The old Cemetery

gradall5200

gradall5200

Joined
Mar 12, 2006
Messages
1,867
you guys and the haunted/ spooky stuff got me excited
About a mile from where I grew up as a kid was an old hidden Cemetery out in the woods. Cant really remember how we found it but we sure thought it was cool! Word kind of got around that my brother and I knew where it was and how to get to it and every now and again a car full of old folks would stop by my mom and dads place and ask my brother and I to show it to them cause they had relatives there or something. Every now and then even make a dollar or two. its pretty run down now and every time the creek gets to washing hard it takes a few down with it. There is a few in there where the people had died in the 1700's and the newest stone was like a 1908 death or something like that. No pics of it yet but there is a few old 40's and 50's cars parked back there and abandoned.

a view from the road
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I enjoy stumbling across forgotten places like that hidden away in the woods, thanks for posting. At the end of my street is the original pioneer cemetary for our town, nothing newer than the late 1800`s.
 
Wow - interesting find, and thanks for the pictures.

I have a dear old friend who passed in 1911.

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best

mqqn
 
very cool! Out here in my neck of the woods almost every small town has old cemeteries for pre-revolutionary war times.
 
That is really interesting. We don't have anything close to that age out this direction. There are usually some civil war gravestones - those usually being the older ones in the cemetaries in this area. There is a graveyard out in the country in our county called Diptheria Hill. I have never been out there, but the kids have - usually at night. Its supposedly haunted. Legend has it that most of the people buried there died during a diptheria epidemic back in the late 1800's with some of the children being buried alive? People swear up and down if you go out there at night, you can hear children crying.
 
History just waiting to be rediscovered. I wonder if courthouse records would have info on site, like an old church or platt of the land.
 
I know when I used to hang out in southern Illinois I would come across small family cemetaries in the middle of nowhere. Must have been houses somewhere in the area, I also stumbled onto (and almost into) old stone wells that were flush with the ground.
 
mqqn said:
Wow - interesting find, and thanks for the pictures.

I have a dear old friend who passed in 1911.

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best

mqqn
Click to expand...

Is this one of those ghost pictures? If I look closely, I see an image of spirits in your hand.

Cool pics! There was a similar plot next to my friend's uncle's house in a small town in Indiana. We used to go there as a get away, do a bit of squirrel hunting, drinking in the local watering hole, etc. They lived right next door to the place, it always kind of creeped me out.
 
Very cool.

I love stuff like this.

Not all that far from me is one of the oldest cemeteries in New Jersey. It is actually two cemeteries in one, with the really old part back in the woods. There was a log church there way back in time (it burned down in the late 1700's and another log church was built in the same location). I've been told that the land was donated for the purpose of building a church and that this land had been an Indian burial ground prior to being donated to the original church. The Cohansey river flows a few hundred yards behind the cemetery - supposedly most of the old Indian graves were washed away in floods. There are numerous graves containing revolutionary war veterans.

The site hasn't seen a new grave in close to 150 years (give or take a few). The second log church became unsuitable for use sometime around the 1850's and the congregation held church outdoors for several years prior to finding the money to purchase land some 5 miles away. That church was built out of stone and stands yet today (though it is not in use). It is surrounded by old graves as well - many of them containing people who died fighting in the civil war. Church records claim the materials had to be purchased twice in order to build the Stone Church (as it is called yet today) - the union Army took all the materials that had been gathered the first time.

Supposedly George Washington's favorite horse is buried in the next town over from me. I don't know if that is actually the case, but it is known that he was in this area quite often and that he had family here. One of the better resturants, in this area, was in operation during the Revolutionary War days (it is still in business) and it is known that George Washington ate there (and spent the night - it used to be a lodge as well as a place to eat).

For me, the most interesting piece of history - for this immediate area - is an old bar (no longer open - but they do give tours). The bar was a hot-bed of activity during the Revolutionary War. Later it was one of the sites in which portions of the Federalist Papers were written (this was during the time the nation was considering the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights).

Another part of that bar's history is a small town named Greenwich, NJ. Most people know about the Boston Tea Party, but few are aware of the fact that Greenwich had it's own tea party (about the same time as the Boston Tea party). At that time, Greenwich was a major shipping point and one of the first towns in southern NJ. Today Greenwich is a quaint litle village, some 10 miles off the beaten path. Many of the homes from the 1700's are still lived in today.
 
I must be getting old.

I was off - but only by 100 years or so - with regards to the age of the Old Stone Church. It was completed in 1780 and it was the British Army that confiscated building materials, not the Union Army (they would've been close to 85 years too late).

The newest graves, at the old site, are prior to 1780.

The graves at the new (1780) site are from 1780 onwards.

If I can find the church's website, I'll post it up so you can see some pictures of the Old Stone Church.

Here's some info: http://www.pcahistory.org/churches/fairfield.html

The above link has a small picture of the Old Stone Church, as well as a couple of pictures of the church currently in use.

Here's a little more:
http://sonic.net/~ifdavis/geneology/fairfield.html
 
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i have always had a fascination with old cemeteries. not in a morbid way, but in a historical way. i like to imagine how things would have been back when the folks were alive. i dunno...something like that, i guess.

anyway...the town i grew up in was founded in 1635. the church i went to growing up was made of stone and still had the old "box pews". there was a graveyard that went right up to the church. i can't seem to remember the oldest one that is in there. now that i am thinking about it, i would love to get back there to check it out again. i usually try to get back each summer and visit old friends and do some striper fishing. i'll have to try to remember to take a look.

thanks for the post Gradall. you brought back some memories.
 
TPVT said:
i have always had a fascination with old cemeteries. not in a morbid way, but in a historical way. i like to imagine how things would have been back when the folks were alive. i dunno...something like that, i guess.

anyway...the town i grew up in was founded in 1635. the church i went to growing up was made of stone and still had the old "box pews". there was a graveyard that went right up to the church. i can't seem to remember the oldest one that is in there. now that i am thinking about it, i would love to get back there to check it out again. i usually try to get back each summer and visit old friends and do some striper fishing. i'll have to try to remember to take a look.

thanks for the post Gradall. you brought back some memories.
Click to expand...

My family came to America in 1628. That ancestor is buried somewhere in CT (I forget the name of the town). Several years back a couple of my cousins stopped at that cemetery and visited the gravesite. I was told that the marker is still in place. One of these years I'm going to go visit it myself.
 
TPVT said:
i have always had a fascination with old cemeteries. not in a morbid way, but in a historical way. i like to imagine how things would have been back when the folks were alive. i dunno...something like that, i guess.

anyway...the town i grew up in was founded in 1635. the church i went to growing up was made of stone and still had the old "box pews". there was a graveyard that went right up to the church. i can't seem to remember the oldest one that is in there. now that i am thinking about it, i would love to get back there to check it out again. i usually try to get back each summer and visit old friends and do some striper fishing. i'll have to try to remember to take a look.

thanks for the post Gradall. you brought back some memories.
Click to expand...

My family came to America in 1628. That ancestor is buried somewhere in CT (I forget the name of the town). Several years back a couple of my cousins stopped at that cemetery and visited the gravesite. I was told that the marker is still in place. One of these years I'm going to go visit it myself.
 
Very cool thread and pics. I have always been a history nut and love old cemeteries. Growing up in the west, they aren't all that old. I often go to the one in Virginia City Nevada.
The east coast cemeteries I have always wanted to peruse but never had the time.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Cool thread Joel.
I used to hunt the woods around an old farmstead back in North Carolina & found what I assume was the family plot.Only about 8 graves,but some dated to the mid seventeen hundreds.
 
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