[This letter is the text of a news article that was kindly sent to us by a reader named James Ayers. It was originally published in Catskill Mountain News on November 10, 1939. It captures a moment in time when the towns of Lackawack, Montela, and Eureka were cleared out to create the Rondout Reservoir.]

New York Removes Remains from Cemeteries

While workmen are busy on the great dam being erected at Lackawack another job is under way in the Sheeley burying ground; one to which the city of New York is attempting to impart as much solemnity as circumstances will permit.

The old cemetery is being evacuated as another step in the demolition of the entire valley, which will be flooded within a year or two. The Porter burying ground, established near Eureka more than a century ago by Quakers, is almost entirely cleared.

It was this task of removing the cemeteries that brought into the valley two years ago a large influx of job-seekers who had heard tales of fabulous wages to be paid for the work. City engineers had then denied that the work was immediately in prospect or that it meant high pay, but it was a year before applicants could be convinced.

In order to prevent ill-feeling, the city has established a schedule of fees to be paid for removal of the bodies. The transfer will cost the city an average of about $65 per grave – monument included. Anyone who makes a suitable claim for remains is paid on completion of the job, but because reinterment will cost that much or more, as many as six burials are being made in a single new grave. No full-sized caskets are used. Some are miniatures, about two feet long, while others are white pine boxes of the size and shape of an apple crate.

A supervisor is provided by the city to oversee each operation at the cemeteries – there are six to be evacuated in the valley – and he has strict orders to squelch any suggestion of levity on the part of the workmen. Permission even to photograph operations is obtained only after a complex procedure.

The supervisor observes unearthing; of bodies, replacement of the remains in small caskets, refilling the graves and the measuring of monuments, for payment for removing the latter is made on the basis of cubic footage. Unearthed have been dental plates, which have been found in excellent condition despite burial for as long as seventy years.

Undertakers in Grahamsville, Ellenville, Kerhonkson, Liberty, and Woodbourne have been advertising for the jobs, urging relatives of the deceased that they want only permission to disinter, and directions for reinterment. All costs will be paid by the city, they point out. Business has been excellent.

James Ayers

Kerhonkson