Note on ghost story

I wanted to add a note about my last post. I had described the claw marks found in the river bed/bridge area as fossil like. I probably used the wrong word here. They did not actually find fossils but found claw type marks as if someone had tried to claw there way out of the water. The part about finding finger nails is as I remember the story. I would think any type of marks found in wood or clay after almost 150 years would be hardened, there fore I used the word fossil.
Sorry for any confusion. Also please remmeber this is a story that was told to us and there is no documentation that I am aware of.
Thanks