The fourth and final excavation at the old Catholic cemetery south of the hamlet concluded this week with outstanding results. Another 30 headstones that were buried and forgotten 50 years ago were recovered. This brings the total number of recovered headstones to 50. Along with the headstones, a lot of new information was gathered during Wednesday’s dig. For one, a headstone was found for Catharine Haimann. In 1856, her husband Tobias Haimann was one of the original petitioners for a resident priest in La Salette. Until now, no one knew where Tobias Haimann was laid to rest. Now that they ’ve found his wife’s headstone, the group behind the excavation assumes he too was buried in the same graveyard. The group also learned that La Salette had its own resident stonecutter. His last name was Grant. His name and the name of the village were inscribed on a headstone retrieved Wednesday. Thanks to this clue, the excavation group realizes that Grant’s handiwork was elsewhere in the cemetery and possibly in other cemeteries in the surrounding area. “His script is very distinctive,” says Delhi historian Danial Walker, an author who has written a history of the Catholic community in La Salette. “It ’s not like you see on common headstones. It’s not the usual calligraphy. The letters are very bold and large. They are a lot bigger than what the other stonecutters would do.” The hunt for the missing headstones has made headlines in the local media over the past year. This has prompted leads as to the location of other stones. A headstone for a Patrick Murray was recently recovered at a campground west of the old cemetery. During Wednesday’s dig, the group found the headstone of Murray’s widow Elizabeth. This was the fourth excavation at the cemetery. There are no plans to dig further. “We feel we’re at an 80% recovery, which is not bad considering the state everything was in,” Walker said. “This opens up a whole new ball game for research. This provides us with death dates for people we didn’t have before.” Walker and descendants of the families buried in the Church of Windham Catholic cemetery undertook the search to correct a historic injustice. In 1965, Our Lady of La Salette Church hired a contractor to clear brush from the overgrown cemetery. The contractor gave the job to an employee who proceeded the bulldoze the entire graveyard. Nearly 100 grave markers were dislodged. Many were reduced to rubble. Police laid charges. The damage was so devastating that the headstones were buried in the south-east corner of the property and forgotten. Burials were conducted at the cemetery from 1855 to the early 1880s. After that, Catholic burials in the area took place at the cemetery behind Our Lady of La Salette Church. Plans are to situate the headstones in the old cemetery in a manner that will preserve them for future generations. There will be no more digging because an archaeological consultant expressed confidence this week that the excavation site has been exhausted. Sponsors of the dig are interested in hearing from anyone who has any information about the graveyard. Walker can be reached at 519-582-1422.