Human remains unearthed near Port Rowan cchurch
Construction crew makes discovery wwhile installing water main
PORT ROWAN — The coroner’s office may have a centuries-old mystery on its hands after hu- man remains were unearthed near a Port Rowan church.
Police say foul play is not suspected, and the pastor of Port Rowan Community Church surmises the body was secretly buried in what once was an empty field.
“If people were too poor to afford the services of a funeral director, they were not above
burying a loved one innocently in a field,” Bill Wiebe said. “And 150, 160 years ago, this would have still been largely rural land.”
A construction crew installing new water mains made the startling discovery Tuesday afternoon while digging up a grassy laneway on the north end of the church property, across the street from the post office.
By the time police officers knocked on the church door to ask if Wiebe could shed any light on the find, the remains had been removed for analysis .
Working with the coroner’s office, forensic anthropologists and county staff, the OPP crime unit determined that the remains were “historical in nature” and whoever ended up in the simple wooden casket had not met a grisly end.
The brick church at Bay and Church streets opened in 1856, becoming a permanent home for the Baptist congregation that since 1828 had been meeting in private homes in what was then known as the
Long Point Settlement.
Wiebe, a lifelong Port Rowan resident who has been pastor for 16 years, said the laneway had not been disturbed since the church opened, with no construction or excavations for gas or sewer lines taking place over the decades.
That suggests the bones found this week likely date to the early 19th century, and possibly prior to the church’s construction.
The church’s records from those early days were lost in a fire in 1906. Wiebe said none of his current parishioners, some of whom are in their 90s, could recall being told anything about a burial taking place on that part of the property over the last century and a half, nor is such an incident mentioned in any of the parish’s oral histories.
A Baptist cemetery at the south end of the property was relocated years ago, with all the remains exhumed and reburied.
If the body found on Tuesday had been buried in secret due to the family ’s poverty, it stands to reason that story would not have been widely shared, Wiebe added.
“It may have literally been
under the cover of night, out of embarrassment,” he said.
Wiebe said the body was interred facing east to west, suggesting a traditional Christian burial.
“My opinion would be that whoever placed a body there did it innocently,” he said. “They would have done it out of need. I don’t believe there would have been any malice attached to it.”
Similarly, he added, the construction crew can hardly be blamed for accidentally unearthing human remains no one knew were there.
“This was an innocent discovery that matches the burial itself,” Wiebe said.
The investigation continues, though Wiebe isn’t optimistic that the identity of the deceased will be learned.
“We’re trying to find out, but I can’t imagine that there’s going to be any record to bear out who this was,” he said.
“We’re certainly wanting to accord the remains the proper respect.”
J.P. Antonacci’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows him to report on stories about the regions of Haldimand and Norfolk.