Posted August 8, 2006

8/8:
Cemetery found

Inscription reads:

IN MEMORY OF ANN TOMPKINS DEPARTED THIS LIFE JULY 4TH 18(2/0)6 AGED 60 YEARS 6 MONTHS & 27 DAYS

Location: Cold Stream Farm near former residence of boarding house that kept farm hands.

University of Kentucky currently owns the site and is working with contracted developers to excavate and build office buildings. Developers were unaware of grave until a couple of weeks ago, and have stopped work at the site. Workers cleared off several inches of the top soil and have scattered around sea shells, which may or may not be from the grave. Of course, plans must be fulfilled so the cemetery boundaries need to be defined. It would be unusual to have only one grave. We need response from researchers or possible family members to know if their is potential for more graves. So far, I have not found anything in the Local History Index at the Lexington Public Library. It is more than likely the developer of UK will eventually move the grave, we just want to verify there is only one!

Posted on Thu, Sep. 14, 2006

Bits of the past disrupt building for the future

DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH CENTER IS PUT ON HOLD AFTER PIECES OF A GRAVE MARKER ARE DISCOVERED

By Jillian Ogawa

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Developer Kale Roscoe said he halted construction so contractors could dig where the marker was found, but found no other evidence of a grave.

Cemetery preservationists fear research offices may be built on a historic grave site, but the developer contends there is no such case.

Lisa and Ron Sanden, president and vice president, respectively, of the Fayette County Cemetery Trust, have pieces of a broken headstone they say were found at the University of Kentucky Coldstream Research Campus on a 20-acre lot that is being leased to Lexington Holdings LLC, also known as Lexhold. The inscription on the grave marker says in part "In Memory of Ann Tompkins, who departed this life July 4th," the Sandens said. The years on the stone either read 1806 or 1826. According to Fayette County records, Tompkins was the relative of Gwyn R. Tompkins, a Fayette County sheriff and justice of the peace.

However, the land was not registered as a historical cemetery and Lexhold developer Kale Roscoe said additional environmental, topographical and geological surveys indicate there are no findings of a grave site -- only an abandoned gas line and a pipe.

"If they found a pipe, they would have found a grave stone," Roscoe said.

But "those studies they have done are not to identify a grave site," said Lisa Sanden. "They are not done by archaeologists or anthropologists, and those are the only qualified and educated people to do a dig of this nature."

"We never wanted to stop that," she said of the development. "We just want to identify the remains and move it."

A local resident notified the Trust that there may be a grave site on the property after visiting the property while researching a boarding house that belonged to her family. The house had been at the Coldstream Park site.

The Sandens visited the lot on about Aug. 8 and saw a broken up headstone. It was roughly pieced together when they arrived, and they assumed that the resident put it together. They took photos of the headstone and wrote down the inscription. They also saw pieces of iron and what Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn later identified as animal bone fragments.

The Sandens say they spoke with Derek Roscoe, the son of Kale Roscoe, and Ginn, who were on site. Ginn had been called to the site by the developer.

"I just advised (the developer) at that time that somewhere on that property there's probably going to be a grave, and they need to watch for that grave and then if they did find anything to readvise my office," Ginn said. "If a grave is found, they are supposed to stop excavating and to call me."

Kale Roscoe said when his company broke ground on the site last October, his crews scraped and cleared the site and found no grave site.

"This stuff was done for months, and the site was scraped for months prior to finding anything," Roscoe said. "Then all of sudden, mysteriously in an area that was totally excavated, there as plain as day a gravestone laying there, almost like a prank."

Roscoe ceased construction and hired topographical and geological contractors to dig about 7 feet deep in a 160-foot radius from where the headstone was found. He hired a private firm to complete an extensive history check and the firm found no history of graves or cemeteries on that site. He said the land had been a corn field and the farmer who owned the land was never aware of a grave site on the property.

The developer did not conduct an archaeological study, but that is "not a legal requirement," said John Parks, director of Coldstream and associate vice president for research and economic development at the University of Kentucky.

But the Sandens obtained deeds from Fayette County property records that indicated what is now part of Coldstream Park was reserved for a Tompkins family burial ground. The deeds are dated 1856 and 1866.

The second time the Sandens visited the site on Aug. 28, the larger pieces of the headstone were gone. Both Roscoe and the Sandens say they do not know where those pieces are.

Roscoe said he put off his project for four weeks, which he said cost him $10,000 a day. Crews have started excavating again and probably will begin construction of the labs within the next couple weeks. He said he is still open to an archaeological dig if a proposal is presented and he is allowed to film it.

"For all we know it could have been a Halloween stone," he said.

Ginn said he cannot conclusively say there is a grave on the site until human bones are found.

But the Sandens said the damage already has been done because the site has been significantly disrupted and the grave marker is missing.

"It's a loss in remains, but not in lessons," Lisa said.

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