Very Sad! The Most Amazing Forgotten Cemetery I Have Explored

This has got to be the most unique, ornate, and one of the saddest forgotten cemeteries I have explored to date. Thanks again to Daniel for taking me out here....

[AdventuresIntoHistory]

This was such an amazing old family cemetery. I was really in awe. I’ve never seen one quite like it, that elaborate. All of the children’s graves were so sad though. I’m glad we got it documented.

[judithlinenfelser]

I have been to this cemetery back in the 1980's with my mother and a Biggers cousin. The Joseph Biggers who died in 1849 is my great-great-great-grandfather and his wife was Elizabeth Countryman, my great-great-great-grandmother One of the graves there you were trying to make out the name was Ptolemus or Ptolemas Biggers. He was their son. The JJW and CE Biggers listed on graves of the little girls were James Joseph Walton Biggers and wife Caroline Esterdes Williams - my great-great-grandparents. They themselves are buried in Linwood Cemetery in Columbus, GA. I know who the other people are, the ones buried there. I am so glad you filmed this cemetery and walked us through it.

[reb]

The most chilling thing that I ever encountered at a cemetery was when I was wandering through a huge cemetery and came across the tombstone of a child. I have found all small children's grave sites somewhat upsetting, but this one really got my attention. The stone read : "Infant Son of (I do not remember the name), Born, November 7, 1949. Died, November 7, 1949. R.I.P. You are not forgotten". The reason it struck me so hard was the fact that I was born on Nov. 7, 1949. Being the kind of person that always has pen and paper on them, I sat down beside the stone and wrote a poem to this poor child that never had a chance at life as I wondered, was he truly not forgotten? After all, his parents are probably like mine...long gone
Infant Child (6/14/2007)
He never knew his mother, he never knew his dad. He never knew the brothers or the sisters he may have had
He never saw the sunrise, or felt a morning chill. He never saw a full moon, and he never will
He never heard a whispering wind blow softly through the trees. He never felt a gentle touch of a summer breeze.
He never got to run and play as most children do. The laughter and the tears of youth, he missed all of that too.
He never got to go to school. Life's lessons were not learned. He never knew of want or need. His keep was never earned.
He never knew of love or loss, he never felt a kiss. He never felt a lover's touch, or knew of wedded bliss.
He never knew what's right or wrong. He never knew of hate. He never knew or war or peace. He never knew his fate.
He never even had a name, just called an infant child. That is what the records say, where such things are filed.
He never had a chance at life for in a Book on High, Just moments after he gained life, he would have to die.
"Gone but not forgotten" is written on his stone, While he lies within his box, once again alone.
But who does remember him, it was so long ago. Just what happened on that day, no one will really know.
Should any shed a tear for him? Should any one be sad? For how could he miss all those things, the things he never had.
According to the Holy Word, in a Bible he never learned, A place in Heaven will be his, for that place was earned.
So Rest in Peace, oh infant child. In Heaven you still live. And these words I give to you, for it's all I have to give.
Our special day does bind us, as I stand here where you lie, And wonder why that I lived on, while you were meant to die.

[flournoymason]

The saddest art of graveyards like this is that no one is alive that loved them. People actually die twice. Once when you die and then when no one remembers you.

[random_duck]

It would be so extremely satisfactory to see this cemetery be cleaned up.

[jhingbangayan]

Please don't stop visiting these abandoned and forgotten cemeteries. I'm proud of what you do Sir. God bless you... Just saying or reading their name is rebirthing them.

[StarryThursday]

We have an 1800's cemetery in our front yard. It came with the land when we bought it to build our house. Its a joint family cemetery that hadn't been touched in over 100 years. My husband and I have cleaned it up and started researching who the people were and its been super interesting. One of my friends lovingly calls them my adopted family. So nice to see people going in and being respectful in old forgotten cemeteries.

[fatamorgana]

when I was a teen I used to horseback ride past an abandoned cemetery from the late 1800's. Many of the stones had been pushed over or broken and it was overgrown with blackberry brambles and weeds. On the edge of the cemetery was a small pillar with the name Elizabeth Sarah on it, the last name had eroded some and I wasn't able to make it out; however, I was able to work out that when she died she would've been around the same age I was at the time. So I made a point of every time I rode past where she lay sleeping, I would stop, clear out any weeds that had grown on her grave and put fresh wildflowers I would collect on it. I did this for an entire year, every weekend during school months and every other day over the summer. I even began packing a lunch I would then have while sitting and talking to Elizabeth. I talked to her about boys, books, my horses, fashion, school...things she too might have been interested in during her life.


The Winter that year was very harsh and kept me from going to visit Elizabeth.


Eventually the Spring came and once the weather was good enough to go for long trail rides, I saddled up my horse, packed a lunch and began gathering flowers for Elizabeth.
It was no longer a sad feeling of her life, dying tragic at such a young age, but more of a celebration that 100 odd years later someone still knew her name, spoke it aloud and thought of her fondly. I was actually excited to visit her. Elizabeth had become my friend.


As I arrived at the area where the little, overgrown cemetery was I felt my heart sink and tears in my eyes. I was heartbroken to find it had all been flattened, all the headstones removed and contractors planning to build on the site.
I cried for her, as for me that day Elizabeth had died twice.

[carmenmonoxide]

I've always had a fascination of tombstones and cemeteries. In my city, there was a long forgotten black cemetery. This was in 1999. Lots of WWI and WWII headstones with names and ranks stacked away in a dilapidated stone and wood shed. The oldest, unremarkable tombstone I found was 1840. Most were stone ground markers the size of bricks; the names worn away. My brother-in-law and I attempted to remove trees, plants, vines, etc. from the overgrown cemetery as much as we could. The local newspaper heard about what we tried to do and soon several volunteers and landscape companies were involved. In less than two months the place looked like an actual cemetery. Historians took on the tasks of documentation and discovered the graves of blacks who were prominent in their own communities. It's still receives ground service by a company who'd helped in the initial cleanup. My brother-in-law died two years afterward, but he'd seen the finished result of what he started. It looks better every time I drive by it.

[joycemetheny]

Take heed stranger as you walk by, as you are now so once was I, as i am now you shall be, so prepare to meet in eternity . Saw that years ago in a super old cemetery .

[brooklynrocks]

I’ve always had this weird obsession with reading tombstones because to me it’s like reading the story of someone’s life and as I keep moving through the stones I learn more and more I find it fascinating now others might find this wrong and creepy and that’s ok but words ingraved in those stones have have meaning it’s beautiful it’s history that’s be forgotten only to be remembered again.

[OZARKMEL]

There was an influenza epidemic in the late 1850's, a Yellow Fever outbreak in 1850, 1852 and 1855, Cholera in 1851. So sad to see the family that lost all those beautiful children. And very sad to see the state of the cemetery as a whole. As always, when their names are spoken they are NOT forgotten. Bless you for bringing their names forward once more.

[davidlittle]

I remember researching my Great Great Grandfather, his farm and where he was buried ....when i entered the cemetery where I found his Stone ...I remember the chill and then the warmth of finding someone from my family that died in 1885 at 103 years of age ...it made me a fuller person to have this memory and discovery ... I like your programme

[IrishAnnie]

The stone with the carved ivy is one of the prettiest stones I’ve ever seen. What craftsmanship.

[patriciachamberlain]

That poor mother. All those children gone before she. The pain in her life is unfathomable. Blessing.

[tinasteer]

The children’s graves that were in a line made of stones reminded of a house with multiple roofs. It put them all inside a house together. This may nor have been their intention but it just seemed so thoughtful.

[smakfu]

Thanks to this video, over 1 million people can indirectly remember that there was a Petolemus and Matilda Biggers; a husband and wife whose life was beset with tragedy, but are now at eternal rest with each other and their children. We may never know them, and we have only hints as to what their lives were like but, for now, they aren't entirely forgotten.

[PastorDanWhite]

P. J. Biggers served 16 April 1862 - 27 June 1864. Wounded at Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Present at the surrender by General Johnston in Greenesboro, NC: 26 April 1865. He died after an operation in August 1900.

[JohnDaker_singer]

I'm a genealogist and I discovered that the Biggers family did have 4 children that survived into adulthood.

[michaelluna]

God Bless you two gentlemen, I liked it when you gently wiped the leaves away from the stones. Kudos to both of you.