Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky: Much More than Caves!!!

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!

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