There is an old cemetery that sits abandoned on the southwest corner of my property. It was there before my great-grandfather acquired this section of land in the 1800’s.

One of my chores as a boy was to periodically maintain the cemetery. My dad thought it disrespectful to let the graveyard lie in ruin. I actually relished the responsibility. Occasionally, my little sister would tag along to pick wildflowers and place them at each marker. As I worked, I would read the inscriptions on the stones, all from the 1800’s, and speculate about these people and how it came that they were buried here.

The stone that fascinated me most was a marker with the name Mary. At the top was a symbol I had never before seen. Below this symbol were capital letters chiseled in an arc. Inside the arc of letters was the word “ARMY”. It was years before I learned that the symbol was that of the Freemasons. It took longer still to decipher the letters. I’m still not certain about the meaning of the word “ARMY”.

F N D O Z B T K C - AMRY was a degree conferred upon the wives, daughters, mothers or sisters of Freemasons. It was used predominantly in the southern states, from the 1850’s through the early 1900’s.

"F N D O Z B T K C" refers to the biblical verse from the book of John 12:15, "Fear Not Daughter of Zion, Behold, The King Cometh."

"ARMY" is still a puzzle. As I understand it, the word should be “A M R Y” which is an anagram for Mary. So, either the stonecutter made a mistake or it means something else.

I still maintain the cemetery as time permits. My dad once said that he was unaware of anyone from the outside visiting the gravesites and during my lifetime there has not been a single visitor. When my sister comes by, she will sometimes go up there. She says that the cemetery exudes a peaceful feeling and when her time comes she would like to be buried there. My wife and I have been thinking about doing the same when our time comes.

Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records

You might check out this forum. I suppose someone there might know about such markings.

Pretty neat. To think of the past lives and history.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Interesting. How many graves are there in the cemetery? Seems a shame that no family members/descendants visit. Maybe they're either all gone themselves, or so far removed that there aren't any left in the area. I believe the stone cutter did make a mistake and misspell the work AMRY. You're very thoughtful and respectful for continuing to do the upkeep on the cemetery.

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Misty

Cool story. Thanks for the post.

Mary was 27 years old. People didn't live long back then.

I really enjoy studying history of the past couple hundred years. I also like ready historical fiction and watching old westerns.

What if Mary was in the Army during the civil war and died during her military service? We had women who did work for both the union and confederate armies during the civil war.

My wife is a genealogist and we have visited hundreds of cemeteries all over the country, many on private property.
Some are overgrown and some are cared for by the property owners. I think the best tribute that I heard from a property owner that had kept a little family cemetery (ours, not his) if perfect order was "Well, they're sombodies ancestors and I only hope someone is taking care of mine"...

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

theres a cemetery near my house thats from the early 1700's up to the early 1900's , my wife did some research on some of the people there and 1 was a captian of a war ship in 1700's and 1 was related to a president of the united states .. some cool stuff plus lots more history .,i will try to get some pics .

There are 15 graves that can be identified by markers, headstones and parts of headstones. There may be more buried here that don’t have markers. The markers are scattered about and there appears to have been no order as to the placement of graves.

Sounds like the basis for a new Dan Brown book!! Yess

The order/placement might have been related to digging conditions.

I think it's great the respect your family has shown for these graves that they have no connection to. As all Texans should be.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Good on ya and your family!

Could Army be her maiden name?

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In dog years I'm dead.

If only those tombstones could talk, what a story we would hear. Good for you for taking care of them.

I have a friend here in Indiana that bought a farm years ago. There was one spot in a field where there was a bit of a small hill. It through off his rows and one day he borrowed a Bob Cat from a neighbor to level it off. In the process he came upon a very rotted away wood casket and some bones.
I asked if he notified the Police. His response was "Heck no. This unmarked grave was 150-200 years old and I didn't want Police, and historical society shutting down my planting for weeks, or months." He reburied the bones in another location and called it a day. Can't say I blame him

Here In Austin, Texas at the intersection of highway 71 and 183 in the middle of the overpasses is a small grave plot. It is surrounded by the overpasses and has a few trees and a iron frence around it. It was there when the overpasses were built, I first saw it in '77 when I arrived at Bergstrom AFB and I checked last week when I went by. I have no idea who might be taking care of it, possibly the people that mow the right of way.

SWCA 892

One of our odd pleasures is to visit cemeteries in other places. My all time favorite is the one in Ouray, CO. In the past it was customary to include the cause of death. We have many cemeteries with old graves around here, but none with "died in snowslide" or one on the west side of Tomichi Pass "died in dynamite explosion".

I don't look for any religious connection with the past. Its just interesting to walk and look. Being respectful costs nothing. Its clear some of the buried had significant financial means. I'm guessing the impoverished ended up with wooden "stones" or markers, and are lost to history.

Good on the OP for his care of the place. It really doesn't take a lot of effort to make a big difference. Just watch for snakes! They like the places because of the lack of human traffic.

And for everyone else, if you see an interesting inscription, take a picture.

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Dick Burg

Back in the 60's I had a farm that had a small family cemetary on it. There were only 5 or 6 graves and all had the same last name. From what I guessed the mother of the family who died in 1898 was 104 years and 5 monthes old when she passed. The folks that bought the place from me built their home very close to the graves and the lady put up a picket fence around them and cared for it.

I have two great grandfathers buried in a small town cemetary that were both in the civil war. I think I am probably the last person that will tend those graves.

My wife and I visited Williamsburg a few years ago. At that time, I was an Entered Apprentice. As such, I recognized numerous Masonic symbols on graves dating back to the 1600's. Now that I am a Master, I am sure I would recognize many more of the Brethren. Always spent a moment of silence for my Brothers.

virtus junxit mors non separabit!

I have on on my hunting lease. There is no family left to maintain or care for it, so I mow it twice a year, and spend many afternoons visiting "my adopted family". There is just no excuse to let a cemetery be neglected.

I would recommend that you detail each gravesite's information and post it with pictures online so that someone researching genealogy might benefit. If it weren't for people doing so, my wife wouldn't have been recently contacted by a half-sister that she never knew existed, their father having been married several times and being very closed-mouthed about that fact. She now has a family that she never knew existed, thinking for all these years that she was an only child and she owes it all to people who put things like this on the internet.

It seems that those of you who have gravesites/graveyards on your land treat them with respect, and, perhaps, even a degree of affection.

Years ago I was considering a piece of land in Hawaii, up on a bluff with a great view of the Pacific. Maybe a couple of acres. There was a gravesite, just one, on the land. It was the grave of a very young Japanese child that had died in the early part of the 20th century. I felt a degree of...., maybe friendliness, or affection, about the grave and the departed soul within. Did not bother me at all. But my wife, who is Japanese, would have nothing to do with it. For her it killed any interest in the lot, even when the realtor pointed out that one could hire a Buddhist priest to reinter the departed elsewhere.

So I was puzzled, at the time, as to whether this difference in reaction to a gravesite on one's land was a Japanese thing versus an American way of looking at it, and asked a couple of my American pals how they would have felt about it.

To my surprise, none of them liked the idea of a gravesite either. Well, "liked" is not the right word. They said it would kinda freak them out, too.

So I was thinking that maybe I am unusual in my tolerance, and perhaps even a tad of affection, for graves nearby. But based on this post it seems that my sentiment is not unusual...

Giz has a gravesite on his land that he has very strong, positive feelings about.

I find them out in the middle of nowhere. Usually there was a sawmill there around the time they died and when the virgin timber was all cut out the place was abandoned. I would think that similar things happened around old mining towns. One stone has "Killed By Carpetbaggers" inscribed on it. At the center of the "Granny Bounds" cemetary is Granny Bounds' grave. It's located deep in a national forest. It's over 150 years old and her stone is inscribed "Full Blooded Cherokee Indian." I know quite a few of her descendants and even though most of the Indian blood is no longer flowing in their veins you can still see hints of it in their facial features.

My uncle has a cemetary on his property that is actually a historical sight because the family was massacred during the French & Indian war. There have been several times over the years where the sight was gone over by archeologists and there is now one of those blue historical markers in front of his house.

Me, I have a little cemetary but it has two stones, but I think they were either a dog or a cat because one is called Muffy.

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Vaya con Dios

My compliments to you and your family! When we moved to Missouri, my son and I discovered a small neglected grave yard-One stone, about 7 feet high had the Woodmen of America inscription-it was for Alfie Colley-a Corporal in the US Volunteers during thje Phillipine Insurection-I have spent years doing research on Alfie and his father-a Civil War veteran. We have also restored the cemetery. Found out that this had been a prominent family-the mystery is what motivated a kid in central Missouri to go fight in the jungles of the Phillipines? And how did they get his body all the way back here-there are no news accounts-Its a good thing to honor these citizens who helped to build our nation-gives you a sense of participating in a great endeavor.

Cemeteries should be a National treasure. Every time I see one, I'm reminded of a quotation by Maculay: "a people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants".

Kelly...I have made a Family Cemetery on our 20 acre Farm...which is part of 800 acres left from my wives old home place . It is about a 1/4 acre near our house, and it took about a year for the County to OK it ....lot of Red Tape . Hopefully the Grand Daughters will take care of it !
Al Deputy

My wife and I were looking at some property in Mt Rogers Va. There was a private cemetery on the back of the 35 acre property. I thought it kinda neat, but the wife - well she must have a little Japanese in her.


Charlie