I recently received several photo requests for this cemetery. I saw the picture on Find-A-Grave and it looked like a nice old cemetery on a grass hill ~ perfect for a Saturday afternoon stroll. My Dad was at my house waiting on my Mom to come back from a quilt store and I decided that he really wanted to go cemetery visiting with me. Besides, he is always good at finding those elusive stones for me! When we got there I was shocked to see the state of the place. It was hugely overgrown as you can see by this shot from the road.
The thing that interested me was that it seems like this is the back of the cemetery even though this is now the only road near it. All the markers are facing away from the road. It's very old - with a number of the markers indicating birth dates in the late 1700's. Of course there are many, many totally illegible stones, but amazingly I was able to find and photograph 3 out of the 5 requested. Well, OK, my DAD found them - I photographed them!
But anyway, I've got a good start on resolution #4. Of course I also took other photos besides the ones that had been requested and I'd like to come back when the weather is nicer and try to get all the legible ones.Here are two of the stones, which we found near the back (in terms of the picture and the road) after traipsing through all the overgrown middle part. The names are James WATT b. June 24, 1792 d. Dec 6, 1879 and Diana, wife of James (maiden name STICE according to the memorial on Find-A-Grave) b. July 14, 1792, d. Jul 25, 1866.
I haven't been able to find much information about the cemetery yet, but will work on that for another day.
What an interesting cemetery! I wonder if you would be interested in creating an online map of it at Names in Stone? Contact me at gravemappers@gmail.com and I'll show you the ropes!
ReplyDeleteHi JoLyn ~ That sounds cool. I'll contact you a little bit later today as I am just getting ready to go run a few errands. But yes, I would love to create an online map!
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing photos, Diana. When you click on the photo to enlarge it the resolution is so good. I research the family name WATTS for my daughter-in-law - family from Alabama - so I'm always looking for that "other" spelling of names.
ReplyDeleteJudy
Hey Judy - I love my digital camera..and it's "only" 5 mega pix. I've had it for a few years. I am astounded when I see the low price and high mp's of new cameras...I'm almost tempted to get a cemetery camera just to keep in my cemetery bag!
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you think any of your daughter-in-law's WATTS family wandered into IL and I'll take a closer look at the other stones.