Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

Sometimes these things just fall right into your lap. One minute, I’m giving a haunted tour of Renovo, and the next minute, I’m writing a column and on a quest.

While I was giving a haunted tour recently, Mary George Rhone of the Renovo Heritage Foundation put me in touch with Bernie Greene, who had a mystery to share. In 1912, the Renovo Masonic Temple was built, and if that was all, I could end this column in eighty-five words and call it a day. But there’s more.

There are disappearing skeletons involved.

Greene has been on a mission to find them and have them respectfully buried. I’m writing about this in the hope of helping. My e-mail is loulhpa@gmail.com, and if anyone happens to know anything, please get in touch.

During the construction of the building, skeletons were found. This made the Clinton County Times pretty quickly, as the Times was always willing to report on wild news like that. An article on October 11, 1912, commented,”Two human skulls were found while making the excavation for the Masonic Temple at Renovo Monday. One is thought to be that of a woman and the other of a man. The gruesome discovery is a mystery to the oldest inhabitants and the solution is that they were probably the bones of Indians.”

For this time, it was not exactly the most unusual find. There were plenty of ancient burial grounds around, and skeletons did tend to turn up from time to time. It happened repeatedly in Lock Haven, McElhattan, and Woodward Township. Renovo was very near a Native American path, and there was at least one other burial ground nearby, at the corner of Third and Huron.

By the next week, the Times had gathered a bit more information. The bones were examined and said to be around two hundred years old. Two entire skeletons plus two skulls had turned up, and one had a perfect set of teeth, according to a local physician who examined them. The Times referred to the incident as causing “considerable excitement,” which seems to understate the case, especially for the Clinton County Times.

The article noted that during the building of the canal, some of the workmen had been killed and buried nearby, but due to the age, this wasn’t them. So, good news, Renovo—The more recent buried skeletons are still out there somewhere!

Within a month, the excitement seems to have died down. A front-page article notes that the cornerstone had been laid, and mentions a grand ceremony with very important guest speakers, but never mentions the skeletons. The mystery would begin right here, except for a photo that Mr. Greene sent me. We know what happened to the skeletons up until now.

They were placed on display in the Masonic Temple.

The photo shows two skulls and a pile of bones on a table, with a small, mostly unreadable sign. It appears to be outside, beside display windows, possibly for an event. (Maybe even for the cornerstone laying.) They appear to have been on display in the basement of the temple, and after that, nobody has a clue where they went.

Greene would like to locate them and have them respectfully buried, preferably at a local Native American burial ground by the Leni-Lenape Tribe, the prevalent one in Clinton County. After hearing the story, I’d like that, too. So if you happen to know anything about them, get in touch, okay? I’ve had wilder quests, and you never know what the readers might find out.