Unclaimed cremains buried in Potter’s Field near Westmoreland prison

No one at a memorial service Thursday in Hempfield knew the people they were honoring.

The 54 names read aloud were unfamiliar to them, though still worthy of being treated with dignity and respect as they found their final resting place.

“These individuals, though they may be strangers to us, were once part of the human story with their own dreams, challenges and moments of joy,” said the Rev. Nick Poole of Calvary Church in Irwin.

The unclaimed cremains of 52 people and a fetus were interred Thursday in Potter’s Field, a strip of land near the Westmoreland County Prison. Two more sets of unclaimed cremains, belonging to military veterans who served in World War II and the Vietnam War, were taken to the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Washington County for interment after the ceremony.

Some of the remains were decades old, Coroner Tim Carson said.

Potter’s Field is home to about 600 gravesites marked only by a letter and a number that corresponds with handwritten details in books stored at Westmoreland Manor.

But the 53 interred Thursday in a black columbarium now have their first initial and last name, or notation that it is the fetal remains, marked on gold plates.

“I knew our office had to do something to ensure that remains were given proper burial and not stacked in a storage room,” Carson said.

The columbarium has room for up to 80 remains. It was bought with $15,000 in state funding, Carson said. A cement pad was donated by Stone & Co.

A person’s remains can become unclaimed if deputy coroners are unable to find family members.

“We exhaust every avenue that we can, and, if we can’t find next of kin, then our office takes the responsibility for the decedent,” Carson said. “Sometimes we are able to find next of kin, but they don’t want to take financial responsibility. So then, in turn, we take responsibility, as well.”

Carson organized a similar ceremony in 2022 to honor 15 military veterans whose cremains were unclaimed.

Church hymns lifted through the warm air at the quiet, tree-lined pauper’s cemetery. Faith leaders from various denominations read scripture and offered words typically read at funerals while the columbarium stood decorated with red and white flowers.

“We give thanks for the love that these people received and gave during the course of their lives,” said the Rev. David Ackerman, conference minister with the Penn West Conference of the United Church of Christ.

Deputy coroners read aloud the names of all of those honored Thursday. Poole said the service should be a reminder to care for others, especially those who may fall through the cracks of society.

“Each person we remember walked the same earth, took the same steps as we do, breathed the same air, shared in the same fundamental human experiences,” he said. “They laughed, they cried, they loved and they hoped.”

The gathering was a sign of the unity of humanity, as well as a commonality rooted in faith, said Bishop Larry J. Kulick of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg.

“There is too much today that can divide us,” he said. “Today’s ceremony is a magnificent way of reminding us of how much we have in common.”