Construction unearths 19th century casket of child

HAWKINSVILLE - A funeral service was held Wednesday for a child whose small casket, dating to the 19th century, was unearthed during renovation of the First Baptist Church in Hawkinsville. <br> <br> A backhoe operator digging a trench through the church parking lot struck the unmarked grave just 4 feet below the surface. <br> <br> The backhoe made a hole about the size of a softball in the casket. Daniel Henderson, the project superintendent, jumped in the trench and got on his knees with a flashlight. He peered through the hole and saw leg bones and a skull. <br> <br> ``It was an eerie feeling,&#39;&#39; Henderson said. ``We&#39;d stumbled upon someone&#39;s resting place.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Henderson sought out the pastor. <br> <br> ``He came to my study with a strange question. &#39;Don, do you know if the parking lot outside your study was ever a cemetery?&#39; I thought he was joking at first,&#39;&#39; the Rev. Don McClung said. <br> <br> The Pulaski County Sheriff&#39;s Department, the coroner and the funeral director were called, and the black metal casket was removed from its grave. <br> <br> Pulaski County Coroner Charles Young believes the remains are from a child between 8 and 10. <br> <br> Fred Clark, general manager for Clark Funeral Home, said the casket may have been made by the Fisk Company, which operated from the 1820s to the early 1990s. <br> <br> McClung said church archives revealed that a cemetery existed on site when the grounds were purchased in 1885. Part of the purchase agreement was to move the graves to the city&#39;s Orange Hill Cemetery that opened in the 1870s. <br> <br> The child&#39;s grave, possibly unmarked, was probably left behind by mistake, McClung said. <br> <br> With a judge&#39;s order, the casket was moved to Orange Hill Cemetery for the funeral service, attended by the pastor, the funeral director, coroner, church secretary and a few others. <br> <br> McClung&#39;s remarks were titled, ``Funeral Service for an Unknown Child.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Clark Funeral Home is donating a marker that will read in part: ``To an Unknown Child. Believed to have died between 1820-1885.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``If the trench had been dug just one foot over, we&#39;d have missed it,&#39;&#39; McClung said. ``We&#39;d never have known we were walking on holy ground all that time.&#39;&#39;