In 2016 during repairs to the wall in front of Portsmouth’s North Cemetery, it was discovered that the current wall, built over one hundred years ago, had been built over a row of graves. Back then, as many as eighteen graves may have been covered or damaged in order to build the wall and install the sidewalk along Maplewood Street. The archaeologist overseeing the repairs to the wall took custody of the remains unearthed at the time and issued a detail report to the City about her findings. It was discovered that bone fragments of two children and perhaps two or more adults were among the remains disturbed.
Through the efforts of the Cemetery Committee and City officials, those skeletal remains were re-interred on Friday, November 17th 2023 during a ceremony at the North Cemetery attended by several city officials and officiated by the Rev. Jennifer Mazur, Senior Pastor of the North Church. A bronze plaque will be placed on that location early in 2024 as a permanent marker; the plaque will read as follows:
In 2016, during restoration of this North Cemetery wall, archaeologists discovered that the wall had been built over a row of graves. They mapped the location of at least eighteen graves and collected skeletal remains from those graves disturbed during the reconstruction. The graves were unmarked; the identity of those buried in them is unknown. The skeletal remains were returned to the ground in a ceremony of reburial in 2023.
Submitted by Sue Polidura
