 |
| Good Spring Cemetery in Mammoth Cave National Park |
From July 11-13, 2018, George and I enjoyed meeting our good friends, Neal and Patti, at Mammoth Cave National Park for a few days together. Since all of us had been in some of the caves previously, we stayed above ground and explored the 'rest' of the park...
One thing all four of us enjoyed doing was visiting several old cemeteries in the former tiny communities dotted around that area.. SO---this post is about CEMETERIES... Some of you may not be interested at all in this ---but maybe, some will!!!!!
I have enjoyed Genealogy for years ---and really enjoy visiting cemeteries, not only to find information on my loved ones, but also looking at many other lives. People have stories to tell --and it is apparent, while visiting these little cemeteries, that families still visit these graves. I can only imagine families standing around telling stories of deceased loved ones --of all ages.
People had hard lives in the 1800's --and that is always apparent when checking out the olcer gravestones in cemeteries. George found one couple who had buried 6 infants, over the course of several years. Can you imagine? Some of the older stones were hard to read --but in a few cases, someone had done some work to help clean up the information written on those stones.
We noticed many deaths during the epidemic years.. I remember the horrible FLU of 1918 and the Typhoid Fever Epidemic in the early 1900's. That is what killed my Grandmother (Mom's mother), when Mom was ONLY 4 years old.
George said that I didn't need to do this since we were in public cemeteries, but
I blacked out the LAST names on the gravestones in respect for those families... BUT--I will say that we did keep seeing many of the same last names over and over throughout all of the cemeteries. Many of those last names were used to identify other things around the area, such as all of the old ferry crossings across the Green River.
Hope you enjoy seeing and reading about some of the folks who inhabited this area many years ago. Above, you will see one of my favorite cemeteries, the Good Spring Cemetery. We drove way back in the woods on a gravel road to find this cemetery and little church. It was such a peaceful place.
 |
| Willie Marie was the 'sunshine of their home'. How sweet! |
 |
| I enjoyed seeing the sketching of the little church on this marker. Note that this little girl died during the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918. |
 |
| There were lots of beautiful flowers dotted throughout all of the cemeteries we visited. |
 |
| Here was a mother and son. The son died first. I love the quote on this gravestone. |
 |
| Meet Albert and Frances... He was 14 years older than she was. What amused me was seeing their nicknames: Shorty and Recy!!!! |
 |
| Meet Isabell. She was only 40 when she died. Wonder what the feather meant???? YES--she went to a "bright home where grief cannot come". |
 |
| Some of the older stones were hard to read.. But, here is one I can read. Please meet Nancy. She was only 14 when she married, and only 25 when she died....SAD! |
 |
| Here is an interesting memorial... Kenneth and Helen died on the same day. I 'assume' automobile accident..????? |
 |
| Wish you could have been here to see this one. Someone obviously liked FROGS.. There were frogs all over the place near this gravestone. Nosy me would love to know the story behind the frogs!!! |
 |
| This young man (only 39 when he died) was and IS loved--as you can tell from all of the flowers and items around the gravestone. |
 |
| A close-up of the gravestone in the picture above; Thomas Lee was born a year before my middle son. And --he died WAY too young at age 39. |
 |
| This is the back-side of Thomas's gravestone. What caught my attention was the sketching of the truck. I assume that was Thomas' truck .. Wonder how he died???? |
 |
| Some of the gravestones and monuments were in fenced areas. Does that make them more special? I think NOT. |
 |
| Reading the inscriptions around certain gravestones told their stories also. Sudden deaths are the hardest for loved ones still here... |
Well---- I hope you took time to read this post --even though many of us don't like to think about DEATH....It is just the next step in our lives and none of us know when it will happen to us. Life is precious.. Let's LIVE it to our fullest each and every day!
Hugs,
29 comments:
Cemeteries can be fascinating places. I know people who will take rubbings off of the headstones. Reading the stones and seeing how long people spent on this earth, you can't help wondering what their life was like and what caused their death.
Hello, Betsy! Sounds like you had a great visit to the park with your friends.
Hubby and I loved our Mammoth Cave Park visit. I enjoy your post and photos from the cemetery! Have a happy day and new week!
George was right. No need to black out names after all someone doing genealogy would find this post of use if they had ancestors buried there. Whenever we visit daughter in NH we walk and stop in cemetery. The old graves have had facelifts and cleanings and are readable now. Fascinating history in cemeteries.
You did a great job describing our visit to the cemeteries with Patti and Neal. It truly was an memorable trip.
I have to tell you Betsy - I enjoyed this. I like to look when I am at a cemetery at the different things people have written or the dates or who went first. Are they kept up or not. It was nice to be with your friends too. sandie
I share your fascination with cemeteries. We love to find them in the Smokies. So many lives, so many stories. No one gets out of here alive...except for those still living when Christ returns for His own.
We had a great time with you guys. We been to all those cemeteries several times but would probably go back if we were in the area again. You did a great job of summarizing our trip.
You found out lots of information about the residents in this cemetery . I find them fascinating places and also beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your week.
It was years ago that we visited Mammoth Cave but we loved going through the cave. Also, I have visited many cemeteries mostly dealing with my genealogy and have always found the information fascinating. In fact, we just came back from a four day trip to Longmeadow, Massachusetts. My husbands one set of 9th great-grandparents came in there in 1638. We visited the Historical Society there and the cemeteries looking for some of his ancestors. This was a Puritan settlement and I was amazed as some of the really old headstones would say Experience Relict of Josiah --- or Rebekah consort of Hezikiah so and so who passed away in the late 1600's. We are history buffs anyway so we enjoyed all the history of the area.
I love walking through cemeteries, so I took lots of time to read this. It is just like I was walking myself. They are all so beautiful and unusual. And look at the treasures you found! Maybe Isabell's feather is because she "flew away"? Remember the hymn "I'll Fly Away"? I wonder what the shaking hands mean? I am thinking that the dead person was a collector and lover of frogs. So this would be a nice tribute to them! What a sad and lovely trip I have had!
Betsy, Cemetery's are always interesting...if not always upbeat. They do tell stories, some very sad ones too. We visit a cemetery or two a couple of times a years just to look around. As for me, ashes in the lake! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
If you take the time like you did, you can hear the stories the tombstones tell. With the popularity of cremation, a lot of the future stories will be lost.
I had a great time reading the headstones in your pictures. I am always fascinated by cemeteries and the history behind the people who are buried there. Most of my family, from my grandparents on back, are buried at the Stateline cemetery between Nebraska and Kansas. The little church is built right in the middle of the state line! Most of the people buried in that cemetery are related to me One way or another. When we were in Omaha earlier this month, we took Piper to visit the graves of a lot of our family members at Forest lawn Cemetery in Omaha. My parents, Dennis‘s dad and sister, many of our grandparents and other relatives and friends are buried there. Piper was the perfect age. She was so interested in learning about her “ancestors” as she called them.
Much love and many blessings my friend, Betsy
So much history lies in every cemetery. Each one was loved and missed,I'm sure.
Oh I love this. going to old cemeteries is so fascinating to me and filled with so much history. Thank you for sharing. Blessings and Love.
I like the older stones. My grandfather was orphaned at the age of twelve because of the 1918 flu epidemic.
What lovely cemeteries.
It's sad to go thru the old cemeteries and see the high number of child deaths.
This is an interesting post, Betsy. So many stories can be found among those headstones.
Cemeteries can be interesting places.
Thank you for taking time to present this blog post.
May the week ahead be a good one for you Betsy.
All the best Jan
I find this very interesting. Sam and I often go and look at the tombstones around here. I'm glad you posted.....
Great pictures! Have never been to Mammoth cave, would like to go. I love reading the stones too,lots to learn! Glad you enjoyed my post about the old plantation, you can't sleep at Magnolia but you can sleep at the plantation just down the road. We are getting lots of rain here, how bout there? Hope you are having a good week!
I read your blog. You write a very good blog with beautiful photographs. Thank you so much for sharing nice experiences with us. Keep doing the great work so that people like me can learn some nice and new things.
http://agrataxi.net/
Very moving post from the visit to cemetery and touching to reach each words on the gravestones and I too feel sorry of your mom to lose her mother at that young age. Each gravestones stands out for their uniqueness, love and desire people hold for their dear ones. Glad you able to visit such pleasant graveyard and stories to be shared silently. I like to visit cemeteries and so far able to visit only a Dutch cemetery who were trading with our country in 1600…
Yes, as soon as you mentioned multiple children from a family who died, I thought "epidemic." In Richmond I saw a triple-gravestone for three children of General Longstreet. They all died from scarlet fever in 1862.
I would not worry about obscuring names unless the grave was very recent. Recently I heard from someone who was excited that I mentioned an ancestor in a post about a cemetery in Stephens City. People who are searching for their roots are happy to find answers on the internet.
Hi there Betsy, oh girlfriend, I will sit and eat a big piece of coconut cake and watch a wedding with you anyday! ha ha ha LOL Thank you for compliment too---pants....yep I DO WEAR PANTS, HA HA HA HA but I actually do wear dresses and skirts very much as well. Maybe more of my photographs I am in dresses but i am not sure. ?? How is your pretty garden doing this week? oh my gosh, ours are drenched. We get nice whirling downpouring drop slinging summer thunderstorms most every day now. Our gardens are going crazy, ha ha ha! It temporarily cools things down for a bit.....but not for too long. How hot is it there?
It really makes you think about how quick life is.
Reading these headstones is so poignant. I like the truck on one; for my husband I had a bicycle carved into his memorial bench and the words "bike adventures". No time to say goodbye, that was true for my hubby. I visited Mammoth Caves as a child, it was fun.
It is fun scouring cemeteries and wondering.
Post a Comment