OAKLAND — It was a rumor passed down through the generations, but never substantiated: Bodies of Revolutionary War soldiers lay in unmarked graves in a patch of land in Ponds Cemetery.
Then, in recent months, two electromagnetic studies confirmed the presence of 12 unidentified bodies at the site, presumed to be the soldiers' remains.
On Saturday, American Legion Post 369 dedicated a common gravestone in their honor.
Post Commander Ronald Beattie told veterans assembled for the unveiling that he had initiated the studies last year after tiring of placing three flags on an unmarked 50-yard by 60-yard plot each Memorial Day.
"It was rumored there were three or four soldiers buried here," Beattie said. "That was never good enough for me. How could we find out who this is?"
According to Post family lore, they donated part of their burial plot for the soldiers north of what was then Ponds Reformed Church (now the location of Portobello's Restaurant) at the intersection of Ramapo Valley and Long Hill roads when Gen. George Washington passed through the area during his retreat from Saratoga in 1780-81.
It is one of the borough's most cherished historic claims that Washington documented his stay at the Hendrick Van Allen house — which still stands a mile north at the corner of Ramapo Valley Road and Franklin Avenue — during that time.
The cemetery also includes graves of Continental Army veterans who survived the war and died after returning home, Beattie said.
It was the remains of the unknown soldiers who died there during the conflict — whether from combat or disease — that he wanted to identify and honor.
But no markers of the burial sites survive, if there ever were any. Neither Post family nor Continental Army records have been found to identify who was buried there or where. The family deeded its plot to Ponds Cemetery in 1923 with only a verbal tradition of the burials.
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It was not until Beattie had a chance meeting with Peter Sarandinaki that research of the plot began last November.
Sarandinaki is president of the SEARCH Foundation Inc., which has conducted a series of expeditions to Russia to locate and identify remains of members of the Czar Nicholas II family assassinated during the Revolution in 1918.
"After talking to the commander of the American Legion post in Oakland about our work in Russia, he asked if I could help," said Sarandinaki, who was present for the ceremony. "I located the graves very quickly using electromagnetic equipment and gave them my report."
An anonymous benefactor financed the study's equipment rental and the monument purchase, Beattie said. But Beattie's son John, a surveyor, suggested an additional investigative source: GPRS Inc., which provides a variety of search services to the construction industry, such as underground utility location.
GPRS Area Manager Josh Elam subsequently led a volunteer group to conduct a second study of the plot using a 350 MHz ground-penetrating radar antenna.
Ground-penetrating radar "essentially sends electro-magnetic pulses into the ground that send out a wide range of frequencies," Elam said. "I was able to identify the reflections in real time and mark the areas as potential graves."
The pulses do not reveal any skeletal or artifact remains, only depressions in the earth.
Interestingly, the newly discovered graves are all oriented north to south, although the rest of the graves are west to east, as is traditional in Christian burials. Beattie said he has no explanation for why the graves are all oriented differently.
He says there are no plans to exhume the bodies for identification or rearrangement.
"They've been underground for 240 years," Beattie said. "Why would we do that?"
Marsha Stoltz is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.