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Bones reveal history in Lewes - By Nick Roth - CapeGazette.com - Covering Delaware's ... Page 1 of 19
Cape Gazette
http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/1288291
Bones reveal history in Lewes
Archaeologist believes Wolfe family cemetery discovered
By Nick Roth | Jan 23, 2015
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Photo by: Nick Roth
Archaeologist Edward Otter, left, and technician John Potts work on one of the last graves discovered at the site of a new home
in the Hawkseye community outside Lewes.
A brass button here, remnants of a wooden coffin there. These are the scraps of evidence
archaeologist Edward Otter is using to narrow down who is likely buried in a recently
discovered, unmarked cemetery just outside Lewes.
Tombstones may be absent, but Otter says he believes he knows who was laid to rest in a
plot in the Hawkseye community. Through artifacts left behind and land records, Otter has
narrowed the timeline down to a time in the 18th century when the Wolfe family occupied
the land.
Reese Wolfe Sr. and Jr. and their families owned and lived on the land in what is now
Hawkseye in the mid- to late 1700s. When construction crews began excavating the site
of a new home in August, they uncovered a previously unknown family cemetery, the final
resting place of 10 people.
LAND OWNERSHIP
HISTORY
Otter and his team of three technicians carefully
uncovered 11 graves, 10 of which contained skeletal
remains. Most shafts contained coffins facing east,
1674-1688 – Abraham Clement and
Otto Woolgast
http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/bones-reveal-history-in-lewes/1288291
1/26/2015
1688-1691 – William Clark
1691-1693 – William Clark and
Thomas Oldman
1693-1698 – Albertus Jacobs and
Martha Jacobs
1698-1702 – William Clarke
1702-1710 – William Clarke Jr.
1710-1710 – William Burton
1710-1746 – Thomas Lawrence
1746-1754 – Francis Wolfe
1754-1757 – Reese Wolfe Sr.
1757-1762 – Jacob Philips
1762-1789 – Reese Wolfe Jr.
1789-1854 – William Wolfe
1854-1867 – William B. Wolfe
1867-1871 – Edward Burton
1871-1897 – Charles Gibbons
1897-1913 – Anna M. Willard
1913-1940 – William Bookhammer
1940-1940 – Sussex Trust Co.
1940-Present – J.G. Townsend &
Co.
suggesting Christian-style burials. Little remained of
the wooden coffins, but several artifacts were found,
including brass buttons, nails, shroud pins and cloth.
One burial site took Otter by surprise. Unlike the other
sites, one featured a zinc outer coffin with what is
believed to have been a second coffin inside. Zinclined coffins were often used when remains were
transported back to their final resting place. The coffin
found at the Lewes site had been soldered shut, and
then it was placed inside a mahogany coffin. Once
lowered into the ground, another box – without a
bottom layer – was placed over it. Eventually the wood
rotted and the zinc collapsed, flattening what had
been inside.
“Zinc doesn't really have any structural strength, which
is why it had an inner layer of wood anyway,” Otter
said.
The 11th grave discovered was small and square.
Otter believes it was intended for a small child; either
the bones have deteriorated or the grave was never
used.
There is no way to test the bones that were recovered
to narrow the time frame of burial. The bones are
much too recent to use carbon dating, Otter said.
Instead, he relied on land records and census data to
build an ownership history for the property.
“There's all kinds of potential in land records,” he said.
“Sometimes you find direct references to cemeteries;
it could be in either a deed or a will. We didn't find any
of that stuff on this one.”
So to determine who was buried at the site, Otter used
detective work to build a circumstantial case.
“I've been focused on digging, not out trying to redo
my research to figure out who's who yet,” he said.
“There will be time for that once I get all these
[remains] out of here.”
The presence of coffins and buttons along with the
land history points to the 18th century, he said. Based
on land records, he said, it's likely the site is the Wolfe
family cemetery.
Otter said there are at least four men among the remains, but because the graves were in
poor condition, gender cannot be determined for all of them.
“I was hoping for better preservation, but you never know that kind of stuff until you start
digging holes,” Otter said.
According to records, Francis Wolfe bought the land from Thomas Lawrence of
Philadelphia in 1746. Francis Wolfe bequeathed the land to his son, Reese Wolfe Sr., in
1754. He then sold the land to Jacob Philips in 1757, but Reese Wolfe Jr. reacquired the
land from Philips' estate in 1762. It then remained in the Wolfe family until 1867.
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Every grave contained an artifact – a piece of a straight pin or a button. As far as skeletal
bones, each plot was different. In some, only a few pieces of bone were left, while in
others, the remains were nearly intact, missing only a finger or hand bones, Otter said.
The cemetery is in a wooded area that has not always been forested. Historical maps
from 1848 show the area as an open field. Aerial photographs taken in 1937 show the
area forested, suggesting the site may have been open when used as a cemetery.
“A lot of land went out of agriculture when they shifted from animals to tractors because
animals are a little easier to move around,” Otter said. “They don't get stuck in the mud.”
Trees growing at the cemetery site for more than 200 years may have disturbed through
natural growth, Otter said.
It is not uncommon to find human remains and other archaeologically significant artifacts
in the Cape Region. With a long history dating back to Dutch settlers in the 1630s and
Native Americans much earlier than that, burial grounds long forgotten are sometimes
rediscovered as land is developed.
Otter has studied Cape Region sites for nearly 40 years, working primarily in the
Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay regions.
Delaware code states that when remains are discovered at a construction site, all work
must cease immediately, and the medical examiner and director of the Division of
Historical and Cultural Affairs must be notified. If the remains are determined to be of
Native American descent, treatment and disposition of remains shall be determined by a
committee comprising the chief of the Nanticoke Indian Tribe, two members appointed by
the chief, the director of the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, two members
appointed by the director and a member appointed by the governor.
When the remains are not those of Native Americans, disposition is determined by next-of
-kin. If next-of-kin is unknown, the director determines a plan.
Cliff Diver, owner of the property where the bones were discovered, said the ultimate
destination for the remains is the Smithsonian Institute. Before that, though, they will
remain in Otter's lab for a few weeks, where they will dry, so they may be properly
cleaned and prepared.
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Archaeologists were on site shortly after the burials were discovered on the property. Construction on
the house continued, but the cemetery area was preserved while the bones were removed. (Courtesy
of: Clifford Diver)
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The change in soil colors shows archaeologists where graves can be found. (Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
Technician John Potts works his way down to the first burial. (Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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The legs of one skeleton are exposed as archaeologists carefully work to uncover the remains.
(Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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Archaeologists and technicians chart where they find artifacts in each grave. (Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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Nails from the coffins were among the most-found artifacts at the site. (Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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Some of the graves crossed each other, possibly caused by moving ground over the last 200 years.
(Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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Bones reveal history in Lewes - By Nick Roth - CapeGazette.com - Covering Delaware... Page 10 of 19
Ed Otter works on one of the graves. (Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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The archaeology crew found 11 shafts, but remains were found in only 10. (Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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This cloth-covered brass button is believed to be from a waistcoat. (Courtesy of: Cliff Diver)
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This brass button is believed to be from a pair of trousers. (Courtesy of: Clifford Diver)
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These buttons are made of bone. (Courtesy of: Clifford Diver)
A jaw bone from one of the graves. (Courtesy of: Clifford Diver)
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One of the shafts contained a zinc-lined coffin with a mahogany coffin inside. (Courtesy of: Clifford
Diver)
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The wooden coffins rotted over time, causing the zinc to collapse and crush what was inside.
(Courtesy of: Clifford Diver)
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The remains were packed into boxes before being sent to Ed Otter's lab, where they will dry for a few
weeks before being sent to the Smithsonian Institute. (Courtesy of: Clifford Diver)
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The archaeological team. (Courtesy of: Clifford Diver)
Comments (0)
1/26/2015
Comment
Sue Dorman Stone · Top Commenter ·
Lebanon Valley College
Very interesting. I was hoping that
there would be more information after
the initial discovery. Thanks to Cliff for
the pictures and the archaeological
team.
1 · January 23 at 5:49am
Reply · Like·
Bob Kushto ·
Top Commenter
I wouldn't live in that house. :( The
Wolfe families going to seek their
revenge for disturbing their slumber.
Didn't you people see Poltergeist ?
BOOOoooOOO Their gonna get ya. A
Haunting in Lewes. I see a movie deal.
Reply · Like· January 23 at 5:42am
Mike Behringer · Top
Commenter · Rehoboth Beach,
Delaware
It makes for a slick
marketing campaign.
Probably can get an extra
$50K for a house built on
the prestigious grounds of
the original Wolfe
settlement. Just think of the
tony suburbanites moving in
& thowing lavish cocktail
parties & bragging about
how their stylish home sits
on an archeological site.
LOL.
Reply · Like· January 23 at
7:13pm
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1/26/2015

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