Remember the old game of "I Spy." I spy something red. I spy something round. In April my cousin,Windie and I went scouting for three old family cemeteries in the Santa Fe area of Maury County. Even with directions for two of the three and a general direction for the other one, we struggled to locate the sites among the hills and hollows...and bushes!. Our enthusiasm upon finding them quickly faded when we discovered the deteriorating conditions of each cemetery. All of the graveyards were neglected, and two were badly overgrown. At that point I recalled the child's game of "I Spy" because in two of the cemeteries "spying" a headstone was challenging.
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| Pigg Cemetery |
The Pigg Cemetery consisted of a fairly large tree filled, thickly
bushed plot of land surrounded by a fence, but it appeared only to
contain a few headstones in the back portion of the plot. At the base of one of the tombstones was a huge groundhog hole. Fearful a critter might pop up from the hole, I quickly snapped my photos.
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| Johnson cemetery |
By sheer luck we located the Johnson Cemetery. We had already stopped at two houses and no one had ever heard of the Johnson Cemetery. When we saw a man mowing on our route, we decided to give it one last try. Bingo. The cemetery was located directly across the road in a thicket of trees and low undergrowth. Can you locate the one visible tombstone? I spy...
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| Dockery Cemetery |
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The Dockery Cemetery received
our "Best Cemetery of the Day" award. The only hindrances in this cemetery were the monkey vines, fallen tree limbs and an occasional cow pattie.We couldn't locate one of the
documented tombstones in the cemetery, but we were certain it was still there just covered by aging debris from years past.
How long will these old neglected cemeteries survive? I can only speculate, but I do know the game of "I Spy" will be even harder to play in the very near future.
