In what could be the most historically significant Canada150 find in the country, a group of Western University students has unearthed dozens of Confederation-era tombstones at a London cemetery.
The five students, working on a tombstone archeology program funded through Canada Summer Jobs, discovered the gravestones along a grassy section on the east side of Woodland Cemetery on Monday.
"Almost every single stone that we have found is from the 1850s to the 1870s. All of them were people who were integral to making Canada what it is today," said Peter Dobrzynski, one of the students involved in the program.
This is the third year that Western students, mainly from the history program, have worked to restore monuments at Woodland but this year they were tasked with zeroing in on Confederation-era tombstones.
"We were just going to be restoring random graves here and there that just happened to match the name and the date of what we were looking for," said Dobrzynski. "Our mandate changed when we found these graves here."
The students will now spend the next four months uncovering the remaining monuments, repairing and restoring them to their original state, and researching the history of the Londoners whose lives they represent.
With the help of local historians, the students have already learned the gravestones were moved to Woodland from St. James Cemetery when it was closed in 1955. They were placed flat on the ground, side-by-side and forgotten about. The bodies of the Scottish immigrants whose graves they marked were not buried beneath them.
"When these stones were moved to Woodland, the bodies would have been in such a state of decay that they would have been unidentifiable and people would have been very uninterested in preservation," Dobrzynski said. "We believe the bodies are interred in a mass grave somewhere here in the cemetery, most likely beneath the Scottish memorial that serves as a general tribute to the Scottish immigrants whose stones we are uncovering. We haven't confirmed its exact location yet."
So far, 60 tombstones have been uncovered but another 90 are believed to be laying deep within the soil. Some of of them have sunken nearly a metre into the earth. Many are cracked and broken, requiring a great deal of care in their removal and restoration.
"We uncover the immediate ground around them and then as gently as possible we put straps underneath the tombstone and in large teams gently and very slowly we move them to the wooden scaffolding we've built here. It protects the stones from further exposure to the ground," said Dobrzynski. "From there it is a question of whether we need to clean it off or whether it needs to be repaired. If it needs to be cleaned off we use a biological agent that targets things such as mold, fungus, and dirt. That brings it pretty close to the original state."
A limestone mortar is inserted into cracks and used to rebuild murals and designs worn away by time and the elements.
Woodland Manager Paul Culliton has plans to revamp the area where the stones were found.
"Once they are all unearthed we have to make it presentable so we can share it with the public," said Culliton. "The students will be building a crib around it, a frame. The stones will be removed, they'll be cleaned. Then the students will put down a bed of limestone screening and the stones will be replaced."
Culliton notes the idea to restore Confederation-era graves in honour of Canada150 has taken on a life of its own. He doubts there will be any other 150-year-old discoveries in Canada in 2017 that are as significant as this one.
"It's a long summer and it's a long year but anybody would be hard pressed to find something that is going to equal this," said Culliton. "We certainly didn't expect it. I never thought we would uncover an entire cemetery from Confederation-era. That's what makes it such an amazing find."
While digging out the monuments and researching their history is a grueling task, Dobrzynski said he and his fellow students feel honoured to be able to do it.
"Generally, it's something you only read about. To find ourselves in a role where we are able to contribute to the local history is exteremly exciting," he said. "I'm a native Londoner so to get the opportunity to help add to the city's history is gratifying, rewarding, and I look forward to getting up and working further at this every single day."
Londoners can follow the students' progress on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter by searching Woodland Cemetery History.
A public cemetery walking tour that will feature the newly restored Confederation-era tombstones will be established leading up to the country's 150th birthday on July 1.
