From Fox News
From the Free Lance-Star, Nov 4, 2002
By JESSICA ALLEN
In celebration of All Saints’ Day, which honors all those who have departed in the Christian faith, St. George’s Episcopal Church yesterday welcomed home six nameless citizens.
More than 40 people attended the church’s burial service for the 18th-century skeletal remains of three men, two women and a teenage boy unearthed last year.
The last burial in the church’s cemetery on Princess Anne Street was in 1924–more than 75 years ago.
“It seems appropriate to have the burial on the celebration of All Saints’ Day, because we have a mystical connection to those who have died,” said the Rev. Charles Sydnor, rector of St. George’s.
Archaeologists from Mary Washington College’s Center for Historic Preservation uncovered the bones during a dig beside the church in Fredericksburg’s Market Square in June 2001.
During the 20-minute service, which began at noon, Sydnor read from an original 1690 Anglican Prayer Book and recited the prayer “An Office for the Burial of the Dead” in Elizabethan English.
But Sydnor was not the only one who created a Colonial atmosphere yesterday.
Seven members of the Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society dressed for the occasion.
“To honor their memory, we dressed in the time period,” said society President Trip Wiggins.
Wiggins, who is also the junior warden at St. George’s, said it was to make the deceased feel at home.
Many church members agreed that the lost remains were now reunited with the church.
“They’ve come back home,” said Catherine Hicks of Fredericksburg.
Hicks said the burial service completed the church’s All Saints’ Day celebrations: St. George’s had held six baptisms earlier in the day.
“It is not only a day to remember those who died, but also a day of celebration–reminding us to strive to be saints in the way we live,” she said.
St. George’s is the oldest congregation in Fredericksburg, dating to the 1700s, Wiggins said.
At the time, most residents were buried in the church’s cemetery–the first was John Jones in 1752.
The original church cemetery also included a section of what later became Market Square.
St. George’s cemetery eventually was moved in 1959 to its current location on Princess Anne Street to make room for the church’s McGuire Hall, an educational wing with classrooms.
But years before that, a wall had been built around what were thought to be all of the graves. Since the ones found last year were unmarked, it’s likely they were left out when the rest were moved.
Archaeologist Josh Duncan, who supervised the MWC team, said he would have preferred that the bodies not be disturbed, but said it was unavoidable.
“I don’t regret excavating them because the area was going to be turned into a park,” he said.
The reburial, however, was handled well because the church, the Fredericksburg Area Museum–which adjoins Market Square–and the city Department of Public Works worked together, Duncan said. The museum and the city, which owns the site, financed the $500,000 excavation and Market Square restoration.
The six people’s remains were placed in a single wooden casket, with white roses on top.
The coffin was lowered into the ground after yesterday’s service.
A headstone will be placed in the new plot, but no decision has been made as to how its inscription will read, Wiggins said.
But after 300 years and two burial sites, the nameless citizens have found a final resting place.
Or as Sydnor, quoting 1 Corinthians 15:26 during the service, put it: “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”