We've recently became aware that the bones of Amos Spafford (d. 1820) and his wife Olive (d. 1823), along with several of their children and grandchildren, were accidentally unearthed from their graves during a construction project last year at the Fort Meigs State Historical Park in Perrysburg Ohio. According to "The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade, (April 12, 2002), the skeletons of this pioneer family were "quickly and quitely removed" to an anthropology lab in Columbus Ohio where they were analyzed and identified. Ohio Historical Assoc., archeologists and a Perrysburg historian have also been involved in the identification process. To make the incident even more bizarre, the same bones have been previously unearthed during another construction project at Ft. Meigs in 1940. A Perrysburg city official indicates that the remains are now ready to be returned to Perrysburg from Columbus and local sources indicate they will be re-interred and the family honored during the May 2003 Perrysburg Founders Day ceremonies as part of the Ohio Bicentennial celebration.

Maj. Amos Spafford surveyed much of Ohio during the early 1800's, gave Perrysburg its name, lived there until his death and along with his descendants, contributed significantly to its early history. One of the skeletons is that of Amos's son Aurora, who built a house there which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Apparently no attempt was made to make any living descendants aware of the incident until April, and even now seems to be known only by a very few - "the biggest secret in town". Although there is apparently some hint of a legal "glitch" which might cause some problems, lets hope that all goes as planned from this point on so that the remains of this pioneer Spafford family can finally rest in peace.

If anyone is a descendant of Amos and Olive, and would like more detail on the above. or is interested in joining a few Spafford cousins for the Perrysburg re-interment ceremonies in May 2003 please get back to me.

Tonia M. (Spafford) Cannon
tmcannon@myexcel.com