Bones under the foundation
On a Monday in late May 1881, workmen were digging the foundation for the building the Bank of Clarke County was about to put up in Berryville. Two or three feet down, they came upon bones. The Clarke Courier reported the find in its June 2 issue, under the heading "Human Relics Exhumed." The paper described the bones of some four or five human bodies, lying within two or three feet of the surface and bearing "evidence of having been buried there a number of years," and said that no one then living in the town possessed any knowledge of the spot having been used as a burying ground.
Source note: Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 1881
The Clarke Courier of 2 June 1881 reported that workmen digging the foundation for the Bank of Clarke County's building came upon the bones of some four or five human bodies, within two or three feet of the surface, bearing evidence of having been buried a number of years.
What the source supports
That a local newspaper reported human remains found during the bank's foundation work in 1881.
Uncertainty
A single newspaper item. No inquest, coroner's record, burial register or other account of the discovery has been found, and nothing independent confirms the number of bodies or the depth.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The opening of the item, read from the page image.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 2 June 1881, page 3: "Human Relics Exhumed"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-06-02 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Human Relics Exhumed", opening
Relevant passageOn Monday, while workmen were engaged in digging the foundation for the building about to be erected by the Bank of Clarke County, they came upon the bones of some four or five human bodies, found within two or three feet of the surface, and bearing evidence of having been buried there a number of years.
Checked: Original inspected. A digital reproduction was inspected; no original has been handled.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-06-02-human-relics. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
Source note: Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 1881
The same item reported that no one then living in the town possessed any knowledge of the spot having been used as a burying ground.
What the source supports
That the paper described the site as one the town did not remember as a burial ground.
Uncertainty
A newspaper's assertion about what local people knew, not a survey of them. It is reported here as the paper's statement and is not treated as an established history of the town's memory.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The paper's own statement about what the town knew.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 2 June 1881, page 3: "Human Relics Exhumed"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-06-02 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Human Relics Exhumed", middle
Relevant passageAs no one living here possessed any knowledge of this spot having been used as a burying ground, it was at first thought that these relics belonged to the bodies of some Indians deposited there when the Valley was occupied by that almost extinct race, but this theory is contradicted by the fact that some nails were found at the same places, showing that the bodies had been placed in coffins before burial
Checked: Original inspected. A digital reproduction was inspected; no original has been handled.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-06-02-human-relics. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
What the paper made of them
The Courier considered that the remains were Indian and rejected that attribution, on the grounds that nails had been found alongside the bones, which the paper took as showing the bodies had been coffined before burial. The nails supported that reading. They did not settle who had been buried, or when.
Source note: Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 1881
The same item reported that nails were found with the bones, took this as showing the bodies had been coffined before burial, and on that basis rejected an attribution of the remains to Indigenous burial.
What the source supports
That the paper reported nails alongside the bones and reasoned from them to coffins.
Uncertainty
The coffin reading is the paper's inference, not an independently established fact: nails found with bones are consistent with it and do not by themselves establish it. The paper's categorical assertion about Indigenous burial practice is its own, is quoted rather than adopted, and was not examined here.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The nails, the coffin inference and the rejected attribution are one passage.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 2 June 1881, page 3: "Human Relics Exhumed"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-06-02 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Human Relics Exhumed", middle
Relevant passageAs no one living here possessed any knowledge of this spot having been used as a burying ground, it was at first thought that these relics belonged to the bodies of some Indians deposited there when the Valley was occupied by that almost extinct race, but this theory is contradicted by the fact that some nails were found at the same places, showing that the bodies had been placed in coffins before burial
Checked: Original inspected. A digital reproduction was inspected; no original has been handled.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-06-02-human-relics. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
The sentence that went further
Its closing sentence went further than anything it had observed: "It is probable that they are relics of some of the soldiers of the Revolution, as no one knows when they were placed there." The reason the paper offered for the attribution is that nobody knew.
Source note: Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 1881
The same item stated it was probable the remains were those of soldiers of the Revolution, giving as its reason that no one knew when they were placed there.
What the source supports
That the Revolutionary attribution originates as a stated probability in this 1881 item, reasoned from an absence of knowledge.
Uncertainty
This is the paper's explanation, not a finding. Nothing establishes that the remains had any connection to the Revolution, and the item supplies no evidence for the attribution beyond the absence it names.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The closing sentence of the item, with the reason it gives.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 2 June 1881, page 3: "Human Relics Exhumed"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-06-02 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Human Relics Exhumed", close
Relevant passageIt is probable that they are relics of some of the soldiers of the Revolution, as no one knows when they were placed there.
Checked: Original inspected. A digital reproduction was inspected; no original has been handled.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-06-02-human-relics. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
On Monday, while workmen were engaged in digging the foundation for the building about to be erected by the Bank of Clarke County, they came upon the bones of some four or five human bodies, found within two or three feet of the surface, and bearing evidence of having been buried there a number of years.
Firmer in the retellings
The bank's own 125th-anniversary history, John Hudson's Since 1881, published in 2006 and readable page by page on the bank's website, retells the discovery closely from the Courier: the four or five bodies, the two or three feet, the nails, the coffins. Then, where the Courier had said a thing was probable because no one knew, Hudson writes: "It was eventually determined that the bodies were probably relics of possible soldiers of the Revolutionary War period." Eventually determined by whom, and on what, the book does not say. A 2014 Clarke Monthly piece, drawing openly on Hudson, gives it another turn: "It was later learned that the bones were probably remains of Revolutionary War soldiers." The passages inspected for this story supply no new evidence for the Revolutionary-soldier identification.
Source note: John Hudson, 2006
John Hudson's 2006 history of the bank states that it was eventually determined the bodies were probably relics of possible soldiers of the Revolutionary War period.
What the source supports
That the bank's 125th-anniversary history presents the Revolutionary attribution as something determined.
Uncertainty
The pages inspected supply no new evidence for the identification, and no source between 1881 and 2006 has been identified standing behind "eventually determined". That is a statement about the pages read, not a claim to have read the whole book, its research files or its apparatus.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The sentence in which the 1881 probability becomes a determination.
John Hudson, Since 1881: A Quasquicentennial Commemoration of Bank of Clarke County (2006)
John Hudson · 2006 (publication)
Locator: Flipbook page 18, paragraph on the foundation dig
Relevant passageIt was eventually determined that the bodies were probably relics of possible soldiers of the Revolutionary War period.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: hudson-since-1881-bank-of-clarke. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
Source note: Clarke Monthly, 2014
A 2014 Clarke Monthly feature, crediting Hudson's book, states that it was later learned the bones were probably remains of Revolutionary War soldiers, and that nothing further is known as to what happened to them.
What the source supports
That the 1881 explanation reaches a general readership in 2014 as something later learned.
Uncertainty
The article credits Hudson rather than any record of its own, so it is not an independent witness. It gives no date for the discovery and cites nothing between 1881 and 2006.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The 2014 retelling, which credits Hudson.
Clarke Monthly, "Bank of Clarke County: 133 Years in Pictures", 18 December 2014
Clarke Monthly · 2014-12-18 (publication)
Locator: paragraph on the foundation dig
Relevant passageIt was later learned that the bones were probably remains of Revolutionary War soldiers, but nothing further is known as to what happened to the bones.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: hudson-since-1881-bank-of-clarke. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
Construction continued
The Courier described the remains of four or five people, in what it took to be coffins. According to the paper, no one then living in town knew that the ground had been used for burials. Construction continued. The directors had resolved in February to erect a bank building "with the modern conveniences," and appointed a committee to contract for it. In March the Courier reported the work "will be begun as soon as the brick can be obtained." By the middle of September it was under roof, "quite a large structure, and when finished will no doubt be an ornament to our town." By late November it was nearly complete.
Source note: Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 1881
The Clarke Courier tracked the bank building through 1881: in February the directors decided to erect it and appointed a committee, in March work awaited brick, by September it was under roof, and by late November it was nearly complete.
What the source supports
A construction sequence for the building, as reported week by week in one newspaper.
Uncertainty
Assembled from five short notices in the same paper, all read as existing OCR and none checked against the page image. The notices give no contractor, no measured dates for starting or finishing, and no description of the excavation itself.
Source
Evidence role: contextualizes. The bank named and due to open, five months before the dig.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 17 February 1881, page 3: local items, the new bank organized
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-02-17 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, local items, the new bank
Relevant passageWe are informed that the institution will be kn w i [known] as the Bank of Clarke County, and that it will be opened for business about the first of next April.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-02-17-local-items. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. The decision to build, February 1881.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 24 February 1881, page 3: local items, decision to erect a bank building
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-02-24 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, local items, the directors
Relevant passageIt was also decided to erect a Dank [bank] build ing, with the modern conveniences, and a committee was appointed to contract for tbs [the] same.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-02-24-local-items. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. Work waiting on brick, March 1881.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 24 March 1881, page 3: "Building Enterprise"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-03-24 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Building Enterprise"
Relevant passageThe building for the Bank of Clarke County will bo [be] begun as soon as the brick can te [be] obtained.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-03-24-building-enterprise. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. Under roof, September 1881.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 15 September 1881, page 3: local items, the bank building under roof
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-09-15 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, local items, the bank building
Relevant passageThe Bank of Clarke County building is now under roof. It is quite a large struc ture, and when finished will no doubt be an ornament to our town.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-09-15-local-items. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. Nearly complete, November 1881.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 24 November 1881, page 3: local items, the bank building nearly completed
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-11-24 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, local items, the bank building
Relevant passageTho [The] building erected by the Bank of Clarke County is nearly completed, and in the next thirty days that institution will bo [be] prepared to receive deposits and do other business.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-11-24-local-items. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
About the accountsWhat the evidence says
One inspected newspaper item, five OCR notices, and two later accounts that retell the first.
The discovery rests on a single item in the Clarke Courier of June 2, 1881, page 3, read from the page image. The construction sequence around it rests on five short notices in the same paper, read as OCR and not image-checked. The two later accounts, the bank's own 2006 history and a 2014 magazine feature that credits it, are retellings of that first item rather than independent witnesses, and the pages inspected supply no new evidence for the Revolutionary-soldier identification. Nothing here identifies the remains, dates the burials, or records what became of them.
- An account exists✓ Supported by a source
The Clarke Courier of 2 June 1881 reported that workmen digging the foundation for the Bank of Clarke County's building came upon the bones of some four or five human bodies, within two or three feet of the surface, bearing evidence of having been buried a number of years.
See the evidence
✓ Supported by a sourceAn account existsThe Clarke Courier of 2 June 1881 reported that workmen digging the foundation for the Bank of Clarke County's building came upon the bones of some four or five human bodies, within two or three feet of the surface, bearing evidence of having been buried a number of years.
What the source supports
That a local newspaper reported human remains found during the bank's foundation work in 1881.
Uncertainty
A single newspaper item. No inquest, coroner's record, burial register or other account of the discovery has been found, and nothing independent confirms the number of bodies or the depth.
Source
Reporting Evidence role: supports. The opening of the item, read from the page image.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 2 June 1881, page 3: "Human Relics Exhumed"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-06-02 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Human Relics Exhumed", opening
Relevant passageOn Monday, while workmen were engaged in digging the foundation for the building about to be erected by the Bank of Clarke County, they came upon the bones of some four or five human bodies, found within two or three feet of the surface, and bearing evidence of having been buried there a number of years.
Checked: Original inspected. A digital reproduction was inspected; no original has been handled.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-06-02-human-relics. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
- An account exists✓ Supported by a source
The same item stated it was probable the remains were those of soldiers of the Revolution, giving as its reason that no one knew when they were placed there.
See the evidence
✓ Supported by a sourceAn account existsThe same item stated it was probable the remains were those of soldiers of the Revolution, giving as its reason that no one knew when they were placed there.
What the source supports
That the Revolutionary attribution originates as a stated probability in this 1881 item, reasoned from an absence of knowledge.
Uncertainty
This is the paper's explanation, not a finding. Nothing establishes that the remains had any connection to the Revolution, and the item supplies no evidence for the attribution beyond the absence it names.
Source
Reporting Evidence role: supports. The closing sentence of the item, with the reason it gives.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 2 June 1881, page 3: "Human Relics Exhumed"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-06-02 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Human Relics Exhumed", close
Relevant passageIt is probable that they are relics of some of the soldiers of the Revolution, as no one knows when they were placed there.
Checked: Original inspected. A digital reproduction was inspected; no original has been handled.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-06-02-human-relics. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
- An account exists✓ Supported by a source
John Hudson's 2006 history of the bank states that it was eventually determined the bodies were probably relics of possible soldiers of the Revolutionary War period.
See the evidence
✓ Supported by a sourceAn account existsJohn Hudson's 2006 history of the bank states that it was eventually determined the bodies were probably relics of possible soldiers of the Revolutionary War period.
What the source supports
That the bank's 125th-anniversary history presents the Revolutionary attribution as something determined.
Uncertainty
The pages inspected supply no new evidence for the identification, and no source between 1881 and 2006 has been identified standing behind "eventually determined". That is a statement about the pages read, not a claim to have read the whole book, its research files or its apparatus.
Source
Later historical account Evidence role: supports. The sentence in which the 1881 probability becomes a determination.
John Hudson, Since 1881: A Quasquicentennial Commemoration of Bank of Clarke County (2006)
John Hudson · 2006 (publication)
Locator: Flipbook page 18, paragraph on the foundation dig
Relevant passageIt was eventually determined that the bodies were probably relics of possible soldiers of the Revolutionary War period.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: hudson-since-1881-bank-of-clarke. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
Each statement above is assessed on its own evidence. Nothing here is averaged, scored or voted on, and a well-attributed account can be documented while what it describes stays unconfirmed.
What these accounts do not say
On the question most people would ask first, both accounts fall silent. Hudson's sentence is the plainest in his: "There was no reference as to the relocation of the remains." Neither account tells us what happened to the remains. Nor do they agree on the day. Hudson dates the discovery to "Monday, May 24, 1881," but that date fell on a Tuesday, and the Courier's "on Monday" in its issue of Thursday 2 June points instead to 30 May. Where the 2006 date comes from has not been established. Nothing here identifies the people who were buried, establishes when they were buried, or places the dig on any present-day parcel.
Source note: John Hudson, 2006
The same history states that there was no reference as to the relocation of the remains.
What the source supports
That the bank's historian found no record of what became of the remains.
Uncertainty
A statement about what the author did not find. It does not establish what happened to the remains, and nothing here shows whether they were reinterred, removed or left in place.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The historian's own statement of what he did not find.
John Hudson, Since 1881: A Quasquicentennial Commemoration of Bank of Clarke County (2006)
John Hudson · 2006 (publication)
Locator: Flipbook page 18, sentence following the foundation dig
Relevant passageThere was no reference as to the relocation of the remains.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: hudson-since-1881-bank-of-clarke. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
Source note: John Hudson, 2006, and one more
Hudson dates the discovery to "Monday, May 24, 1881". May 24, 1881 fell on a Tuesday, and the Courier's "on Monday" in its issue of Thursday 2 June points instead to 30 May 1881.
What the source supports
That the two accounts do not agree on the day, and that the printed date in the later one does not match its own weekday.
Uncertainty
A discrepancy, not a correction. Where Hudson's day and date come from has not been established, and no manuscript or minute-book source for it has been seen. The Courier gives no date at all, only "on Monday", which allows 30 May or 23 May if the item was held a week.
Source
Evidence role: supports. The dated sentence in the 2006 account.
John Hudson, Since 1881: A Quasquicentennial Commemoration of Bank of Clarke County (2006)
John Hudson · 2006 (publication)
Locator: Flipbook page 18, opening of the foundation dig paragraph
Relevant passageOn Monday, May 24, 1881, while workmen were engaged in digging the foundation for the building, they came upon the bones of four or five human bodies, found within two or three feet of the surface and bearing evidence of having been buried there for a number of years.
Checked: Page text reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: hudson-since-1881-bank-of-clarke. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: complicates. The contemporary item, which gives a weekday and no date.
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va., 2 June 1881, page 3: "Human Relics Exhumed"
Clarke Courier, Berryville, Va. · 1881-06-02 (publication)
Locator: Page 3, item headed "Human Relics Exhumed", opening
Relevant passageOn Monday, while workmen were engaged in digging the foundation for the building about to be erected by the Bank of Clarke County, they came upon the bones of some four or five human bodies, found within two or three feet of the surface, and bearing evidence of having been buried there a number of years.
Checked: Original inspected. A digital reproduction was inspected; no original has been handled.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier-1881-06-02-human-relics. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-23. How this project checks its sources
Does any record between 1881 and 2006 identify the remains, or say what became of them?
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Remember this place or someone in this story? Share a memory, even if you do not know the date. It stays private until it is reviewed.
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Another Berryville story where a later account hardened into fact, and the earlier record turns out to say less than the retelling does.