Alex Cordia, foreman of the group excavating for Potosi's
sewerage system, reports that as the men were cutting the ditch from Hwy. 8 through the
A.H. Long property to Breton Street the excavation ran into four shallow graves situated
just outside the cemetery fence. Mr. Cordia said the graves were evidently of
ancient construction as there was no evidence of any coffins. No nails buttons or
other indications of burial equipment. The graves, Mr. Cordia stated were not more
than three feet deep and about 20 inches wide. They had a scooped out appearance,
the bones resting on the loose porous rock of the shallow bottoms.
The bones were carefully collected and placed in boxes and re-interred in the same
excavations from which they were removed.
The graves were in a straight line but outside the cemetery inclosure, leading the men to
conclude that at some former time the fence had been set in, or that the graves had been
placed outside. They were made either before the times of coffins or hastily
interred without benefit of coffin; however the entire absence of any foreign material led
Mr. Cordia to conclude that the graves were made in the times of winding sheets.