Archaeologists Discover Lost Graves From Milwaukee's Boom Time

Bones unearthed at the gravesite discovered in Milwaukee. Credit: Elisa Neckar, Discover In 1874, Milwaukee was swelling with immigrants. The city’s population had more than septupled in less than thirty years, and German immigrants to the area had established the largest concentration of a single ethnic group anywhere in America. In response to this exponential growth, the Common Council decided that 13^th Street would have to be expanded – and the new street would have to run through the German Protestant Cemetery in the city’s Second Ward. The Common Council ordered the cemetery owners to relocate the bodies within 30 days. Since I’m standing in a partially excavated lot in the middle of downtown Milwaukee in August of 2015, with 13^th Street to my back and gravesites all around me, it’s pretty obvious that relocation never happened. The graves were uncovered during construction for an addition to the Guest House homeless shelter, which occupies the lot to the south of the cemetery site. In June of 2014, construction of a rainwater-harvesting pavilion for the shelter’s urban garden just across 13^th Street uncovered two burials. Based on those finds and information from the Wisconsin Historical Society that an unmarked cemetery may be in the vicinity, and in accordance with Wisconsin statutes, the Guest House had an archeological monitor on site when construction began, in case any further burials were uncovered. “I think it took all of 20 minutes,” Dr. Patricia Richards says wryly. Richards is the associate director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Cultural Resource Management (UWM-CRM) program, the contractual branch of the university’s Department of Anthropology, which helps clients maintain compliance with the state’s archeological standards and provides interpretation services. And she’s seen plenty of “relocated” cemeteries resurface before. “In my career as an urban archeologist, if I had a dollar for every time remains were supposed to be moved and they weren’t,” she says, her voice trailing off meaningfully. Often, only headstones were relocated; following through with transferring the bodies themselves was dependent on whether there was family in the area to “steward the remains.” If an immigrant had come to America alone, or if his or her family had moved out of the area or died themselves, chances were no one would make sure gravesites were tended. Or, when necessary, dug up and moved. In this case, the director of the Guest House was hopeful that the graves had been relocated, since she knew late-19^th century housing had stood on the lot. In fact, Richards points out where the foundation of a rather shallow basement had to be removed in advance of her team’s excavation. But, she says, when they lifted it out, clear stains from the disintegrating wood coffins marked the bottom of the cement – the 19^th century homebuilders must’ve known exactly what they were building on top of.