Remains, old gravesite found after logging in New Hampshire

KINGSTON, N.H. – New Hampshire’s state archaeologist is investigating a site in Kingston where human remains and a metal plate from an 1895 gravestone were recently found.

Kingston police responded when hikers reported they found a skull last weekend at a site where earth had been moved to create logging roads. Police say they uncovered other remains, including some hair with a hair clip, a lower jaw bone, ceramic denture plates, and part of a spine.

Police also found metal handles and hardware associated with old wooden caskets and a metal plate that indicated that a 28-year-old woman had died in 1895.

“We know who she is,” Kingston Police Chief Donald Briggs said Friday. “It appears she was buried on an old family homestead plot. The homestead is no longer there.”

Briggs said town records say the woman died during childbirth. Her name was not released and it wasn’t known if she had any descendants in the area.

State Archaeologist Richard Boisvert is investigating. He didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.