Coroner: Pa. skeletons likely Odd Fellows relics

Coroner: Pa. skeletons likely Odd Fellows relics
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09/28/2008
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COCHRANTON (AP) — Decades-old skeletal remains found in the abandoned stairwell of a home in northwestern Pennsylvania likely belonged to a fraternal lodge that once occupied the property, a coroner said.
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Crawford County Coroner Pat McHenry has been investigating the remains found Sept. 16 by a man renovating a bathroom in his grandparents' home in Wayne Township.
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McHenry discussed the remains with other coroners at a recent state conference who told him of similar finds in buildings formerly used by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
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Leland Dorchester of Cochranton told the Meadville Tribune that the home where the skeletons were found housed an Odd Fellows lodge until the late 1960s.
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The international group was established in North America in Baltimore in 1819, according to its Web site. Calls to its headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C., were not immediately returned Saturday.
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Don Stallard told the newspaper that his former lodge in Conneaut Lake used the skeletons as symbols of lifetime membership.
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The Odd Fellows used to buy skeletons from medical schools or other legal outlets, but now use plastic replicas, McHenry said.
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McHenry said he continues to study the remains to confirm there was no trauma or foul play. If McHenry rules that out and can't identify the remains, he'll seek a court order to donate them for use by forensic science students at Mercyhurst College in Erie.
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©The Mercury 2008
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Article Link
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The Pottstown Mercury
http://www.pottsmerc.com/site/news.asp?brd=1674
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Mysterious skeletons found in Wayne Township home
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I posted this for general interest. The Meadville Tribune article is slightly different, and is a bit more revealing.