Winter Finally Arrives!

To some folks, Winter Finally Arrives! May sound like a boring headline. Big deal, winter arrives a month late. To some folks out west, they might be thinking, “Good, take our winter from us. We’re sick of it.”

To Keith and me, this is big news. We aren’t used to being bitten by mosquitoes well into January. Last weekend, I got a lot of yard work done and I still broke a sweat. I’d have taken my tee shirt off, but I thought that would be kind of weird it being in the middle of winter and all. The weekend before, we saw something even stranger than the January mosquitoes. Frogs hopped across the road and we watched a blue heron catch a foot long snake. Frogs and snakes are supposed to be hibernating, not hopping and slithering around in the middle of January.

Today is a big contrast from the last two weeks, though. Temperatures never got out of the twenties and it snowed. I decided what a great day to take a Sunday drive around the marshlands and tour the old cemeteries and Churches. Keith got his bottle of wine and we headed out.

All through the backcountry roads sits old churches, many abandoned. Small cemetery plots dating back from the early 1800’s dot the roads. Some of these plots look like they have long been forgotten. Some are adorned with flowers signaling someone is still around to honor the dead.

Take this little plot along Liner’s Road. It sits in the middle of the woods far from any houses, communities, or churches. The newest grave was dug in 1930 for an 84-year-old woman. Seventy-six years later, someone placed a couple of what appeared to be Christmas wreaths at the site.

If you take a closer look, you can see how shallow the graves are dug. The concrete coffins are half exposed. In some cemeteries, they practically rest on top of the ground. The water table is so high, I reckon it’s near impossible – no, impossible – to properly bury the dead six feet under.

Our next stop was an old Church built in 1874 on Smithville Road. It’s a quaint little building and still in use. Several months ago, we stumbled upon it and the congregation had some sort of social going on. Judging by the looks of the attendees, I’d say it is the original congregation from 1874 that still attends.

The graveyard surrounding the Church is well maintained. A once well-respected member of the community must occupy one grave, judging by its size and prominence in the middle of the lot. We should’ve gone up to the headstone to read it, but we didn’t. It was cold and somehow, I felt it would be disrespectful to trudge over the other graves to get to it. Maybe sometime in the future, I’ll take a closer look.

On the other side of the Church is what appears to be a pile of graves. I reckon the occupiers of these graves weren’t so well-respected within the community. Maybe somewhere down the road, I’ll revisit these graves and try to learn who is buried there and why they were just piled in a mound so close together.

On our future travels, I’ll be sure to include the roadside graves as part of the regular tour. A few months ago, for example, we came across a small family plot overgrown with poison ivy and an encroaching woods. A small historic sign marked the site, but no one takes care of the site anymore. A whole family from the 1800’s is buried here, the last member buried just prior to the Civil War. In addition to Mom and Dad and some other relatives, a tiny grave for a year-old child was placed next to the parents.

And in the middle of the plot of about seven graves rested a tombstone carved in the shape of a dachshund-like dog. The family ensured their beloved pet would stand guard over their final resting place. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find this gravesite again, but if I do, I’ll certainly include the pictures and story as told by the tombstones.



© 2006
Mark Darien
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