Return To The 160 Year Old Cemetery Found Behind Dumpsters In The City

hey everyone its Robert you're watching sidestep Adventures today we have returned to the Knicks cemetery aka the 160 year old cemetery that we found behind the dumpsters in the shopping center in Columbus now today's gonna be a really special video because I'm out here with Jeffery Nick's a descendent of the people who's buried out here and he's been trying for a very long time to get this cemetery taken care of and the cemetery is gonna look completely different today when you guys see it and you're gonna hear some of the stories about the people buried here today but first I wanted to go ahead and tell you that there's been a GoFundMe page set up for this cemetery I'm gonna leave a link in the top comments down there and the cool thing is about this sort of thing is if 31,000 people watch the last video if every one of them donated $1 to that GoFundMe account then it would reach the goal that mr. Nix is trying to get and already he's raised about I think a hundred and ninety dollars and that GoFundMe and he took that money and has already put it to use out in this cemetery he hired somebody to come out here and do some cleanup so I'm gonna walk around with you real quick and we'll look at how much better it looks and then we're gonna hear some stories about the people buried here so let's go alright so if you guys remember on the last video all of these graves were just totally covered up in trash and there were cans all over the place and you can still see obviously these have been cleaned off now and there's been some some cutting of the plants everything's been cut back and it looks a whole lot better than it did before but just in case you didn't see the other video the whole cemetery looked like this this trash pile that you see in the woods but they've come out here already thanks to that GoFundMe account and done some cutting some clearing and some picking up of trash it looks like right now they focused on this area over here but you can see it looks a whole lot better I'm really really happy to see that this cemetery is being taken care of and of course there's still more work to do back there in that area but since we're out here and we get the rare opportunity to hear the stories of the people buried here I won't delay any longer I'm gonna get with mr. Nix right now and he's about to tell us some stories about the people buried out here I'm Jeffery Nix I was born and raised here in Muskogee county Columbus Georgia I've lived through all my life I became interested in genealogy about 30 years ago after my parents both passed away and I about the mid 90s I discovered this cemetery and over the years I have tried my best hop raised hell with the city I've raised hell with it newspapers I have learned just about everybody I know about the cemetery and about it needs to be kept up and it needs to be maintained because the city can't get involved in this kind of thing other than if people raised enough cane sometimes they might relinquish and if you put enough pressure on your counselors they might relinquish and do something about it but it's very very it's a one-shot deal now I'm not I'm not trying to slap anybody that's already had a hand in helping me clean it up in the past cuz I've done a great job but what this is what this the cemetery really needs from now and it's long term perpetual care and that's why I have set up that GoFundMe page and I have men been going as far I don't have a lot by my life and I don't have a lot of money saved back but I'm willing to put down a huge chunk of what we do have $500 toward that effort I'll do that immediately in fact I've already done it John Patrick bought the land that containing whether he'll establish a cemetery in 1858 he only 50 acres of land it and there were just now the northwest corner of Floyd Road and being a mister Road the first interment that we know of was that of Abraham Odom who's buried over there in the corner where that dilapidated Monument is now or near there and one time it stood upright William here he was of course born in 1842 he died in 1913 of a cerebral hemorrhage as they called it back then there was polite paralysis he was a prisoner guard during the Civil War and he also was a Mason he actually rose the earth his death in 1913 to the rank of emeritus member and was buried when the Sonic honors and of course some Confederate veterans were there at that the ceremony or that should I say the removal Morial its wife Miriam Elizabeth Holladay no relation to doc that I had been able to find and believe me I've looked but that's for four years we was related to Holland our colony somehow never had found any proof of it they got married here Muscogee County was 1860 I think about 1866 I think it was just after the war and they were together for the rest of their lives she was they were both Methodists she was listed as domestic in the census of course because back then keeping a house with nine surviving children with a full-time job she had nine surviving children she had three other children that were two of them that were stillborn at wid set of twins and then in 1888 she they lost a two-year-old son Brewster Horace who I'm sure is buried over there somewhere in an unmarked grave but he paid that labor off him you know a lot of children back then a lot of babies a lot were lost due to do - I think subnet from death syndrome they didn't know about that back then I think there's how they lost her Barto also known as Louie or Bo as his friends and family called him nobody outside the family knew those nicknames he was hanged in 1919 for a double murder not proud of it obviously but he was determined to have a dance syphilis backs during that time syphilis was very nasty disease what you heard about Al Capone dying from it from their complications around well we think it slowly drove him crazy in fact during his trial documents were presented certifying him as crazy but the state the state doctor just for tests came back and said no he's he's faking and all he does paraphrasing so it was a big controversy about that at any rate despite last-ditch attempt to save them for the to the mental institution he was hanged and what's what's so in the documents I read the newspaper reports I read it's amazing the mob mentality they wanted to string him up by lynching in fact one of the papers talked about when they were stretching the rope the for the hanging the legal hanging they were talking about how the rug listened in the sunlight now say what you will but I think it's just more than a little tacky you know a great grandfather John Wilbur is buried over there he was known as Wilbur in his life didn't go by John much in his early days of course he helped out on the farm with the family but then he became a saw mill worker and then he became a farmer on his own account as it were and then he worked in the textile mill era Andersonville which was also known as Meritus mill in Columbus and he lived up on I think it was 38 think 38th Street and he had just a little walk to them into the milk and it was on 35th so he just had a little walk to the mill but he contracted pneumonia in 1932 and unfortunately passed away with it it was W ammonia John Wilbur was also known as lamb to his mother I don't think he was referred to his land by anybody else in the family although it was in his obituary not people don't know that the cemetery when it was made this was still County out here the kid Ian County consolidated in 1971 so up until the latest barrel that we know about in 1942 one of the woods family out there it was still the county out here you're still looking at the boonies and at that time of course it was roses the dirt dirt path Samantha wood who was buried in there she died of heart trouble her husband I think died of some kind of uh I want to say diabetes now when I really happened had the most trouble tracking down any information I'm like I said earlier was Abraham Odum he is just there's so many Odom's you got Abraham you got Aaron and they had back then they went by their initials like a Odom or a modem or I just all kind of different nicknames it is very hard to pick out which is you wishes your answers they're talking about I I had to laugh because the only alternative for me is just break down and cry and I mean I'm ready to break down and just pluck my eyes out because these are my second great grandparents and my great-grandparents on my dad's side and they have literally been pooped on over the years it boggles my mind it boggles my mind and folks I know there's a hundred other graves out there in the in the Muscogee County that need attending and it's it's it's we had a cemetery Society here in town for my 2010 to like 2000 almost 2013 and God listen I'm not gonna mention the man's name but who had it but he got overwhelmed and he just backed away from because it was just so monumental of a task not only Muscogee County we were trying he was trying to look after Lee County at Russell County in Alabama and Harris County and Miss hilly County in Georgia but even just one County with over 100 you got the list over 100 graves in it 100 cemeteries it is next to impossible from one man to take care of absolutely it's it's even impossible for one man and one person to try to take care of this mm-hmm but I need to and I'm not gonna have too many more days ahead of me than I do behind them you know so I wonder when I'm gone what's gonna happen you know what I might just cause a ruckus here I might just put in my will that I'd be buried in this Cemetery you know if there's any space I need to get grant printing training radar in here which is expensive as all get-out to try to scan it and see if there's any open spaces because I'll tell you what I probably be inclined to sell my mind of my wife's parcels at the big cemetery and use that money to beautify this one and then get my butt buried over here in this cemetery I guarantee you one thing it'll true hell call attention to it I mean the help tomorrow might say no you're not doing that but can you imagine the ruckus it would raise right [Applause] [Applause] alright guys I hope you enjoyed seeing the cemetery again and hearing from Jeffrey Nick's not only the stories of the people that are buried here but also his personal story with this cemetery I hope you enjoyed the video check out the GoFundMe account donate if you can don't forget to Like share and subscribe and I'll see you guys on the next video you

Channel: Sidestep Adventures

Views: 29,621

Keywords: abandoned cemetery, cemetery, abandoned, haunted cemetery, abandoned cemetery house, abandned cemetery, abandoned cemetery in wales, abandoned cemetary, abandoned cemetery philadelphia, abandoned places, abandoned & overgrown cemetery in the florida woods, abandoned grave yard, exploring abandoned places, abandon, african american cemetery, cemetery candles, eddie cemetery, abandoned crematorium, abandoned places uk, all is abandoned, cemetery headstones, ancient cemetery

Id: 9Vxwhj335Uc

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 06 2020