Cemetery dig in good hands

By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- It's their common love of history that drew 10 volunteer archaeologists to Girard Cemetery looking for graves.
They didn't find any as they perspired while digging in Wednesday's sweltering heat at the U.S. Route 422 cemetery.
That's a good thing.
Now, the cash-strapped city will be able to sell about 80 empty plots for $500 each to city residents. Nonresidents who want one will pay $600.
The volunteers labored under the direction of John White, chairman of Youngstown State University's sociology and anthropology department.
After cemetery sexton Brian Maynard removed the sod with a backhoe, the archaeologists skimmed the soil and cut out roots in search of signs that the soil was disturbed.
Disturbed dirt would indicate that an unmarked grave was below, they said.
Another project
Most of the volunteers have been working together since mid-April on another project to unearth the Trumbull Furnace in Mill Creek Park.
"I always loved history. I always wanted to be on a dig," said Dan Madden, a 55-year-old attorney from Kingsville in Ashtabula County.
Madden cut back on his legal practice from five to four days and began digging.
Madden said he finds camaraderie in the work, but he acknowledges he becomes somewhat territorial working in a small space assigned to him.
"You might be touching an object created by a human being that hasn't been touched in hundreds of years," commented volunteer Marian Kutlesa of Struthers.
Kutlesa, 68, is the secretary and a former president of the Struthers Historical Society. She was digging Wednesday alongside her daughter, Debbie Zetts, also of Struthers, who is a professional anthropologist.
Kutlesa, who says she has a deep interest in history, didn't start her university studies in the field until age 47. She began work with White in the 1980s.
Kata Stambolia Gainard and her husband, Patrick Gainard, of Youngstown, labored together. "We dig everywhere together," Mrs. Gainard said.
Gainard will be receiving his degree in history from YSU. Mrs. Gainard has her bachelor's degree in anthropology from YSU and is working toward her master's degree in history.
"Dr. White drags me out to all the digs," said Mrs. Gainard, formerly of Girard.
Her experience
She was also asked to participate because of her experience.
She and other volunteers found 100 19th-century graves during two summers of work in Quaker Cemetery in Damascus, Columbiana County.
"I was born to be an anthropologist," said Mrs. Gainard, who has a full-time job in medical records at St. Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center.
For Chuck Mastran of Liberty, his volunteer digging has taken him around the world -- Cyprus, Israel, Australia, Greece, France and Alaska.
"This is my way to see the world," said Mastran, 52, a dig field supervisor who received his bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1983 and his master's in history this year from YSU.
"You see things that nobody has seen in thousands of years," said Mastran, who will be teaching introductory anthropology in the fall at YSU.
yovich@vindy.com