A couple weeks ago (here), I told you about a coffin and some bones that were unearthed by workers digging up a Lorain street back in November 1905.
Well, I’ve dug up another story of mysterious bones.
The village of Venice (just west of Sandusky) had a similar mystery of its own, at about the same time as Lorain's. Here’s the story as it appeared in the Lorain Times-Herald back on November 22, 1905.
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SKELETONS FOUND; INHABITANTS STARTLED
Vermilion, Nov. 22. – (Staff Spl.) – Charles Grahl, a farmer at Venice, near this city, while plowing, discovered the skeletons of seven bodies lying side by side. The finding of the skeletons have startled the inhabitants of the village and none is able to account for them.
Years ago the land was covered with about three feet of water, and it is possible that the skeletons are those of sailors who met death by drowning. At no time was the land used as a burying ground. Only two inches of earth covered the skeletons, which are well preserved.
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I’m not a journalist, but my understanding is that the Vermilion dateline means that the Journal staff member gathered the information for the story while in that city.
I found an identical version of the story (below) that ran in the Cincinnati Enquirer on the same day with Sandusky as the dateline, so the news item probably originated in a Sandusky newspaper. Note how the Enquirer grouped the Venice story with two Indiana bone discovery stories. I guess they reflect how easy it was back then to unearth the remains of inhabitants from previous eras.
It mentions being under several feet of water years prior. Would this have been territory that was drained out like the Maumee area for farming? I don't recall Venice being that far west or the "black swap" stretching that far east either.
ReplyDeleteAlso, were you able to uncover (pun intended) any follow up? Or was it a dead story?
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI looked through a lot of microfilm but unfortunately could not dig up any follow-up stories about either of the skeleton/bones stories I posted. Sorry! And I agree, the Venice story doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially as to why the seven skeletons were only under a few inches of dirt and lying side by side, like some kind of gangland killing.