicago Genealogical Society. “I’ve got names and addresses of people who are buried there. I’ve got death certificates. I’ve got annual reports (of cemetery operations.) I’ve got weekly reports. I can tell you how much varnish was used on the caskets.”

Even so, authorities somehow--no one for the time being is saying for sure--either forgot or ignored the cemetery last year when the state sold a chunk of surplus land adjacent to what is now a mental hospital for more than $5 million. Officials of Pontarelli Builders & Realtors, the developers of the site, have failed to respond to queries about the transaction from The Times and other media.

After the initial discovery in March, digging continued because of a bureaucratic mix-up between city and county authorities. But last week, Richard Cieslik, a supervisor with the Chicago Health Department, ordered a halt to further excavation until it could be determined where all the bodies were and what’s to be done with them. Chicago law forbids anyone to disturb a cemetery and stipulates that only licensed funeral directors can move, rebury or dispose of buried human remains.

In a ghoulish twist, Cieslik also asked Pontarelli to post guards at the site to stop curiousity seekers who, apparently intrigued by local news accounts of the find, had been carting away souvenir bones by the dozens.

Legal Quagmire

The situation is almost sure to lead to a monumental legal quagmire. Past disputes over abandoned cemetery plots in the city have rarely involved more than a handful of bodies. Faced with such an unprecedented dilemma, Cieslik said it was doubtful that any bodies could be removed or excavation work resumed without a court order. “We don’t have anybody legitimate to represent these people,” said Cieslik. “There’s no relatives to say, ‘yes, go ahead,’ move them.”

And then, of course, there’s the question of who should pick up the bill for removing the bodies. “As of the moment, the developers are going to have to cover the costs . . . “ said Cieslik. “I would imagine they’ll sue the state, and the state will sue the county, and this will go on for years.” Cieslik said a similar, although less extensive, case in South Carolina rambled through the judicial process for seven years before it came to a final disposition and disinterment was allowed to proceed.

Fleig said the poorhouse cemetery find was by far the largest such “rediscovery” of any such case he has ever encountered and it has generated the most interest. “It’s a very emotional issue,” said Fleig. “I get calls all the time from people who are outraged that the dead are being disturbed. Our culture doesn’t allow for that. It’s one thing to forget about a cemetery and quite another to desecrate it with a sewer line.”