1886 construction of home on Astor street digs up bones – Louise DeKoven Bowen’s book.

October 14, 1894            CATHOLIC

Headline: Old cemetery disturbed and skeletons uncovered.

No. 553 Dearborn avenue (old address)
“When Calvary Cemetery was thrown open it was intended to remove all the bodies, but many must have been overlooked, for they have been found in considerable numbers during recent times.”
“Fairly well preserved skeletons were found when the cellar for a residence in the same Dearborn avenue block was dug. One of the skulls found yesterday was perfectly preserved.”

August 8, 1897
In 1870 the city determined to convert the cemetery into a park, and began the removal of bodies to Graceland, where the municipality had purchased lots. There was some difficulty in doing this, as many persons refused to remove the bodies of their relatives, and it was impossible to identify many graves. So it is that hundreds of bodies are still resting under the green sod of Lincoln Park. The field near North avenue, where the baseball and football matches are played, covers rows of graves, and as long as the place remains a park the sod will probably never be disturbed.
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March 22, 1899

Find Bones in Lincoln Park

“Lincoln Park employees, in digging for a sewer opposite Eugenie street, and 1,200 feet east of Clark street, on Monday afternoon exhumed the remains of several coffins and a quantity of bones, including a skull with the hair perfectly preserved, though the scalp was gone. They replaced everything as they found it.”
“This part of the park, just north of the old Jewish Cemetery, is part of the ground to which bodies not removed to Graceland or Rosehill were transferred. The location of the graves is marked on a plat in the office of the Lincoln Park Commissioners, though the surface of the ground is smoothly sodded. Assistant Superintendent McKay said hardly a year passes but human remains are exhumed in some of the improvement operations, but they are always laid back in the same place.”

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November 26, 1899            CATHOLIC

Excerpt from article about Bishop:

The home of the Archbishop at North avenue and State street is a portion of the valuable property In his hands at present. Thirty years ago the grounds that surroun d it were the site of a Catholic cemetery and many relics of old tombstones are still found. While some repairs in the city sewerage were being made in that vicinity recently excavations exposed row after row of the heads of coffins in a state of good preservation.

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October 7, 1900            CATHOLIC

Forgotten Graveyards of Chicago

“Twenty years have made a big change in that section of the city and there is not a vestige left of the old Catholic cemetery, most of the ground now being occupied by residences. This does not mean that all the bodies were reinterred, for when the most recent of the buildings were being erected bones were unearthed in places where there was no signs of grave stones. It is safe to say, therefore, that under the homes of many of Chicago’s citizens lie the remains of people who have been long forgotten, forgotten, in fact, before their last resting place was disturbed by the mason and the builder.

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February 28, 1931

Unearth Bones in Lincoln Park, Once a Cemetery

“Workers digging in Lincoln park, north of the intersection of North avenue and Dearborn parkway, uncovered a bit of Chicago history in finding human bones in the sandy soil.” 

January 11, 1939
Workmen Uncover Skeleton of Child in Lincoln Park
Workmen on a new boulevard connection between La Salle street and Lake Shore drive, in Lincoln Park, yesterday uncovered a skeleton of what appeared to be a child about 8 years old. It was found near Stockton drive and Wisconsin street. Hudson avenue police took the skeleton to the county morgue. A cemetery at one time occupied that portion of the park.
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Records Hint Skeleton is from Old Cemetery
City records indicate yesterday that the area around 1520 State pkwy., where a skeleton of a man was found Monday buried beneath 18 inches of soil, was a cemetery many years ago. Nails found in the shallow grave also indicated the skeleton may have been buried in a normal manner and the original coffin may have disintegrated. The shallowness of the grave, police believe, may have been caused by leveling the ground for building purposes.

1962
farm in the zoo skeletons

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Chicago Tribune, December 31, 1970 (whole article)            CATHOLIC

“City workers yesterday uncovered three skulls and parts of other skeletons 6 feet underground in the 1400 block of N. State St. while installing a new water main.”
“Lt. John E. Sullivan of the Chicago Ave police district said the bones appeared to be 100 years old or older, and may have been dumped into the street many years ago as fill. Skeletons and parts of skeletons have been found a number of times during construction work on the near north side, where Indians once had burying grounds and where early Chicago settlers also had a cemetery.”
“The bones were sent to the county morgue, which reported they would be buried elsewhere.”
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By David Anderson (article about all the cemeteries in Chicago)

“Back in 1932, workmen excavating for the foundation of the historical society’s building at Clark and North dredged up several skulls. And last year during the excavation of its new addition workmen came up with seven more skulls.”
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1400 block of north State Street
“First it was a skull, and then some bones, then another skull. Before they were finished, the workers uncovered three skulls and the partial skeletons of three human beings.”
“According to existing histories, Joseph H. Ernst and his counterpart in the catholic cemetery did yeoman’s work, but, to show nobody is perfect, it seems they both missed a few graves. Tho it is not common, every few years the oversights of the sextons are uncovered.”

“Officials say they probably are the remains of indigents and familyless paupers, anyway, whose humble graves were quickly overgrown and forgotten.”

Skullduggery
Road crews find skeletons in park

Patrick Butler.

Parts of three human skeletons unearthed in Lincoln park last month are expected to be turned over to the county morgue this week. But it’s unlikely the remains will ever be identified and claimed by relatives.

The three human skulls and miscellaneous bones, which may be hundreds or thousands of years old, were found in mid-April by road crews widening part of LaSalle street that runs through the park.
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Chicago Sun Times August 13, 1986

“Old cemetery site yields remains of 6”, By K.O. Dawes

“Up to six skeletons, including a mother with babe in arms”
“The remains were discovered … near the south field house.”
“In 1843 the city bought 120 acres … said Don Garbarino, Park District spokesman.

“The new cemetery was also used for cholera victims, and 1000 confederate soldiers who died in Union prisons were buried there.”

“In 1861, the predecessor of Lincoln Park was established on the northern unused half (60 acres) of the cemetery that ran from North to Webster and from Clark or Lincoln Park West to Lake Michigan.”

“Between 1865 & 1875, 4,000 bodies were relocated from the cemetery to other cemeteries.”

“The last time unexpected skeletons turned up in Lincoln Park was in 1962 when the Farm in the Zoo was built. … At that time two or three were exhumed, they thought.”

Chicago Sun Times August 14, 1986
“5 more skeletons found in Lincoln Park”, By K.O. Dawes

“Five more skeletons, including another of a newborn child, were found in an old cemetery area yesterday as Park District crews continued to lay new line for drinking fountains in the south end of Lincoln Park.”
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Chicago Tribune, October 25, 1998

“Bones from six individuals have been found so far – three this month as workers began digging out the garage’s perimeter and three during initial testing of the ground last year.”

“Keene, president of Archeological Research Inc., will study the bones unearthed during construction and send them to the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, as required by the state’s Human Skeletal Remains Protection Act. The state law, intended to protect unmarked and unregistered graves of early Illinoisans from desecration, mandates that the county’s medical examiner or coroner and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency be notified when remains are discovered.”

(2004 CBS2 video report by Diann Burns says Keene dug up 30 bodies)
August 10, 2004  (CBS2 video report by Diann Burns)
And on North Dearborn, a backyard renovation turned up another batch of bones last June.

Chicago police are investigating after workers found what appeared to be human bones at a Gold Coast construction site. The discovery was made about 8:15 a.m. Monday by workers excavating a site at 1447 N. Dearborn St., Officer JoAnn Taylor said.
Police have launched a death investigation, and the skeletal remains have been turned over to the Cook County medical examiner's office, Taylor said.
Police said detectives were awaiting the results from the medical examiner's office, but the bones appeared to be human. The building on the site was built before 1920, police said.