ONEIDA -- Officials say a crew digging to an underground oil tank behind an upstate New York elementary school unearthed an 19th century cemetery.

Police were called to the site behind the Willard Prior Elementary School on Thursday after the crew dug up a headstone, a second partial headstone and some human bones.

Oneida City Police Chief David Meeker says he's talking to the Division of Cemeteries for New York State about what to do next.

Authorities say the headstone was that of Richard Emerson, who died in 1849 at age 57.

A local historian says the site was a community cemetery between 1841 and 1875. In time, the cemetery fell into complete disrepair. It eventually was turned into a park before becoming the site of a school building.