"Cemetery Discovered under Garden Plot in Congaree as Workmen Construct Air Field"

by Reid Montgomery published in The State, October 26, 1942

     A forgotten family cemetery was unearthed accidentally under what is now 

a garden plot near Congaree as workmen were excavating a hill in the construction

of the new airfield there last week.

     The bodies of nine persons, some buried in what appeared to be lead-lined 

caskets, were removed and reburied in a nearby churchyard.

     The cemetery is believed to be that of the Howells. one of the prominent 

families of that section in the period before the Confederate war, and probably 

dates back to the Revolutionary war period.

     The first grave was discovered when a machine struck the vault of the tomb 

there Tuesday night.  This was the first knowledge that the construction company 

had of the presence of a cemetery in the vicinity, representatives said.

A guard was placed around the area in which the first grave was found to 

protect it from the curious and from those who were said to think that there might 

be valuable jewels in other graves in the cemetery, M. D. Hood, project manager 

said last night.

     Several of the caskets of the eight graves discovered later during the week