Unmarked graves have been discovered at Fancher Cemetery in Hamlet, according to Lee Nagai of Tiemens-Nagai Surveying and Engineering.
At a recent Davis Township Advisory Board and Trustee meeting, Nagai updated board members with his findings after surveying the cemetery land and the surrounding .5 acre that the board is hoping to acquire to fill the needs of expansion. There were several discrepancies discovered.
While trying to grid out the cemetery plots, Nagai found that the grave plots start to fall out of place. Graves begin to not line up with where the map says they are supposed to be. There is a lack of specificity on how new graves were going to be laid out. When asked if someone were to come in tomorrow and ask to purchase a certain plot of land, could the board confidently sell said plot and know that it’s exactly where the map says it is. Nagai informed them that no, based off the map, they could not accurately sell the plots until more precise mapping and gridding are done. Nagai also recommended they suspend future sales of plots until this has been done. The board decided to take no action. Board members said they would just bury them in the plot that was purchased and if it ends up in the wrong spot, then they would correct it later.
While running a ground penetrating radar over the cemetery to get a better idea of where grave plots were actually located, an unmarked grave was located only three feet and out of line from another row of family purchased plots. With the father already resting three feet from the unmarked grave, and the mother being 90 years old and not in well condition, concerns from members of the community see this as an urgent matter because this mother may not have here final wishes granted. There are other instances of family purchased plots that have been discovered to have existing graves there. The board was asked if someone were to pass away tomorrow, would they be able to be buried in the spot they’ve already purchased? The answer was no. The board was then asked if anything would be done to rectify this current situation as time was of an essence for some. The board agreed that they would begin asking the State about what they could do legally and how to take appropriate measures if graves needed to be moved.
Also, while running the ground penetrating radar over land outside of the cemetery property lines, 65 other unmarked graves were discovered. Nagai believes that if clean up of the area was done some marking may be found, some would more than likely remain unmarked. Being outside grounds, there is no way of knowing who is buried there, or how old these graves could be. Someone mentioned Fancher folklore and the community dying of typhoid fever. Maybe this could be evidence. More research is going to be done but could take years for any updates.
No further action was taken that night. Nagai is going to continue his pro bono work of surveying the property and re-engineering it more precisely.
