Boy Scout Makes Historic Discovery At Long Island Burial Ground

CUTCHOGUE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A Long Island teenager accidentally discovered a piece of history during a community service project.

It was buried under the ground. But thanks to this Boy Scout, it's finally back where it belongs.

"We found it right over here in the hole," Joseph Depinto explained. "The name 'Miriam' – that was the name on the top."

The 16-year-old is referring to a headstone from the 1800s. He pulled it out of the ground in the beginning of July when digging around the Old Cutchogue Burial Ground.

"I didn't know what it was. I was hitting it with a shovel," said Depinto.

As part of his Eagle Scout project, he's been digging up, securing and restoring the 200-year-old stone posts that surround the historic site, sanding them down and putting them back together like a puzzle.

"Sometimes it would be so close but it wasn't a match, because the crevices and cracks would not be all covered up with the second half," he said.

Little did he know he would unearth a piece of the area's history along the way.

The director of the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council said this is their most important discovery yet. They've never dug up around the cemetery, only maintained the surface.

"Headstones are the carved record of someone's life and, in this case, we found two little girls," Zachary Studenroth said.

"MIRIAM REEVE," an 8-year-old who died in 1822, and "Parthenia Silone," a 16-month-old who died in 1855, are engraved on the headstone. Both are believed to be descendants of slaves. Before this finding, there was no trace of them.

"These are probably the only records that these people ever produced," said Studenroth.

This Boy Scout will always make sure to keep those records intact.