Bones dug up at school linked to cholera epidemic in 1800s
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MILWAUKEE (WISN) — Excavation crews made a disturbing discovery at a Milwaukee school construction site last Wednesday when they dug up human bones.
WISN 12 News has learned those bones are likely linked to the cholera epidemic that swept through the city in the mid-1800s.
According to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s report, crews found the bones about three feet underground at the Maryland Ave. Montessori School while digging a foundation for a greenhouse near Maryland and Prospect on Milwaukee’s east side.
The discovery is reminiscent of one made on the same property in 1951, documented in the then Milwaukee Journal.
The article reads, “The recently found bones and bone fragments were only 18 inches below the surface, buried haphazardly in ditch-like depressions.”
According to the article, a historian confirmed the “burial site was a dumping spot for many cholera dead.”
“There had been this massive, two massive, cholera outbreaks,” said Bobby Tanzilo. “A lot of the bodies were buried there.”
Tanzilo is senior editor and writer for OnMilwaukee. He’s also a member of the School Governance Council. He’s researched and written about the property’s history extensively.
Tanzilo said when cholera spread through Milwaukee in 1849, there was what was called a “pest house” near Maryland and Prospect.
“They later decided that sounded too mean, and they started to call it an isolation hospital, which is a little more accurate. That was a place where they put people who were highly contagious,” Tanzilo said.
When cholera patients at the nearby isolation hospital died, many were buried in shallow graves near Maryland and Prospect.
“With cholera, the the corpses were still contagious even after a person died. So the goal was to get them into the ground as quickly as possible. And there were people dying by the dozens each day. So they needed to do it fast,” Tanzilo said.
Tanzilo said the first documented discovery of bones on the property was when construction of the school began in 1887.
“The reports from 1887 make it sound like everybody forgot because when they talk about having found the bones, you know, they’re like some people may remember that there was you know, that there was a cemetery there,” Tanzilo said.
An attempt to forget a dark chapter in Milwaukee’s history until 1951.
“They put an addition on the school, and they found some more then,” Tanzilo said.
Tanzilo said another dig in 2021 uncovered more human remains. Last week’s discovery once again reminds the city of the cemetery once forgotten.
“I think it’s a, it’s an opportunity for us to try and, you know, make amends for how we maybe treated people in the past,” said Tanzilo. “It’s a chance to maybe give people a proper burial and treat them respectfully.”
Milwaukee Public Schools Communications Director Nicole Armendariz said construction has halted where the greenhouse was supposed to go. MPS will re-evaluate a new location for it in the spring.
The remains were turned over to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
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