Up on a hill behind our house is a very old cemetery. Almost 200 years old. Now days you have to walk through a pasture, dodging cow pies, to get to it. It is fenced off to keep the cattle out but it has fallen into total disrepair. It is being over-run with poison ivy and makes me think of snakes, so it's not the most ideal place to explore. Yet despite it's condition, I think this could be a beautiful place to resurrect at the 2nd Coming.
Many of the headstones are unreadable, like this one. Who was this person? Was he/she someone special that God planted a daisy on this grave? Maybe a child?
The detail in some of these headstones makes me think they may have been costly in their day.
I went online but only found 1 record of this cemetery. Someone took time to jot down names & dates back in 1963 before the headstones became so deteriorated. According to the Internet record, the first person buried here was a 7 year old; the youngest a 3 yr. old, the average age 55. In 1963 they found 21 markers but there are even less now as some are broken off at ground level. There are large gaps between some headstones, so I suspect there may be more graves.
For years we wondered 'where are the descendants of these people? Do they even know the graves are here?' If you noticed in the 2nd picture the newer (grey) stone, someone took time to replace the original some years ago, although it is now broken off it's base. Only once in the entire time we live here has anyone stopped and inquired about a cemetery. Recently we found out who those people were and which family name they are descendants of.
I've got enough of my mother's genes in me that I've considered making rubbings of stones to uncover the missing information and to clean up the area, maybe plant some flowers. These people were important to someone once upon a time and probably still deserve respect. Since we do not own that land, I never followed the impulse. Does anyone know- are cemeteries "open domain"?
I would love to see pictures of these people and this area 150 years ago and read stories about their lives. This is a call to me to take an interest in family history & pass it on to my children(sorry, mom, that does not extend to tramping through cemeteries from here to KS and back) and to preserve current history for future generations (scrapbooking).
3 comments:
Your thoughts on that cemetery mirror the ones I had when I would wander through a neglected family cemetery on a neighboring farm back when I was about 10 years old. That's where I started and it took about 50 years for the genealogy disease to grow to a point that takes me to other states in search of specific gravestones. Your own back yard is a good place to start. It'll grow on ya! :-)
I was going to say almost the same thing your mom did. It starts in your own back yard. She didn't start with Kansas either.
graveyards and the stories they hold fascinate me too, especially if it is one that contains the history of previous generations right where I live. i think it is a really refreshing idea to clean it up a little and plant some flowers... nothing much, but so respectful, nonetheless. i'd say go for it. don't think the "owner" would care. :) -LaRonda
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