A Sobering Find

[Valley Ranger]

I recently gained access to a piece of property I've wanted to detect for several years. The property recently changed hands and doors opened. It's an old farm here in the Shenandoah Valley that dates to the early 1800's - over 500 acres. A Confederate veteran lived there and oral history says the place was raided by Union soldiers during the War Between the States.

I've hunted the area around the main house (circa 1830) for about 3 hours and found absolutely nothing worth keeping. I suspect it's been hunted hard in previous years. Then the other day I was back hunting one of the surrounding cornfields and the overseer stopped by for a visit. After I told him I wasn't finding much besides junk, he said, "You should go up on the hill and hunt around the old family cemetery." I must have looked surprised and disgusted all at the same time, because he very quickly added, "Oh, no, no, I don't mean IN the cemetery, just AROUND it. It's fenced in."

So I headed to the location, about a half mile from the main home. The family cemetery has many of the characteristics one so often sees in Southern Appalachia areas of the U.S.: at the top of a hill, behind the main home, Yucca plants, headstones all facing east. The earliest death date I could make out was 1822, though I believe there were older graves there. The cemetery was in deplorable condition. The yucca plants have all but taken over the whole area (about 24'x40'), groundhogs have wreaked havoc, headstones are broken and others fallen over. Also, the ground had evidently suffered significant erosion as the burial area sat about 18" above the surrounding pasture, exposing the very base of the fence posts.

The surrounding grass was pretty high, making it difficult to swing my coil close to the ground. And, again, I want to be clear that I only detected OUTSIDE the fenced burial area. Darkness was approaching fast, so everything I found I just stuffed into my bag without really looking at it until I got home. Most of what I found consisted of nails and cow tags - except for what you see below. I believe these are hardware pieces from a coffin. I found all of them about 2 feet off of the northeast corner of the cemetery. They seem to be made out of some type of "pot metal."

The overseer told me that he and the new owner plan to clean and restore the old cemetery. I'm thinking I should return these pieces at that time. Thoughts? Anyone seen anything like this before? Any idea on age? Thanks for looking.

 

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[Valley Ranger]

Does the plowing go right up to the cemetery? I'm just not sure how else they would get so broken up unless the coffin was put in a wood chipper.

Given the size they don't seem to be robust enough for handles, but decorative. Anyway, I hope I'm right, but unfortunately that isn't too often!

No, it's pasture - just grazing, no crops. But I understand your point. It may have been plowed in the past, don't know for sure. Another mystery! The next time I go back, I'll concentrate more on that area to see what I else might be there.

 

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[The Rebel]

Very interesting. But seeing you found them near the family plot more than likely they are funeral related (Casket Decoration or Hearse Decoration). I'd give them a proper re-burial after the plot is all fixed up, say 1 pc per grave.

 

[Valley Ranger]

Very interesting. But seeing you found them near the family plot more than likely they are funeral related (Casket Decoration or Hearse Decoration). I'd give them a proper re-burial after the plot is all fixed up, say 1 pc per grave.

The material is definitely the same as the verified coffin hardware. Given that, along with the design and location, it's my best guess. There are around 20 or so graves in this cemetery. I'll probably just put them back in the one nearest where I found them. Thanks!

 

[Valley Ranger]

Does the plowing go right up to the cemetery? I'm just not sure how else they would get so broken up unless the coffin was put in a wood chipper.

Given the size they don't seem to be robust enough for handles, but decorative. Anyway, I hope I'm right, but unfortunately that isn't too often!

Something I hadn't considered, but I suppose is possible, is grave robbers. It's in a rather remote location. Just speculation.

 

[Doc Arey]

I have found some of the same things here in the Valley.

 

[uglymailman]

My first thought was a connector on decorative wrought iron fence, but you pic doesn't show any.
When doing a land survey job on a Corp. of Eng. lake we were asked to locate some graves. They were "slave" graves and were layed along a section line near a section corner. They were not near any cemetery.
Good luck.

 

[Valley Ranger]

My first thought was a connector on decorative wrought iron fence, but you pic doesn't show any.
When doing a land survey job on a Corp. of Eng. lake we were asked to locate some graves. They were "slave" graves and were layed along a section line near a section corner. They were not near any cemetery.
Good luck.

Interesting, but my assumption would be that slave coffins would not have any ornate hardware on them. I'll look closer at the fence next - that's a possibility. Though the pin holes still lead me to believe they're part of a handle.

 

[Kace]

I know this is an old thread but, I vote decorative. Also back in the mid-late 1800's a lot of floral or other grave arrangements had some sort of aluminum foil type of decoration (ribbon) in them. When COE builds a lake they move family cemeteries either to another place on the property if it's still owned by that family or they build a family cemetery somewhere else & move any remains. Some family cemetery remains are moved to the closest town cemetery & a brick is put down saying UNKNOWN. Do they do this for everyone: NO THEY DO NOT. In one of my family cemeteries the ground is very rocky & the 'Graves' are actually sandstone in the shape of the old time coffins that had 6 sides & the lid was the same, above the ground about 6" & maybe 6" below ground. In some areas there was a church there by the cemetery and it either burned down, was moved or abandoned. Usually, here anyway, every year there is a get together of descendants on Memorial Day either at the Church or Cemeteries. I've been asked to detect by descendants & Historical Society. It doesn't bother me to do this, I feel like anything found at either place is from someone who cared. If you see outhouses behind the church...great place to search the path to it & around it. I Would Never Desecrate or Take From A Grave, but SOME cemetery movers have bragged about jewelry, mini balls or bullets & other precious metals they found where remains were. The wood from the blacksmith caskets had long ago rotted.

 

[A2coins]

kinda spooky

 

[ivan salis]

you know what they are ...and you know where they belong -- wisely your putting them back ... once I saw what they were I would have reburied them at once and moved farther away --clearly you got a bit too close but your doing the right thing by replacing the items ---no one wants to disturb the dead ...if their smart

 

[Old Pueblo]

A little advice for old cemeteries. The modern fence around them doesnt mean anything. Those fences often go up a long, long time after the cemetery was in use and abandoned. Its not uncommon to find many more graves outside the fenced in area, simply because the headstones are missing and the person who put the fence up couldnt tell where the cemetery originally ended. Usually they'll just fence in the area where there are still standing headstones. If you see piles of stone or dirt mounds or depressions outside the fenced in area, they are probably graves as well. What kind of fence was it? Chained link? Barbed wire? Barbed wire or chain link is basically modern, and an old wooden fence from the 1800s would have probably rotted away by now.

 

[Old Pueblo]

Yes, gave my wife the creeps when I showed them to her. Next time I talk to the owner, I'll discuss my suggestion about returning them once they restore the old place. Kinda sad.

Great to hear they're going to save this old place, weve lost so many of these. My family goes back to Virginia. My great grandfathers headstone is still standing somewhere in Virginia or West Virginia or somewhere around there. His log cabin from the early 1800s stood all the way up into the 1980s, when some idiots tore it down for "safety' reasons. (They probably just wanted to the old logs to build another cabin with). His name was Josiah Marcum and he was in the Revolutionary War. I guess his headstone is somewhat of a tourist attraction, nowadays.