In the last few years, since Norma Sutcliffe sold the Richardson-Arnold House (and surrounding property) in 2019, there have been some insinuations by both the Heinzens and the new owner, Jacqueline Nunez making claims about human burials of people on the property.
Thanks to the amazing work of Historian, Elise Giammarco Carlson, who has discovered a vintage 1939 aerial view of the farm (you can view the original maps on this site), she has confirmed with photographic evidence that some areas that have more recently been alleged to be the site of burials were actually sites of previous foundations for out buildings that were used for the farm.
You have to remember, this was a farm, it had animals and it had other buildings, sheds, barns, etc., to house those animals at different times. So, besides Elise's amazing discovery, we also have first hand knowledge by someone whose family owned the property for over 200 years, Pam Kenyon-Cardin.
According to my interviews with Pam back in 2023, "The Arnold’s are buried (most of them) in the Arnold cemetery which is out in the woods at the corner of Sherman Farm Road and Brook Road about 3 to 5 miles from the house. There are Richardson cemeteries all over. Many in Massachusetts. I can pretty much account for all the burials that occurred in Burrillville. Like I said, the Arnold’s were a huge family and all related one way or another. There were a lot of them in nearby Massachusetts.
My great grandmother had cows so it’s probably Bessie. It could also be a dog, a horse, or the rooster my father hated because it would chase him. He wasn’t very old at the time but he never forgot it. When I left my home in R.I. I left the graves of my horses, too. Come to think of it, Uncle Freemont Arnold had a horse. They might be disappointed but they shouldn’t be surprised. It was a farm!"--
Besides consulting with Pam and Elise, I decided to reach out to an archeologist with experience in the field of Ground Penetrating Radar at burial sites, Dr. Robyn Lacy. I discovered Dr. Lacy while doing my own research on GPR. Dr. According to her website, Dr. Lacy's research is focused primarily on "burial landscapes and community burial organization in the 17th century North America." In fact, she has a PhD in Historical Archaeology and is considered an archaeologist, death scholar and burial ground conservator.
After reaching out to her and explaining the situation she provided me with the following professional opinion:
"Unless the visibility is really good and you can roughly tell the size of the burials, it is going to be extremely difficult to tell whether anomalies underground are for humans or animals. If it's a human vs a horse, you might have a better chance of comparing them, but something like a pig or goat vs a person's grave would appear relatively similar. If the potential human graves in question are a few hundred years old, they might not even have been buried in coffins, but might have just been shrouded instead....
Basically, there isn't a good way to confirm that they are animal graves or human graves without exhuming them, which would have to be done by an archaeologist under permit in case they are actually human. If family members of the original property owners are telling you that they are animals, and they remember animals being buried in that area, then I would be inclined to believe that, especially with the confirmation of subsurface anomalies identified using GPR....
I wouldn't expect those GPR anomalies to be human burials, especially with the family's oral history of having buried farm animals in that area. If they do want to do excavations and expect human remains, they'd have to have an archaeologist so those burials are probably pretty safe."--
So there you have it folks. Besides the spots that have been determined to have previously been structures on the property, the other questionable anomalies discovered are very unlikely to be anything but farm animals who passed away and their owners gave them the respect everyone deserves, a burial to rest in peace.
In the future, instead of jumping to wild conclusions people should really try to use logic and find the most rational explanation before assuming the worst. This was a family farm for over 200 years. It would be illogical not to believe that animals were buried on the property. Where else would their bones have gone?
(Copyright 2024- J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)
Thank you to Dr. Robyn Lacy, Elise Giammarco Carlson, Pamela Kenyon (RIP) and The University of Rhode Island Environmental Data Center.
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