Finding Forgotten Graves

everybody you're watching Robert sidestep and today we are rained out let's see what we can find [Music] [Music] the stuff like this is always fascinated me down there fruits see in an old farm old Ford truck would still up just neat stuff like that an old wood out building right there a lot out building I think that's cool this is somebody's little farm now it's all just kind of gone by the wayside and an abandoned [Music] not farmhouse up there still with the screened-in front porch [Music] and just down the road aways we find another old structure another person's old farm I can't tell if that's a house or a barn as you can see it's completely covered in this vine look at these pretty flowers I believe it's a house so it looks like from here not gonna get any closer just interesting to see all of this people's farms and Helms houses homes and now they're just all forgotten and growing over I mean you say the same stuff over and over again when you see these places but the feeling never goes away all right so today we're visiting the cemetery they served a community that's now long gone known as Botsford I know very little of this community but Brian over here has done a little bit more research than I have he actually brought me out here today so you know find out what he knows about it I really don't know that much about Botsford other than that it's not far from Plains and if there was ever a town center of Botsford as far as I'm aware it's long gone I haven't been able to find much about it online other than a name with almost no details but the interesting thing is it's a community that's long gone physically there are pieces of the community left and and houses that are returning to the woods returning to the the earth in the woods decrepit old houses and it was one that we saw was an old farmhouse a very small one that somebody has restored and is living in which is a wonderful thing but all that really remains is two cemeteries and Botsford is a ghost community there are a few more modern houses around but the community of botsford as it were as it was is no more interesting how the name is on well we would consider the backside of the tombstone well the front that is interesting and I've seen that before it seems to be more common on older graves like this is 1894 and when I say older I'm speaking in relative terms of usually graves predating the American Civil War has a good time from the 1860s have the names on the back side like this versus the front side of the tombstone I don't know why that is but it's interesting to see anyway here we have Peter false died June 7th 1894 aged 85 years this grave is unmarked it's interesting out here all these souls of a community a community that's now long gone and this this stone should obviously be sitting up here it's fallen at some point and someone has set it back up down there this is Sally wife of JW Jackson born January 30th 1850 it looks like 53 died gonna clean that off a little bit to see what that says says died April 15th 18 looks like 88 yeah so she died relatively young yeah it is very interesting very pretty tombstone more decorative yeah it is and here's another grave again with the name on the back of the grave or what we would consider now the back of the grave this is David H Greene born December 23rd 1862 died August 13th 1890 a child's grave over here it's an infant son of D G and Victoria Brannan interesting another cemetery we recently visited was the Brandon family cemetery headstones kind of loose on touch it anymore right there but it was B R a n n o n not Ian whoa almost stepped on this one there's an unmarked grave right there you can see the bricks just right there and they've obviously sunk into the earth right here well I'd almost didn't even see that one before too long this one will be completely covered up it is not a big there's a little bit of an indention but no major telltale sign that there's a grave here other than the bricks and once they're covered up and overgrown you won't know there's a there's a grave here looks like someone is kind of I'm just gonna gonna upset some of these bricks a little bit so take them out of there a sinking end that they're doing kind of upset that a little bit yep maybe and again even though these are clearly marked there's no name on them we're over five unmarked graves yeah there's another brick probably another grave here oh yeah yep this area is full of history and graveyards and I'm sure that every place is but because there's so little development out here yeah this is JW Bronson BR oh no Broxton sorry Broxton born March eighteenth 1862 died I can't read that not because I can't see it maybe it's angle looks like not sure what that says exactly it's a style of writing this got me on that one but eight 1892 let Brian study on that one we'll check this one out that's in the trees here there's another Broxton me sit down so I can move this tree got Maddy Broxton October 8 1862 November 8th 1911 says blessed blessed are thee O blessed are the dead who die in the Lord blessed are the dead who die in the Lord it took me a minute reading that I've got another one Brian still trying to make out what's on that one got another one in the in the woods here we can get to it look at that big old cedar tree the remains of a cedar tree rather it's interesting I hope you can see this all right it's kind of dark in here but uh let's check my screen and a water drop on it let me clean that off real quick clean that off with the official sidestep adventure t-shirt and lens cleaner anyway this is RS Callaway October 13th 1838 December 5th 1913 it's interesting in newer actually newer grave than and those is more covered up some newer graves over here have James J Everett November 3rd 1853 April 19th 1923 and his Mattie Randall Everett September 11th 1858 died April 29th 1950 this is probably one of the the newest grave out here this marked judging from the style and all the other ones haven't read them all yet but uh maybe not loose this one right here this looks like a newer stone this is Margaret Lassiter unfortunately this one's fallen in a great deal I can tell you her and try to yeah that's what I was thinking about see December 5th 1854 to January 29th 1934 I would wager that this is a maybe not it could have been put here in the 30s but it looks to me like it's a newer newer stone this marble yeah a new stock newer style marble or granite polished granite but I need a way to to prop it up a little bit so it's not sinking into the ground so much I would use that piece of brick right there but I don't want to disturb it it might be marking another grave it's interesting to see the line of bricks outlining these graves this is our mother Elizabeth J wife of Amos Lassiter born December 19th 1829 died December 15th 1902 I wonder exactly when this community died you don't have any idea deal judging from the here's another one with the name on what we would consider the back judging by the graves out here I'd say late 1800s but there were some continued family burials out here this is our Father Amos Lassiter born November 4th 1824 died October 28 1897 like some of the houses that we passed that are growing over in the woods they're still standing in their old wood so I would I would go so far as to say it's very possible that people were living as a community around here maybe as late as the sixties possibly earlier than that but I would venture to say that when they died probably people did not keep up their houses so we're probably looking at possibly looking at a rate of decay since the the since the parents passed away so it's very possible that it was you know well into the 20th century but the definitely the heartbeat of this community stopped beating in the late 1800s yeah I agree probably people continued to live in the houses that formed the community up until there but I would say that they weren't the community and here I know here's Mary Lassiter lots of Lasseter's out here April 23rd 1850 died October 23rd 1927 James Lassiter July 12th 1857 - January 25th 1929 so that's a couple generations of family right there of Lassiter this is another granite marker that looks newer is Charley Lassiter died 18 1933 so this is a handmade stone poured concrete I can make out died July 1934 this one is also not going to be here too long you can see it's decaying and cracking and it's gonna get covered up and forgotten about see if you can make out the name on that one looks like it's like Brassel Brussels Brussels it looks like it's crude be r.a.s youu ll bus you'll since 1934 is depression-era we got a Robert razzle as well and being that this is in the 30s during the Depression this is probably all they could afford to do back then I see that a lot with Depression era graves that are just handmade or handwritten so these are two graves that also have newer looking granite headstones and so I don't know that these are actually newer just the that type of stone may have fared much better there's Lawrence Riley wit March 1858 to December 30th 1936 and over here Cody we move that vegetation for me got Lucy stuff over here in Lucy Hale wit October 5th 1884 to November 28th 1946 this is interesting very interesting right here here's Earl dubby son of LR and Susie Witte born February 17th 1892 died at camp wheeler November 28 1917 Wow camp wheeler was the United States Army base near Macon Georgia the camp was a staging location for many US army units during World War one and World War two it was named for Joseph wheeler for general and the Confederate States of America's Army that's interesting this Macon's not too terribly far away there's another grave right here just a stone and another one in really bad shape right here this to me almost looks like it goes to something else this prompt may be a foot stone here that's probably what that was and here's the headstone right here Cody's pointing out another one this sunken-in right there see if we can make anything off of this one lots of fire ants alright so there's nothing on this stone right here just gonna put it back like it was it almost almost feels like there's writing right there I think there is actually yeah there is writing on it on this side of it but it's it's well-worn I don't think that uh I'll be able to make that out at all unfortunately all right so if you look through the woods we've got some more graves all throughout these woods it's interesting it looks like somebody's keeping up this area of the cemetery relatively well I mean someone cuts the grass and keeps the trees from taking over but then they just stop and this line right here but there's still more graves continued out there out here so walk out watch out for snakes there's actually quite a few of them out here I just saw those there's a there's a lot oh wow there's even more out there it's like I guess we'll kind of make our way through and start it start back here this big tree that's fallen the old cedar all right so I don't see any more out there so we'll start here and then work our way back this is a Confederate grave first Corps mark mark H Fletcher first corporal company H 64th Georgia infantry Confederate States of America September 13th 1818 died August 30th 1883 I gotta say this stone is fared really really well about the years it all the all the black still in there outlining the names usually it's all gone it's kind of like a marker stone to it it's either a foot stone or maybe this was in his original stone before the yeah they put up Confederate marker this is Mark Fletcher these are beautiful beautiful headstones right here I just got to point that out that one we'll get to that one in a moment but you can see already it's been broken and repaired at some time here's another something right there let's see see what this is I don't see any writing on it oh yeah I do see writing on it it's up here so the top part is broken off it may be up there so this is a third one right here that would have been the same size as that one we can see aged 61 years 11 months and so many days I wonder if we can find the rest of that one wonder if it's was hoping maybe it was up here just under the leaves but I don't see the rest of it yeah Cody look out there just kind of walk around and kick to kick believes and see if you can find the other part of the stone yeah I saw that I don't think that's the one - that one though all right so we have mark H Fletcher born September 12th 1818 died August 30th 1889 aged 64 years 11 months 8 days that's interesting that's uh that's the same aged 64 years 11 months how many days is on that one eight days yeah this is nearly the identical information to that tombstone oh it sure is but the death date is a little off yeah yeah this is saying okay I see what's going on here so mark H Fletcher born September 12 1818 died August 30th 1888 same mark Fletcher here obviously I just read this information and didn't recognize it there's there's one thing that's different the born date September 12th on that one September 13th on this one the death dates exactly the same but so that is his foot stone probably for his original grave right there and then at some point they put up his Confederate monument at the foot stone so originally he probably just had a civilian yeah and it honestly looks like looks like this one made he another one for him maybe just replaced at some time because this says 18 days but it's the same same information age 64 years 11 months oh that is 18 days not 8 days so yeah I'm pretty sure that this was an earlier tombstone for him just replaced at some point that's so he's got three three headstones out here yeah the broken one this repaired all right sorry about that guys my camera died in the middle of recording hopefully I got all the other information of this neat grave right here again with the three headstones but uh how to switch batteries and over here we have I'm assuming Mark Fletcher's wife Martha Fletcher Martha J Fletcher born April 24th 1823 died June 15th eighteen seventy aged 46 years eight months and 21 days she died relatively young and so we'll continue over here here's another fallen headstone clear the leaves off of it absolutely maybe it's just a thing where you can see the you can see those graves from the road and these are further back so they just don't care maybe not maybe that's oh I can't come up with a good reason for that his William Miller born July 24th 1811 it looks like 1811 died October 3rd 30th 1859 so this is one of the older graves out here I don't read the writing at the bottom of a grave a lot because I have a hard time making it out see ya his J a Miller born I push this tree back a little bit born June 11th 1852 died June 9th 1885 all right saying try to make it over to the to these graves over here they're also in the trees and the bush here this is Joseph II son of WH and Victoria Lassiter I guess this is another broken one born April 16th 1885 let's see if there's no that's just a broken one right there so we'll lay that back like it was I won't be able to read a death date on that one and I don't see a another piece around here of course it could have very quickly gotten covered over by these leaves and sunk into the ground while we're over here I'm gonna head look at this one this is Alice Irene daughter of GW and CA Dillard born October 24th 1864 died May 15 1898 it says came home at the bottom and back over here into the woods here's Victoria which is mother of Joseph if I recall correctly the name over here it's interesting some kind of writing at the top I'm trying to make that out it looks like we'll be I'm bear with me for a minute guys guys and gals Oh his will be done Victoria wife of wh Lassiter born February 20th 1863 died and that one's really down on the ground there I don't really want to pull that one up I think we'll just leave that one alone for now without being able to see a death date on it we're also kind of running out of time gonna look back here real quick let's see if see if there's any more graves I don't see any more just wear a cedar tree you got cut up several dead cedar trees out here so it looks like these are the final three graves at least that are marked there probably are many more that are not marked I'm sure of that this is Gail make sure I said that right maybe not we read that Karl sorry sorry Karl son of CP and Jesse Siege born September 19th 1892 died June 4th 1898 and these graves again you can see the writing is facing that way the the back of holy would consider the back of the headstone except for this one this one is facing the other way this one might be a challenge to read this one's definitely gonna be a challenge to read this is where I need some crayon and paper to be able to read it maybe we'll be able to make it out on video show it just in case any of y'all can make it out and get that moss off of there you can see that all right died 1895 right and then over here this is Susan Harriet daughter of CW and GA Dillard born February 9th 1860 which I'm seeing that right looks like 1866 died August 15th 1889 and one more almost did not see here we have Sally another daughter of GW and CA Dillard born February 14th 1875 died looks like 1875 it's just a baby definitely you can see what the length is a child's grave so these are all siblings right here and that seems to conclude the graves that we can see out here the marked ones at least before we leave we're gonna look through the woods a little bit make sure they're none we missed and I hope you enjoyed this cemetery visit after this video we're gonna go down and check out another one where that's gonna be a different video so look for that one after this one don't forget to Like share and subscribe and we will see you on the next adventure

Channel: Sidestep Adventures

Views: 164,355

Rating: 4.944293 out of 5

Keywords: grave, graves, forgotten, forgotten cemetery, finding, cemetery, grave yard, grave digging, lost burials.forgotten graves, pioneer graves, finding the fallen, collapsing graves, old graves, abandoned, graveyard, unmarked graves, lost graves, findings, abandoned grave, desecrated grave, old graves sites, abandoned grave yard, travels, old grave markers, shocking findings, haunted grave yard, old grave yard, japanese grave, travel, mass grave, haunted

Id: c-RFCL6B5wU

Length: 35min 25sec (2125 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2019