I think I killed one of my villagers!
I assigned as many as I could to moving the statue. Some of them were a bit elderly... When I checked back later, one of the old ones was dead! I felt so bad! So I immediately pulled everyone over 60 years of age off the statue and put them to researching. After first enjoying the bath, of course. It'll take longer to move the statue now, but that's okay.
The Roster of the Dead says he died of old age, but I'll always believe it was a heart attack from the strain of pushing that statue...