Uncovering Abandoned Graves! Return to the Shocking Cemetery

[Music] all right folks its Robert and you're watching sidestep Adventures it has been exactly one week since I been to the cemetery last the shocking abandoned cemetery in the middle of the city and I found out a little bit of information about it since I've been here I tried making a little bit of a stir about it see if I could get some people out here interested in cleaning it up doesn't look like anybody's been out here since I was out here last though so this cemetery apparently used to belong to or did used to belong to a church the name of the cemetery is Smith Grove I think that's right Smith Grove Cemetery so I looked up tax records and it shows as still belonging to a church which is surprising to me a little bit I've heard a bunch of different things about this place one of them I talked about last time that when the highway came through they were supposed to move the graves didn't move the graves and pave the highway over the grave that's not true I don't believe it all because the the evidence of physical evidence here doesn't add up to that but what I did here is that there used to be a church here up on the hill without other businesses and when the highway was being built they did buy the land from the church and allegedly we're gonna buy the cemetery to tear down the church the state now for building the highway was going to tear down the church and then build a new church somewhere else for this congregation and they were also allegedly supposed to move the graves obviously that didn't happen and this abandoned forgotten about state I don't know if that's entirely true but it does kind of go along with the other story that the highway was paved over the graves although that wasn't true that so there's something something definitely happened there there's a reason the church was moved down now I've got to say I can't hate on the city completely for this just just give them a little bit of hate for this because the cemetery is still private property or property of a church it seems I looked up tax records and a church is still paying taxes on it as of January 2019 so the responsibility of the cemetery really falls on that church and so I'm wondering why they're not taking care of it so we can't hate on the city too much for this although I would still like to see the city make the people that should be taking care of the cemetery do something about it that being said I'm out here today I'm going to try to uncover some graves and clear a little bit of a path out here I am still not the cemetery caretaker that is not what I do and I very rarely come out here and find a cemetery that I feel I need to get involved in cleaning so that that's how much this one shocked me that I do feel I need to get out here and do the best that I can to clean this one up moving on from that I know I'm rambling a little bit I did have something else to tell you guys and I have forgotten it so until I remember let's go back there and let's have a look again machete sucks I do want to keep a watch out for snakes out here had some people tell me I shouldn't be feel worried about snakes and I generally don't worry about snakes that much as much as it may seem but uh because I know that they typically just want to stay out of out of my way and but I do worry about stepping on my copperheads and other snakes like that all right let me do this a little bit better by turning the camera off all right so I've got Henry Henry Hunter's grave here kind of clear it off he's just used a rake and this is like I said before this is some definitely some thick growth on these graves here we try to tackle those two next placed a flag on his headstone the sad part about this is I can come off and try to uncover some of these graves today and in a month's time they'll be covered again if somebody doesn't keep up maintenance on this cemetery but let's see let's see what we can uncover and try to document some of these names today like see the here's I showed you these before but there's two right there actually let me get the let me get the rake the rake out right now and show you what I'm talking about how thick this is now so I'm also doing this pretty lightly cuz I don't want to scratch up the concrete on the top she also makes it a challenge this is a pretty heavy duty break and if I used a lighter like leaf rake it wouldn't even be able to get through all of this stuff of course I didn't bring a broom in here so I'll still have to dust the names off with my hands [Music] it's kind of tricky doing this one-handed so I'm gonna turn to camera back off and tackle a couple of these and then I'll record again so I've broken a pretty good sweat already here I've been working on four different graves for a few minutes and so here we have Henry hunter of course that's the first grave that we saw on the last video and right beside him which I don't think I knew that on the last video there's another grave right there I've started to uncover and there's another grave right here I've actually down to the name on this grave but I'm not gonna be able to make it out on this video because yeah and I know I know this is a time where I should have some some paper and crayon and all of that but that's a that's a different time to do all of that right now I'm just trying to clear off some of these graves and assess how many are actually out here because like I didn't know about that one I didn't know about this one and I'm definitely not gonna be able to make that grave out right here also need to come back out here with a broom and hopefully after the last video and after this video I can get some more people interested in coming out here and and cleaning out these graves a little bit because this is way too much for just one person to tackle you need a large group of people and a period of a definite long period of time to be able to do this I'm gonna get back to it though I just wanted to stop and show you guys what I've uncovered so far there's another one there another one there possibly one there maybe not looks like a mouth there's some indentions down here let's go check these out real quick look Cody's sweeping that grave off because I did not see these on the last video so look there's another headstone I didn't see on the last video either but before we get down there you can see there's a grave there's a grave there's a grave for sure here's a grave that sunk in pretty well so there's probably a lot more down through there yeah look there's a there's an indention right on the embankment this cemeteries are getting bigger and bigger this is this military headstone and it's fallen over this is Dan Jones Georgia all right get down a little bit more so I can read that Dan Jones Georgia private 847 company transport Corps June 22nd 1923 so we'll get him a flag in just a minute and put on that grave so I kind of the last video I started through there I got up to that little clearing where you can probably see light up there and then turn the background because I didn't see anything else out here but we've definitely got some more graves let's see what this is this looks like a uh oh this is another outhouse or well right here you know that's just another outhouse that's fallen in right on that you can see it was down into the parking lot of that well-built business down there should have brought my machete down here someone's trying to call me hold on I get it I gotta take this call I'll be right back with you all right so that's actually the fella was calling me was the guy that told me about this cemetery that's so that's the clearing right there talked about just a second ago when I right before I stopped filming and that's where I stopped exploring on this side of the cemetery on the last video so I'm going back and sure enough there's another one right there and an indention here here there I really should be cleaning off some of these graves at the moment rather than recording but I got kind of surprised at how many more there were and how quite large this cemetery is see there's one there's an indention right beside it so we know that's another one walk along this this area where it's kind of kind of cleared out see if we see any more yep there's there's an indention and an indention so have you got some unmarked graves there's that there's a business right there you can see how I mean what is that 20 feet between it and the graves there's a look at this that's a that's a grave right there so that's a field stone marker for for an unmarked grave there's another one over there so this cemetery actually could be much older than I thought it was initially so this is what I imagine is this is the the further that way I go towards the other Road the older it gets and the further that way the newer it gets cuz if you remember there's 80's and 90's graves over there this these field stone markings are typically seen during the lady there were all the 1800s to the early 1900s I don't see many after after the early 1900s their cemeteries from the early 1900s that are field stone marked graves there's a nice row of lilies planet thought I saw another headstone up here but maybe not maybe this I should have brought my machete up here they came I came with some some tools today and wandered off without him look there's another one right there let's go take a look at that one one's actually looks like it's been cleaned off kinda recently and get up to it spider webs on really yeah someone is someone's cleaned off this one grave at some point his Dorothy Jean petit August 19th 1948 to December 27th 1976 so that kind of that kind of blows my theory about this up here being the older part of the cemetery although I I still think it is because you've got these older graves over there closer to the other business starting with the gray from 1923 I don't remember if I saw any that work earlier than that on the other video I remember 50s and in 80s and 90s of course with the cemetery there's generally no specific roofing you can have very old graves and new graves side by side that's a gray let's definitely brave right there I was hoping maybe at least one of these graves from the this seam earlier that I would say are from the at least late 1800s would be marked but that doesn't seem to be the case and of course being that this is a being that this is an African American Cemetery it could be that in the late 1800s they were not able to mark the graves financially speaking look here's one that I walked right beside and didn't see just a second ago this is Exxon EXA NN street rogers born 1919 died 1969 all right let me get back to where Cody is and reassess this a little bit and I'm kind of all over the place on this video but just trying to figure out exactly what I'm up against in this Cemetery look at it there's another one right there right there right there this is Cora Vaughn she was born December 25th 1889 she died September 19th 1965 here's another one right there you just try to do a count so at least the ones I can visibly see that are marked don't count the unmarked graves for now all right well I mean crawl under these vines and this is back where I stopped on the first video so I'm gonna stop recording now walk back up to or 30 years and see where I'm gonna go from there [Music] alright guys taken to the water break real quick and I want to show you see what we've done so far it honestly it probably doesn't look like much but it's been a quite a bit of work so I'm gonna start back back here turn the camera around so as we come in so we've got this area pretty opened up found another grave there pretty sure I told you about that one and of course here's here's the first grave we saw there's three more right there still working on but I started going ahead and clearing a path out this way so it's really opened this area up I couldn't get to that grave before on the last video and then if you remember Nancy Bodhi her grave was really covered up so I mean it's taken a few hours we've been here for a few hours so we've been working and of course I've been running around too but I wanted to take a moment to show you that there's progress being made and it's it's opening up it's just definitely slow slow going because there is a lot out here that's covered up I also wanted to go ahead and take a moment look at hey did you come up here and uncover this grave did you come up here and start uncovering this one okay anyway I want to take a minute go ahead and play some more of these flags this is uh favors Dawkins with the BSM Bronze Star medal go ahead and place a flag it is great he was again 28th infantry in world war ii died in 1950 and then i know there was another korean war soldier up here alright buddy so if I'd find his grave again we'll go ahead and get him a flag something said something to do while I'm cooling off there's actually two military graves right here Richard and John Frank coward both of the last names are Howard Richard died in 55 powerdyne 75 we'll go ahead and place him a flag I've got to get another one I find where to go into the ground here see right there Oh shame I put his flag over here so when I come over here I'll just lay his flag on top for now not a way I can come and cut down those trees and I need to bring another flag for him all right we're gonna get back to it I just wanted to give you a quick update that's the progress and we'll see you again in a few minutes alright let's go ahead and uncover this grave right here [Music] all right so here we have Miss Mary hunter may 6 1903 died died September 11th 1972 we've got another one here that's gonna take some work to uncover that right there let's see if we can stand this the stone up because it's supposed to be standing up like that one is me uh you set the camera down all right there we go never here we'll place john frank howard's flag if I can there we go there's some dirt always an ivy off of there I'm still allergic not allergic right cool all right Brian just arrived and brought a broom he's clearing off Henry hunters grave right now which we can see actually had riding on the concrete part here and move my flags a little bit you can see that was all hidden before and we couldn't see it also used his broom to uncover this grave which says Willie Littleton born May 3rd 1897 died August 15 1952 at rest so now that we've got a broom and try to tackle that grave and maybe some of those over there once Cody gets the vines and heavy stuff off yeah that's one right there all right so Brian's uncovering another one for us right now hate to stand on it but it's really the only way to really effectively sweep it oh yeah if anybody has any smart comments to say about stepping on a grave that hasn't been touched in at least 30 years and standing on it because you're cleaning on it yeah they can they can do something with themselves this is this is missus it's kind of hard to read I know I know okay gotcha got it Miss Emma day born November 20th 1902 she died June 9th 1936 she did not live very long it's amazing to see these coming out of the dirt it really is yeah and those military graves back there those two I guess they're brothers side-by-side look so good with flags on them now there's another there's a grave from 1923 it's a another military grave right there oh so I've already I've already recorded it but i'ma tell you saw me repeat myself on video I just walked all the way through there there's a bunch of graves or some marked with field stones which leads me to believe that they're probably the oldest out here let's sweep up there see if you can get the names should come out kind of the exciting part to get to identify these people after so many years of neglect where is Miss Margaret Duboce d ub OSE born May night to 1915 died February 16 1936 another she didn't live very long at all either wow look at the way it's stamped in there I mean it's not it was stamped you know while the concrete was wet you see so it's not clear not like a one that was made somewhere else and then I mean I guess it could have been made somewhere else but looks to me like it was poured and then stamped here yeah it's kind of interesting well there's two two young ladies that died very young and around the same time Miss Emma day she died in 1936 died June 9th 1936 and she died February 1636 this is the Smith Grove Cemetery yeah coming out Cody grab some of that loose stuff I cut and put it in the pile over there well another 1936 someone else who died young in 1936 so you can get the name oh it's another young woman mrs. yes Vinny mrs. VI n and ie marks ma RK s miss Vinny marks born May 6th 1890 98 she died February 10th 1936 I wonder what's up with these three possibly more there's another grave there we're still yet to uncover dying young in the 30s grab-grab your rake and pull that that stuff back let me get that for you real quick these fines pull it straight back that way so it's not going on that grave either all right go ahead well miss Norah Jones born and look again how it's how it's printed in there yeah born June 10th 1899 died that's August August 10th 1919 yeah incredible you know we see a lot of old graves but a lot of times people have lived long lives these these people here died very young the sad to see that was it definitely a hard time in America probably equally a hard time for african-american people oh yeah yeah definitely worse they probably did not get first crack at the jobs that there were right right here's another one we got uncovered Katherine Carter born November 28 1933 died August 30th 1978 all right so we're still hard at work cleaning up the cemetery I just wanted to take a moment turn the camera back on and show this to you so you can see it as it progresses that's definitely opened up a lot sense since we first started yeah when we first came in here you couldn't do what you saw you couldn't see anything no it's definitely starting to look like a cemetery now so we've got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 graves just in this area that are uncovered and I wanted to show you guys something real quick that I almost tripped over a couple times and I just thought it was cool it's not really graver Cemetery related per se but I felt this pot over here and I thought it was really neat I'm sure at one time it was decorating a grave there's no there doesn't appear to be any graves over here that I've seen in fact it looks like back when the cemetery was actually being cared for this is where they would throw trash because you could see a bunch of yeah a bunch of broken flowerpots and everything but this this was a pretty neat piece of pottery right here and older and I just thought it was cool and wanted to show it to y'all I'm sure originally maybe had flowers or something in it for the cemetery for a grave there's no markings on it and it's broken but I I still thought it was cool so working on this grave at the moment which is one of the ones I showed you earlier when I walked into what I thought was the older part of the cemetery this seems to have a lot of unmarked graves there's an indention right there there's one there over there in fact I think that may be a tree root or it could be another grave right there I can't tell for sure but anyway here's one we're working on you can see the vines going across the grave I want to show it to you before I cut them off and just how overgrown and covered this one is but we're gonna get through it and then we'll show it to you uncovered figure that it's just like a blanket oh yeah before you pull it out too much you can see oh wow wow that's wild what y'all for new shoulders [Music] if you didn't Shetty again sometimes cleanup is intensive the saddest thing is that nobody's had any visitors for what appears to be decades this is freaky how those words are emblazoned in the growth Wow let's just let that sink in age 25 all right so here we have another young lady who died young as you heard Brian say age 25 and as you can see so we have at rest Mary Johnson born March 12 1901 died July 5th 1926 here's one I didn't film last time and this is broken I don't feel the other half but all we can read on this one is a Bobby and it's born and died but as you can see it's broken in half right there so I don't know where the other half is I don't hear it under there it's kind of weird maybe something else right there well Cody and Brian have the tools over there at the moment but while they're doing that it was one I wanted to come over here and try to get to is that one do we saw last time and has like a tree on it and it's just hard to get to I'm going to start working on uncovering that one a little bit while they're tackling some easier graves it's a Brian Cody you've been cleaning off these graves is there anything on this one or is it just your gun covered Elizabeth Jackson here born September 9th 1934 died June 15th 1975 is that one marked Cody yeah see what you're talking about I think it's just I can't tell it almost looks like there's lettering in there there may have been at one time cuz that looks like a C and an O maybe but it's just so far gone there's definitely some lettering up there right there there's just so far gone that I don't think you'd be able to make that one out even with the paper and crayon you know it's probably another unmarked one all right let's go up here I've got this one kind of covered I see how here's a challenge getting in here I want to start with the rake on that another hand of these metacarpal [Music] that we have some information got to get to that name click old flowers yeah miss Ellis Shelton born 1869 died November 16 1966 while she was nearly a hundred okay I think I've done about all I can do today yeah I'm I'm hot sweaty and went out we made some definite progress but it's a it's a huge cemetery so it's still a small bite yeah I hope that this will encourage some people to come out and clean clean the cemetery in town maybe once this video get started circulating cuz it's a big job to do it by yourself and I think I think this one deserves that I don't often feel the need to clean cemeteries and I've said that a lot but in this case I don't know something really grabs me about this one it may be maybe how new some of the graves are these people should still have families that are alive and in the end it really is the family's responsibility and the church's responsibility to care for this cemetery especially since these graves are new enough for them to still be having living direct descendants but uh and also it's a shame that it was allowed to get into this condition yes but I hope you enjoyed returning to the cemetery with us today and seeing some more of it don't forget to Like share and subscribe and we will see you on the next adventure by the way it's in Columbus Georgia

Channel: Sidestep Adventures

Views: 349,490

Rating: 4.8929706 out of 5

Keywords: abandoned, grave, graves, abandoned places, abandoned mansion, abandoned cemetery, exploring abandoned places, exploring abandoned, uncovering middlesex, abandoned graveyard, uncovered, open graves, abandoned prison, abandoned asylum, collapsing graves, haunted abandoned, travel, abandoned neverland, forgotten graves, abandoned uk, open grave, abandoned colombia, abandoned hospital, abandoned ohio, abandoned cementery, cemetery, gravestone, abandoned building, video

Id: GsxsM04euc8

Length: 43min 16sec (2596 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 17 2019