r/abandoned • u/edwinssometimes • 3d ago
An Old Abandoned Cemetery in the Woods Along a Trail
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u/jazzhandsdancehands 3d ago
My favourite thing to find along with churches!
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u/edwinssometimes 3d ago
i need to find some old abandoned church so bad 😭
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u/jazzhandsdancehands 3d ago
It'll be there somewhere- usually go hand in hand. Most likely fallen down though if it's super in the middle of nowhere.
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u/grizzlor_ 2d ago edited 2d ago
I've run across many similar small cemeteries that never had an adjacent church. They're usually family plots, located on land that the family used to (or still does) own. They are all over New England; there's one in the woods about 5 minute walk from the house I grew up in.
I'm struggling to read the gravestones, it's pretty easy to identify this variety of graveyard because everyone buried there will have the same last name (although sometimes you'll find a couple different last names in the same family cemetery if, for example, a daughter inherited the farm and took her husband's family name).
If there was an adjacent church, good chance that you'd just find its foundation at this point.
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u/jazzhandsdancehands 2d ago
Here we've found churches waaayyy hidden a decent spot away from the graves. These have usually been moved at some point from the cemetery. Mostly due to people buying them then they move them and nothing around to sustain living. So it gets buried in the bush!
Def sift through find a grave you might get lucky! I take a cloth with me and use my camera to try and read what was there to get the info!
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u/Radiant-Maple 3d ago
Thank you for the excellent pictures of this very old cemetery. It looks like the fence has been reinforced and Hannah’s gravestone (picture 9) was repaired many years ago. Marvelous detail. I can make out 1831, not sure if birth or death year. Really cool! Is this in the US?
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u/Blenderx06 2d ago
I noticed several headstones had been repaired. Someone obviously put a lot of care into this cemetery once upon a time. Sad to see it abandoned now but so it goes.
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u/Round-Importance7871 3d ago
The fence really gives it a beautiful vibe and I love how the moss has slowly begun to creep on the bottom of the gravestones.
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u/Goldilocks1454 3d ago
You might want to also post this in r/CemeteryPorn
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u/crazy_goat 2d ago
That link stays blue
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u/KnotiaPickle 2d ago
Why? It’s a lovely subreddit dedicated to interesting tombstones and history.
The “porn” is not that porn, I promise. It’s like “design porn” or “food porn,” but for graveyards.
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u/NinaBrwn 1d ago
It’s just like r/AbandonedPorn. Yeah sometimes we get literal abandoned porn, but it’s 99.9% abandoned buildings and sites.
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u/mrcanard 3d ago
Guaranteed, some will dispute this site being abandoned.
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u/Time2play1228 3d ago
I have done a massive amount of "Lost" cemetery work in rural West Tennessee. This cemetery is being taken care of. Around our area in Tennessee, "Decoration Day" is an annual event where families go to their families plots and maintain them. If it wasn't, fallen tree limbs fallen rotten trees etc. Would make the area hard to see if it wasn't for the fence. The fence is made of sections of cast iron. The fence has been repainted within the last 20 years or else it would be brown with rust. If the place had ever been neglected it is likely that a piece of the fence would have been damaged by timber fall. A falling tree or limb is what broke one of the stones in the pictures, then later a family member cleared it out and cemented the broken section of the stone back in place. Probably in the last 30 years since adhesives to make this repair were not readily available at hardware stores before this time. This is most likely a family plot. We have them out in the country where I live. It is usually big farm / plantation families. Those families generally had money and the families decendents inherited the large farms and passed them down from generation to generation, or eventually sold the property as it was divided up. It is typical that these descendants maintain a loyalty to the family history. I have 4 of these types of plots within 3 miles of my home. The stones that are outside the iron fence and that are in a more unkempt state are more than likely slaves. Wealthy owners would pay for a headstone for a long time loyal slave that had served them well and buried them near the "Family".. You will notice on one picture of the "colored" area that at one point, probably 1930' - 1940's that concrete fence posts were installed for a wire fence to go around the colored section. You can see the small holes in the sides of those post. The post are leaning over because a tree or large tree limb fell on a fence wire section and pulled the posts over. It probably broke the fence wire in the process and the families that have maintained the area have cut the wire out to reduce tripping hazards. Regardless of your views on slavery, a significant amount of slave owners considered certain slaves as part of the family. Most of the field working slaves would be buried near this area probably in a seperate plot with wooden crosses marking the grave that have long since rotted away. We have found these lost spots by talking to old folks that have lived here all of their lives and then going to an area and looking for the presence of the ground cover plant typically called Vinca. Old church yards and cemetery plots were planted with it and it would cover the ground about 6 inches high and the grass and weeds would not live there. It thrived in sun or shade. So when you find a large plot of Vinca in the woods near a big old cotton field you know you probably have located the resting place of regular enslaved field hands. I love seeing places like this where the family is actively taking care of a relic from their past. Good, bad, ugly, or beutiful, it simply is a monument to a different time and way of life.
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u/Time2play1228 3d ago
In addition to what I just talked about, concerning slave graves. My West Tennessee home was built in 1846 and was the plantation home for a 1200 acre operation. The last houskeeper that worked in the main house here didn't leave until the mid 1970's. Her family had been working here since before the Civil War. Two field hands lived and worked here until the late 1960's. The point that I am getting get to is that a lot of the slaves stayed on with their plantation families. Most plantation owners around this area had a good relationship with their slaves. Many of these emancipated colored people kept working at the plantation after the Civil War. The housekeeper servants could have very well been buried beside the "Family" plot even after the Civil War.
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u/Noff-Crazyeyes 3d ago
His place should be cleaned up would look amazing with a day or two of love and care
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u/edwinssometimes 1d ago
mentioned that to my friend i go to these places with. not just in regards to this place, but others too. so many of these forgotten places are left to rott or have people come and tear shit apart. would be nice to visit some of these and clean them up a bit.
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u/Dirtdane4130 2d ago
DO NOT! Bury your cat there. Saw this documentary about that place and it’s fucked!
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u/Calm_Frosting_4670 2d ago
Meh... someone is probably... strike that; definitely hitching a ride home with you for eternity
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u/edwinssometimes 1d ago
nahhh, been to dozens of 'haunted' places, few of them being cemeteries, and haven't had any encounters yet! maybe the nice n chill spirits have attached themselves to me instead lol
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u/Calm_Frosting_4670 1d ago
My friend and I used to have picnics with em in some really old wagon trail days cemeteries in Kansas. We'd find someone who was our age when they passed and talk to them. That year, I started seeing ghosts. But they never scared me; never made me feel uncomfortable. Until I had an ex husband who's family was into Santeria. That's when any encounters I had got dark. . So.. just saying...
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u/LegitimateImpress336 3d ago
That would be awesome if that guy who's famous for restoring gravestones got a hold of this cemetery
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u/fritz_ramses 3d ago
This is a beautiful cemetery.
Did it feel spooky/haunted?
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u/edwinssometimes 1d ago
nope! felt very calm and relaxing honestly! been to two other cemeteries left to time, and same feeling each time. as someone who goes exploring plenty of spooky abandoned and likely haunted places, cemeteries are easily the most relaxing places.
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u/fritz_ramses 1d ago
Thanks for the response.
“Left to time” is a beautiful expression.
Have you ever been to a place where you felt something? A positive or negative presence?
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u/MaterialSpell9007 3d ago
That sounds eerie! Abandoned cemeteries often have a haunting history. Have you researched it?
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u/BirthdayNo4802 10h ago
What about the rest of the time? Re: your username
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u/ofthedappersort 2d ago
What's usually the story with these old little abandoned cemeteries? Are they usually leftover from a house or church that once stood by or did people just go out into the woods and pick out places to start a graveyard?
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u/edwinssometimes 1d ago
don't know what's usually the story exactly, but in this one's case it belongs to a family who live right across the road from here some time ago. don't know the fate of the family exactly, but someone did post in one of the comments here a bit of the history of one of the people buried here.
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u/Exact-Height6339 17h ago
Would you be able to take photos and load them to Findagrave.com ? Genealogists and Family Historians would be so grateful. 🙏🏼
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u/aegri_mentis 3d ago
By definition, a cemetery cannot be “abandoned”.
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u/Switchlord518 3d ago
I came here ti say this! Unless the bodies are moved... and DON'T JUST MOVE THE HEADSTONES PEOPLE!
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u/GrayhatJen 3d ago edited 3d ago
Happy 141st Death Day, Mary.
I would think it would have been inconceivable to imagine that in the year 2025, strangers from places unknown would be remembering you on the day of your death. But considering all of the change you witnessed in your 96 years, perhaps it wouldn't have seemed all that odd.
I hope your life was filled with more happiness than not, and I hope your passing was a gentle one.
Whether your memory exists today in the family tree of some modern-day descendant or not, if there is another place we all go, I sincerely hope that wherever you are, you can feel the care with which we all remember you here today.
(picture 15)