The Cincinnati Post August 13, 1999 Forgotten lives, bound in old books Potter's Field hints at secrets in records Author: Andrew Conte Edition: Final Section: News Page: 18A Estimated printed pages: 2 Article Text: Written in black ink with flowery scripts, the faded scroll of names belies the personal history of thousands of Cincinnatians - forgotten as little more than poor, lonely people with no one to bury them. They are some of the 11,000 or so paupers buried in the city's Potter's Field cemetery in West Price Hill. Their remains are now lost beneath a thicket of vine-covered bushes that the city abandoned in the early 1980s. The records of their deaths - three remaining volumes with tattered cloth covers and yellowing pages - sit inside the bottom drawer of a metal filing cabinet in the Hamilton County welfare building's basement. Cursive writing flows in many different scripts, neatly along blue lines for hundreds of pages. Documentation for burials before 1901 and between the years 1942 and 1960 have disappeared, perhaps lost forever. The remaining roll calls of the dead give scant information, typically little more than a name, an age, cause of death and place of death. Many more entries give just a macabre, mysterious notation: Four infants buried together in the same grave, Jan. 19, 1914. Two white, ages 5 days and 2 days, next to two black, both stillborn. All died at City Hospital. 354 people dead from tuberculosis and buried in an unbroken row, dating from February 1936 to February 1939. "Unknown white man killed by police," buried Feb. 26, 1917. Ida Stephens, 55, "buried with unknown infant," Oct. 2, 1930. Two unknown white men buried on the same day, April 18, 1935, in separate graves, one killed in a railroad accident and the other fell from a bridge. Whether they have names or not, the notations mean little balanced against the advance of time. Few people pay attention to the notations now orcomplained about the city's decision to abandon the cemetery in 1982. But occasionally, maybe only once or twice a year, someone comes to the county records keeper looking for a long-lost relative. Even less often, those people drive out to Guerley Road near the Dunham Recreation Center, hoping to locate the forgotten cemetery. When they do try to connect the dots - to redraw their personal history - these people more often find heartache than comfort. There are few real markers by which to recall or honor a loved one buried in Potter's Field. "How in the world would you find any stones in there, any markers?" asked Donna Winchester, standing near the edge of the cemetery Monday. "You couldn't - it's too overgrown." The 73-year-old woman came to the rolling thicket to find the grave of her father, Roy Readle, likely buried there after he choked to death in 1943. But nothing remains of the cemetery except a few broken stones and a simple marker. Charlie Luken, the former mayor and now a City Council candidate, first fought for the city to maintain the field by at least mowing it in the early 1980s. But other city administrators figured the cost to taxpayers was too high, and they let wilderness takes its course. After visiting the cemetery this week, Luken says he is frustrated by the neglect. Hopes of restoring the cemetery seem impossibile: "The best the city could do is reconstruct who is buried there and place some sort of a monument." City officials have admitted their ownership of the cemetery and are exploring options for restoring a portion of the graveyard, erecting a monument or creating some other memorial to the countless, faceless dead. But for now, the monument to their deaths remains nearly as ignored as their lives. Caption: TERRY DUENNES/The Post - These record books list the names of paupers buried in Cincinnati's Potter's Field. Photo Copyright 1999 The Cincinnati Post Record Number: CNP081300055310118