MORE GRAVES DISCOVERED! Cleaning Vandalized Slave Cemetery | Mahone Ingram Cemetery

hey everybody it's Robert coming to you from the woods of toalet County Georgia and right now I am in an African-American burial ground that began as a burial ground for uh people who were enslaved on the Mahone Plantation and their descendants continued burying out here this is known as the Mahone Ingram Cemetery and recently it has been heavily vandalized uh by tree poachers people coming into the cemetery to steal the historic trees that are in this place so they've cut down these historic trees and just dropped them on top of graves damaging Graves hiding Graves also been dragging logs out of the cemetery knocking over headstones and doing all manner of damage to this sacred place so I've made it my personal mission to try to rectify some of this damage out here we're going to be cleaning up some of the mess that they left behind that you can see uh behind me and all around the cemetery and also fixing any damaged Field Stone markers there are hundreds of graves in this place but there's only a handful that are marked with headstones with names on them most of the graves are either unmarked or marked only with field Stones so let's uh get in here and try to clean up some of this place this is going to be day three for me out here trying to repair some of this damage so last time I was out here I started cleaning up what they had left from cutting this tree down on the other side of this very large stump here today I'm going to be working on this side I think uh some of this is damage that they did in the past uh month other is damage that was done by the same people 6 months ago when they were vandalizing this place there are Graves all throughout here and there's more behind me under this stuff so this is where I'm going to come in and kind of start and I'm going to be dragging all of the debris to the edge of the cemetery border so it'll be out of the [Music] way [Music] [Music] all right so haven't got a bunch moved yet but I did find some pretty interesting discoveries first thing is my chainsaw here the battery died on it it had more than it does now I pulled the trigger on it like twice and the battery is's just done so I don't know if it didn't take a good charge or what I'm going to have to leave here and charge that and come back so I know that the cemetery is absolutely filled up with Graves but I didn't realize how many were back here in this area under where this tree was dropped if you look there there's a headstone and Grave same thing there headstone and indention then over here where I've been working headstone and Grave grave right there where I removed some from already there's still one underneath right there I got to cut that one off and I'm sure that there's more on the I know there's more on the other side of this pine tree here but also walking out I didn't realize how many were going out that way uh so this field Stone headstone was knocked over when they dropped this stuff so you can see the old dirt line on it right there so that's one that we're going to have to fix we come back and reberry that one or stand it back up rather there's one right there it's solidly in the ground and then this is an indention indention indention grave grave indention right there right there that's one I already showed you but so I've come all the way out here to the cemetery border to put the debris but when I was walking out through here I've never seen this out here before this is a newer grave it's not it's not as old as the some of the enslaved people burials that are out here but this is probably very early 1900s or late 1800s from the style of fence that was around it not entirely sure the date on a fence like this I think it's up to like the 1920 uh but I've never noticed this little fenced in plot before it's not a marked grave this is just a Fieldstone headstone in there with nothing on it but this was a little fenced off area here that I like I said I've never seen as many times I've been in the cemetery I haven't seen it before probably because it's usually covered in vines with leaves on it so that's a new discovery here and as I told you on a previous video I did out here one of my missions coming out here is to flag and to survey every grave out here every grave that I can find out here I thought I heard a car coming super alert out here uh and uh mark them out so we've got a count of how many graves are out here we've got every marked grave listed and uh just do a General survey of it and fully video it and photograph it where we're capturing every grave and exactly how it is uh since you know it's been damaged I think it's just highly important here uh but anyway lots of graves throughout here so I'm going to have to leave and come back because I don't know why but my chainsaw battery died just like that today I used it just a few times over there and the battery was dead now that's a new battery so I don't know I'm just going to assume it didn't charge up all the way but I've got to uh pack out charge that and come back all right so it's been like 2 hours and I'm back with 100% fully charged chainsaw so let's uh let's get some of this cleaned up let's get some of these Graves [Music] uncovered [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] me [Music] all right well we're getting there obviously this whole section is uh pretty freed up now of the big stuff still got a just a scattering of small stuff on the ground um uncovered grave not sure if I showed it to you earli or not but there's a grave right there and then of course there's other back there where we can see the chainsaw and the daffodils a growing right there more Graves there that went uncovered right here there's a grave right there but also I just saw one here if you look right in front of my tripod you can see The Telltale indention from a grave there and there which is what all this was on top of no stones on those well I take that back is that a stone nope that's not that is a root from the tree uh but right there there's a grave and I'm sure there's more I actually thought I saw another one right in here somewhere but I think I kind of stepped in it looked down was like oh this is a grave it is hot it's uh humid here in Georgia today and this wood ain't light be surprised about how much some of even these small pieces weigh but I going to take a water break here for a minute but you know I'm proud of it I'm I am proud of it it's looking better it's just a shame this shouldn't I shouldn't have to be doing this you know in the fact that this Cemetery did not need cleaning up before the vandals came in it's not like this was you know a terribly overgrown impenetrable place that all the graves were covered up you know maybe there were leaves on the graves that was about it so you know having to do this big operation when it wasn't needed because of vandalism that's that's what's so shameful about it all right [Music] water [Music] [Music] see [Music] man [Music] oh [Music] so so I think that's just going to about do it for me today out here another I'd say really successful day of getting some of this tree cleared up and some of the other destruction here cleaned up uh it's getting kind of late in the day and I am beat we've actually moved a lot of wood today uh I'll show you the pile in just a second because it's it's a lot more than I thought it was but uh it's just a shame it's just a shame I took a minute to just sit here and rest and um just looking at this place and it it just it looks like a disaster Zone and I know I just I keep harping on how you know how shameful this is but it really is so I've been sitting here just kind of looking at all of the graves that are out there you can see all the field stones and the indentions and then I can't help but wonder what's under all of this I'm sure that there are some Graves under here this was the center of the tree because it was Hollow to a certain point and of course they had removed the uh the sides of the tree that were still alive and it staged those to come back for them later um and of course this mess is right here which is that ain't going to be easy to clean up and then I'll give you an update on Jenny Horton's grave so you need to go back and watch the first video that I did out here where I sprayed this down with D2 and it's you know it's already looking a little bit better and I can't wait to see as it continues to improve and this Stone will look brand new again just like Samantha streets but then if we walk back this way over to the other side of the tree this is what I was talking about that just kind of looks like a destruction Zone over here this is all the stuff that they had just cut and dropped you know 6 months ago when this vandalism happened and just left it such a mess out here now some of this more over there is natural Deadfall but all throughout here is just where they stole and and cut apart these Cedars out here and that's a shame all in itself this is recent cut right here when they came back uh they I don't know where this cedar tree actually came from don't see where it was cut but they were doing something with it in fact they were measuring it out because they left the measuring tape here it's too bad it doesn't have some initials carved in it I was hoping that uh I was hoping we'd find a wallet or something dropped on the ground wouldn't that be nice but you know if you recognize this measuring tape and it's yours and you want it back um just contact me you know we'll go meet at the topa County Sheriff's Office and you can just contact me send me a copy of your driver's license current address and then like I said we'll we'll go meet at the top County Sheriff's office if you want it back but anyway there's more Graves over here this does have a naturally fallen tree tree over here that you know I mean we're out here anyway might as well try to clean it up and look at all of the old bulb flowers blooming the daffodils they're just absolutely beautiful and then their graves back here ow Brier got me uh this Blue's walking through one right there you could probably just see the indention as he stepped through it and like I said this is a uh this is a naturally fallen tree here but I will show you something that's interesting to note that's relates to the uh the tree theft that happened out here let's see who is this this is the grave of pinky Wilson who was born June 5th 1885 and died on the 4th of July 1957 pinky Wilson there another grave right here anyway but as far as the tree theft goes you can see they actually cut into this tree I guess to see if the wood was good or not and I guess they decided it wasn't or I don't know I don't know what what happened there that was the uh the original vandalism though and then their graves you know all throughout here more so back this way and a lot of what you're seeing on the ground here is just this is all Deadfall but if you look you know over there you'll see the we just looks like just stuff was just drug out I mean it still looks like stuff was just drug out because of course that's what they were doing um all of that over there some mess there's a grave there's a grave beside that grave with a bulb flowers growing all around it there's a grave that has an old beer can in the middle of it there's a grave right here see Field Stone marker there their graves over here and these are actually really interesting because these were made using pieces of a fault script um so that's the kind of the Box Graves that we see uh these are pieces from a fa script you can actually see this is a corner piece so it would have had a piece go there and go that way little child's grave right there these false scrypt Graves or these pieces of the fal script Graves um they you know were just kind of using whatever they had maybe the there was a stone Mason that was selling seconds and broken pieces and they uh they got that to Mark the grave with in fact what I said up there was a uh piece of a FAL script it was not it's actually a footstone that being used as a headstone it has the initials tww on it there's another footstone initials jws there's a grave right there footstone with the this is another W last name I think it's NW and that makeshift headstone actually that's a piece of a side of a fault script you can see the uh little tab there and how it's cut where it would have slid into something like the side that I just showed you broken piece there this is uh what's the first name Manson Manson hamler was born in toic County Georgia August 2nd 1846 so seeing as how this is a African-American Cemetery that began as a burial ground for the enslaved this person was probably Born Into Slavery here in toic County Georgia um maybe on the Mahone Plantation died in Merryweather County Georgia March 5th 1913 age 66 years 3 months 3 days that name is Manson it's m a n s o n h a m l e r Manson hamler be interesting to see if you can find anything out about uh him him I think there is other interesting Graves over here there's a tall Field Stone right there it's even a veteran grave over there this footstone says jcr and this is a copelan Josie copelan I don't have my light only so can't read it but you know we're going to do a full survey of this and uh this is another hamler Buford hamler daughter of Will and Lula hamler there's M Leola keshaw c r e s h a w and Graves all throughout here now this side of the cemetery has not been touched has not been vandalized you know yet of course we're aiming to prevent that but there is a there's a down de seeder over there and that's the sort of stuff you know they were going of course they were cutting live seeders too but they were pulling out the dead ones too like that one as well it's big indention right there too this is another Deadfall Cedar but you know that's that's stuff they're getting still so you know we need to do something about that probably um you know and they're not just it's not like they're just taking some Deadfall trees out of here uh even when they get get the ones that are dead because they're still dragging them through knocking over head Stones all of that and just look at all the little bulb flowers coming up it's a sea of green throughout there and many more Graves all the way out to the road but this is uh where we've got today we've cleaned it up quite a bit still a lot more to do I want to get the rest of that up there's still more Graves that are under pieces of this tree I want to clean this path of Destruction up we still got headstones to reset but I'll show you the pile that we got out today from here can see the path that I've walked back and forth all day in fact there's a grave right here in the middle of it headstone right there this is what we got out of here today the destruction we cleaned up that doesn't feel like I carried that much but I guess I did both piles and I you know triple checked that there weren't any Graves here so you know kept the kept the pile of trees off of any Graves this is like an Old Logging Road or logging path back here around the cemetery you can see the two ruts but it's obviously been a while since um you know someone drove it it's got that nice size Cedar growing in it and the boundaries of the cemetery are marked with red crosses and I've been out here before and never found any Graves outside of the boundary so that's good they've got it well marked off and then as we walk back up here we again walk through a lot of graves just marked field Stones back to where we started cleaning up over here with Miss Jenny's grave in this part of the tree so I next time we'll come we'll finish that right there we should be able to knock that out really quickly then start working on the other side there where they left that trail of Destruction and then lastly like I said will come in here will fully document this I will I'm going to count every single grave out here flag any of the graves that aren't marked uh there's still field stones that need to be fixed uh out here just a a lot but I'm I'm making this my my personal you know project to to make to make this right because it ain't right all right so this is day three I believe out here in the Mahoning room Cemetery trying to clean up some of the vandalism and destruction that happened out here and first I have got to say what a beautiful beautiful day it is out here in Georgia today it's warm the sun is shining and it is absolutely beautiful and peaceful out here in these hollowed grounds so today I'm going to be focusing on cleaning up the rest of this area right here there are many graves under these uh branches that were cut down by the tree poachers so I intend on cleaning that up getting it drug off and exposing these [Music] Graves [Music] [Music] this is time for me to have a water break but one thing that I wanted to do real quick is highlight how many graves were right here under where this tree fell or the top of this tree fell at least so I went ahead and put flags on them now I need a magic marker and I don't have one with me today so I'm going to have to come back and redo this but I want to write a number on each one of these flags starting with number one so that'd be grave one and Grave two three four and so on that way I can get an accurate number of how many identifiable Graves there are in this old Cemetery but I I went ahead and flagged these graves right here just to show you how many graves there are out here and to make it easier for y'all to see so and another thing too is how they are in rows so this is the first grave that I can see in this Row the first identifiable grave so there's one there there's probably one in between this space you can see that this is a large space but I don't see any field Stones throughout this area but there doesn't mean that there isn't a grave there I also don't see an indention though but that being said these Graves haven't really formed an indention so I don't know if these are some of the oldest out here that the indention has formed and then filled back up with dirt or what exactly is going on here but they have the smallest rocks out of all of the graves and don't really appear to have any foot Stones just the headstones so anyway so we've got the one there you've got a grave here and there's it Field Stone and then more so under where this tree was we had one here there and there and then this is hard to see but this is just an indention right here this is a very visible indention that's U obviously a grave I did not find a field stone for that though and if we go back here of course there's one and two identifiable Graves there and many more behind there of course but just in this small area we have what is that one two three four five 6 78 and I stopped there at number nine that is this is a small area it's just a small part of the cemetery with at least nine graves right here and we know that there's more we know there's more than just nine graves right here but that just is a really good visual example I think for the burials out here that were under the top of this tree now I went ahead and cut back some of the Dead stuff that was through here like this tree here this big tree had fallen on it and broken it so I went ahead and cut that stump that was dead right there and there's Graves all under there I'm going to remove some of this dead fall too because there are again more Graves out there then when I've got a magic marker and come back and actually start numbering these and we will get as accurate account as we can of how many burials there are in this Cemetery and let me tell you there are a lot so now it's time for me to uh have a water break it's getting warm out here real [Music] quick [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay so this is looking a whole lot better if I do say so myself looks more like how the cemetery used to be it was very open underneath of course it doesn't because of this big old tree laying here I can't do anything about this tree as I explained before it would take you know probably some pretty heavy equipment to remove it or a really big saw but even even being able to cut it up that's still super heavy wood I'm concerned about there being Graves underneath this tree I looked under it don't see any direct indications um but you know there probably are I just can't do anything with it I do need to come here and and try to get some of this mess sorted see what's under this of course a lot of this is going to be kind of hard to do where that tree is kind of you know what's the word powdered dissolved in there but we don't have much more light left today so uh I think I'm going to go ahead and move over to this side which is where the previous trail of Destruction these people left is but I mean kind of compare it you know we've been working over there and we've got that you know pretty well cleaned up compared to over here where there's still a big mess so I think I'll start at the end down here and uh we'll start a new you know wood pile the ground is just littered with stuff thankfully a lot of it you know and pick it up very easily and maybe we'll come to the other side of this cool big old tree right here just have to come out here and make sure there aren't any Graves out there and I don't I think there are there's another one of those old fences by the way right there so we'll get that cleared off now this that you're see in here this is just Deadfall and there's still there's more Deadfall over where I was working on the other side of this uh I think boxwood there's the pile as of right now of everything that we've cleared well one of the piles of stuff we've cleared from that side other piles over there but there's a lot of Deadfall out through there but I'm not really focused on that I'm focused on the human destruction and there's a grave under this boxwood this is an example of a something that was intentionally planted here uh has grown you know a little bit wild but it was intentionally planted here at this grave and something else that belongs to the cemetery you know and so you know some of the plants Cemetery as I've said before cemetery is not just about the graves also about the plants that were intentionally planted so let's uh let's go ahead and we'll set up over here and I'll start clearing some of this so I can have a path to actually get through here to get that scrap wood out that way that way out of the cemetery all right let me move everything over to this side I just set my tripod right here between two graves there's one there Fieldstone Mark in a grave there I saw that one but I didn't see this one at first but that rock that Rock's marking a grave really small one and you can tell the difference between a rock that's marking a grave versus just a a rock that's laying around cuz for one this one's buried in the ground it's also not laying naturally it's laying you know pointed up so other than the fact we already know this is a cemetery that's a way you can identify what's marking a grave and not and I don't know if you can see it on camera there's a big indention right there I hadn't really noticed before [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah so I went ahead and uncovered this grave that I've been walking back and forth across while clearing this area out and as I was uncovering it I said to myself I wish it had a name so I was uncovering that area and it does it does this is Baker it looks like SE and there's something else right here oh Baker cook Baker cook died January 7th 1933 so Baker cook here died January 7th 1933 you see he had a uh had kind of a headstone probably would have had an urn on it no telling where the urn got off to but Baker cook all right well hope he didn't mind Becker cook had to walk over his grave a few times while clearing this area out still lot to do here but we're getting there so I don't even know why why why did they cut this down you know right there and they just made a mess out here it's almost like you know in addition to the simple theft of the trees the tree th uh they it's like they were just trying to destroy the place too I mean no no respect given at [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all [Music] [Music] all right well I wanted to get more done today but I think it's going to be the end of day three I think I here for me kind pack everything out we've uh definitely almost tripped definitely made a dent in the damage here but still we've got a lot to go so we'll have to come out here another day and uh keep at it until we get this place back to uh back to restore some level of respect back here that uh was taken away from it by this vandalism and you know it'll never be the same again not in uh not in our lifetimes because there's just no way to restore the trees that have been cut here and U we can clean up the and try to fix the damage but we can't replace what's been stolen from this Cemetery and the literal years of history that we're growing out here they can't be replaced so we'll be back another day with charged batteries and a Sharpie and hopefully a broom too so we can uncover some more Graves and start getting an accurate count of the amount that are out here because it's a lot it is quite a few so I hope you've enjoyed this video out here with me trying to work on restoring some of the Dignity of this Cemetery it's not it's a sad subject and it's sad that we have to do this in the first place but I'm glad that uh that we're able to and hopefully this just helps bring awareness to the importance of looking out for our historic sites such as this one and keeping an eye on them so I hope you have enjoyed this video don't forget to like share and subscribe and I will see you next time on uh another adventure into history probably back out here in this old Cemetery

Channel: Sidestep: Adventures Into History

Views: 26,648

Keywords: black cemetery, cemetery, black history, black cemeteries, slave cemetery, haunted cemetery, abandoned cemetery, potomac black cemetery, historic black cemetery, black cemetery maryland, black cemetery vandalism, black cemetery paved over, old cemetery, pa slave cemetery, historic cemetery, abandned cemetery, soapstone cemetery, black, fort hunter slave cemetery, slave cemetery discovered, blackstock cemetery, abandoned cemetery house, hidden history: slave cemetery

Id: wUs6-AN3hfU

Length: 47min 49sec (2869 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024