A construction crew working to repair water pipes in Yorkville on Wednesday unearthed skeletal human remains that officials believe may date back to the 19th century.
With the help of the Kendall County Historical Society and other community members, law enforcement officials determined that a cemetery called the Bristol Burying Grounds used to sit on that spot on the 200 block of Park Street during the mid-1800s, according to a news release from the Kendall County Coroner’s Office.
Many who were buried at the graveyard were relocated to Elmwood Cemetery during the 1920s, and also in 1958, either by community effort or because the graves were discovered due to construction in the area, officials said in the release.
From Wednesday to Friday, members of the Coroner’s Office, the Yorkville Police Department and the Illinois State Police Crime Scene Services Section worked to collect the remains from the excavation soil and the construction work site, according to the news release. They were also joined by an anthropologist from Loyola University in Chicago, the release said.
The uncovered remains are now being sent to the Loyola University Department of Anthropology for further analysis, officials said.
It is currently unknown whether the remains form a single person or are from multiple people, according to Levi Gotte, chief deputy of the Kendall County Coroner’s Office. In a phone call on Friday, he said the analysis by Loyola University anthropologists will make that determination after they study all of the bones that were uncovered.
“We didn’t find anything immediately evident, but with these cases — I mean, there’s 206 bones in a human body — there’s quite a bit for them to go through and see what they have,” Gotte said.
Once the university sends back its findings, the Kendall County Coroner’s Office will work with any relevant authorities to figure out what to do with the remains, according to Gotte.
Whatever happens, the remains will be treated with the same respect and dignity as if the person died more recently, he said. The news release from the Coroner’s Office echoed the sentiment, saying that the person was a “cherished member of someone’s family and a pioneer of Kendall County.”
Gotte said there is a lot of history in Kendall County, but it is rare for bodies to be uncovered in this way.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
