4/18/2021

Unheavenly Grave, pt. 0

For those who don't follow me on Twitter, here's a link to my recent thread, on Twitter. And because I often clear out my old Twitter threads, here's a bloggy reproduction of the whole thread:

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Did some graveyard exploring this evening, did not actually expect to get snapshots of one human skull, let alone two. 💀💀

The hillside tomb is barely visible from the graveyard itself; you can only see the top, but as you wander down the slope it becomes visible (you can see it through the trees from the highway).




The tomb dates back to anywhere from 1883 to the turn of the 20th century, a family vault with a capacity of 12 adult caskets. Other family members are buried on the hill directly above it, with varying styles of headstone. There's a formerly-screened hole in the old vault door.


This vault isn't vaulted, just boxy. It's clear that the interior used to just be walls of white limestone, with 12 headstone seals, some engraved (occupied) and some still blank, awaiting occupants. But damage has opened five of the vaults and exposed the red brick structure.



A lot of questions, here. One casket visible in #7, but remains without caskets visible in #2 and #8. Skulls not in the position skulls would be in if their caskets were simply boxes rotted away or something; positioned to face out, and in #7's case right in the brick rubble.


On the floor of the vault there's a lot of rubble, some of the engraved and blank seals, a couple of which are intact and legible (I've blurred the text; I'm still researching the family on genealogy sites). There are modern beverage containers visible in the rubble.


One thing of note: there are only two names engraved on the front of this family vault; two brothers who died about a century ago, but there are other family members interred here, including one who was hit by a car in the 1960s (the most modern addition I can confirm).

I still haven't found newspaper records of the damage; it could be some kind of accidental earth-moving incident involving the heavy exterior digging along the sides, or it could be vandalism with a sledgehammer. There are lots of research options I haven't had time for yet.

I apologize for the grainy interior shots; they were taken just by holding my phone in that tiny hole in the vault's exterior door. Gives it a needlessly grimy true-crime vibe. But anyway, that's what's in there. Resting, decidedly lacking in peace.

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I'll blog more when I've learned more! Genealogy websites being what they are, I've already learned a lot about the family, but there are a few other avenues of research I want to chase down before calling this one done.