Old House With 1820s Gravestones Need Help!!

[swizzle]

That's a great old house that's begging to be searched. Go to the local town hall and ask to see the property maps and that should give you a name. Then a phone book should give you a number, unless its owned by someone who lives in florida or guam?!? If you can't find any info after that then just go for it. Metal detect the basement and sift it as well, unless its all concrete now. Search everywhere's. Small cache's were often hidden throughout the house. Reach up inside of chimney's and feel for the little ledge. Sometimes cache's were hidden there. Always use extreme caution when walking in the house and take a buddy. You never know when you'll need help pulling your leg back up through the floor or someone to run for a phone if you fall through or have a ceiling colapse. If you feel its safe then proceed cautiously. Search the attic and registers and closets and ever through old clothes pockets. Above door casings, under the window sill, in flower pots, under floor boards, under the front stairs, look high and low. How many dollarbills can you roll up and fit inside of a shower curtain rod or closet rod? If its a hollow tube then maybe a few thousand or so. I read one person found a cache of silver dollars in his uncles brass bed. If you see a lot of pictures search those, clocks, stairs, under the cupboards, under and through any furniture. Just get creative and search everything. I've heard of people drilling out the ends of pencils and rolling up $100 bills and sticking them inside and putting the eraser back on. A box of pencils could be worth thousands. Just a few of the thousands of places that I would check. Loose bricks. But definately hit that privy and search for other privy's. Some older houses had several privy's over the years. Good Luck and let us know how you pan out. Jason

 

[lmtae2]

Not me Too Spooky!! Although I bet it was Grand in it's Day

 

[JGUIS]

Father possibly is John HOMAN (d. 21 Jan. 1824) m. Mary (Polly) buried in family plot on the "old John Homan Cline" farm in Broadway, Rockingham Co, VA, About 1930 the farm was sold to the Broadway Hatchery and now is privately owned. The cemetery is in disrepair and it has been rumored by a neighbor that the current landowner is threatening to remove the headstones and farm the land. I live in MO and do not know to whom I can report this.
I found this much online at a genealogy website. Sounds like a local farmer owns it, and may tear it down soon. I hope he leaves the cemetery alone, that's just not right. If he's considering taking out a cemetery to farm an extra acre, he's probably not the type to let someone pick anything up that may be of value from his property. So I'd say pick a day, and spend the entire day there from dawn to dusk. Keep hunting it till you get caught, then you can always claim ignorance the first time. Plus you have the cemetery on your side. A cemetery is public property, regardless of the surrounding property. A public road leading to the cemetery is even better. I mean, if you got caught with a bottle in your hand, you're a "local history buff" researching the Homan family for a living relative of theirs online. You thought that finding something which used to belong to their family would be ok. Bam. Nobody could argue that story too much, IF, the place isn't posted "NO TRESPASSING".(I didn't see any signs in the pic) Or, you could try and run the same story by the farmer if you like, but if you do, and he says no, it's over Johnny. I'd work that treeline first, work your way in to the house, as it's probably been worked by previous owners over the years.

 

[capsoda]

Yeah, The farmer is just being a shmuck. If he disturbes a cemetery he will go to jail. All 50 states and US Territorys and Possesions have laws against it. If you disturb a single grave and get caught you will go to jail. Each state has to have a standard that reaches the minium federal requirement or go by the federal laws.

In Alabama all land is posted by law. In Florida if the land is uncultivated, unposted and not fenced and the house is not locked it is fair game. I'd check out the legalitys first. Your local library should have a set of books outlining state laws.

Get someone to help and repair the cemetary. Straighten the head stones, clean up and haul away the leaves. Anybody pesters ya tell them to bug off because you are within your legal rights and I'm am sure the residents would approve.

 

[swizzle]

I recently had a conversation with my cousin in KY and he told me a rotten story. His mom and dad live in a house built in 1810. The family that owned the house was the Coats. The headstones in the family cemetary date back to the early 1800's. Its been farmland for quite a while and now there's a new owner. The new owner of the property behing my cousin's parents bulldozed the whole cemetary. Iron fence, headstones and all!!! As soon as I heard this I wanted to report it. Is there a way that I can report this? I now live in NY but at one time lived in KY and walked through that cemetary and carefully dug down into the dirt just to read the bottom of the headstones. There was also finger bones laying on top of the ground. I admit it was a run down cemetary which the last owner allowed his cows to wander through but to plow it over completely?!? That just P$#%es me off. If there is a way for me to report such a travesty then please someone tell me how to go about it. Thanx for reading. Jason

 

[capsoda]

Call the local historical society or states crime prevention hot line for the area that the cemetary was in. Either one should be able to put you in touch with who you need to talk to. You may need pictures and a few witnesses names to get them to do anything but be persistant and they will move on it.

Also local papers and tv stations love that kind of stuff.

 

[nhdirtdog]

That is one cool beautiful old house. Ya a bit spooky now but who cares?? If you can get your hands on a metal detector even a cheap one do this. Go around the property, away from the house and look for any iron concentrations. That often times is a sign of a dump. I would look over any stone walls. My friend and I dug a great farm dump against a stone wall and only 3 feet deep. Look for any slope or hill as they would dump over the bank quite often too. Run the detector in any of those areas. Look for iron sticking out of the soil like barrel stays, buckets, handles etc.... Good luck hope you find some good stuff.

Ed-

 

[ehkahk]

I wish there was something like that in my area

 

[c.m. arrington]

Swizzle, a fellow somewhere around Atlanta did the same thing last year. Let the local media know about it and they'll do the work for you. That's what happened to this guy. I don't know if he was prosecuted, but it did stop the destruction of the rest of the cemetary.

 

[swizzle]

I contacted the KY historical society and they just e-mailed me back and I got another e-mail from a reporter that wants to talk to me as well. I'm going to call the historical society lady tomorrow with the address to the cemetary location. I'll let you guys know if I hear anymore. Jason