Old Gravestones Wanted

brendonv

Tree Hugger
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
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Location
Oxford, Connecticut
Shot in the dark here, but im in search or more old geavestones. Purely for decoration. Ever run across any let me know and ill pay! $$$$. These would be acquired legally of course.

I currently have one full stone, two pieces of stones, and an old lead plaque from a stone.

Just looking for more!
 

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Digging them up. This one was from an old cemetary that flooded, moved the bodies, and lost some stones. Those stones were replaced and this one was left behind and dug up years later. My other two partials are most likely from mistakes made when carving, they turned one into a bed warmer, and the other someone carved a face on. The lead plaque who knows, found at flea market.
 
A former employer of mine owns the marble quarry across the valley from me. Part of the original parcel had a water powered stone cutting shop. When the house was renovated, the stone walkways were pulled up and they were mostly broken or mismanufactured gravestones. There were also stones that lye barrels sat on for making soap.
 
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That's awesome Dave. I think people find them morbid but I find beauty in them. Our local historical
Society has one I'm trying to get. They don't want it there as it has no relevance to the place. It's cool
Because it has mistakes in grammar and penmanship with corrections off to the side.

They come up at my flea market at times. That's where 3 out of my 4 came from.

Ya jay, nothing comes up.
 
When I did a job for a cemetery I was told by the grounds super that any stone 150 years or older is fair game. At least here in WI, that is the time frame they can recycle the plot.
 
Yeah I am not sure how all that works but he sounded legit. He managed two sites in Milwaukee one of which had some very old graves, lots of small children 2 and under. That area in particular he said that the graves were shallow and we might go thru a few caskets with the skid steer but not to worry just let him know so he could put down some more dirt. I tell ya funeral directors, coroners, and cemetery managers have a really, shall I say, interesting sense of humor.
 
I guess I have a different take, I would try and find the family it belongs to. Think of the history. I don't know, just seem like something that is meant to be where the body is.

My family has a piece of land that is a family burial plot.The dates on the gravestones go way way back, well over 151 years. As long as there is still room when we die, we can be buried there, free of charge. I can't imagine someone wanting the gravestones that are there. So much family history on that plot of land.
 
We have some old graveyards in town. My sister is really into them. She died work for Find A Grave. Have a few revolutionary war soldiers buried in town. There is one guy up the road that found about 20 grabbed in his wood, and he has restored the graveyard.
 
Cemetery in a town near me reclaimed the land for some purpose and had a contractor remove the top soil with a bunch of headstones from fairly recently. 1960 to 80's? That contractor just dumped the soil and stones out at a ranch that was willing to take it.
 
I was at a tree removal at a location where a temple once stood The structure was completely gone but some ancient graves still existed. There was also a memorial to a horse, not a gravestone, possibly a horse couldn't be buried there, but someone at least didn't want the horse to be forgotten.

Sometimes folks used plan old stones, probably couldn't afford a proper marker, or maybe the deceased wasn't considered worthy. At old sites it's not uncommon to find just weathered stones amongst the more formal types. No markings, just sometimes lichen on them. At the same location where the horse's marker stood. I think the plain stones are kind of cool, myself.
 

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