I'd never heard of, much less seen, a grave house until my buddy Frank Murphy brought the story of cemetery hunter John Waggoner, Jr. to my attention this morning:
Man locates obscure burial grounds by Morgan Simmons in today's edition of the Knoxville News Sentinel. Here's an excerpt:
(Photo by Adam Brimer, courtesy Knoxville News Sentinel)
A retired wholesale gas distributor, Waggoner lives in Carthage,
Tenn. Ten years ago, he started locating old cemeteries around his
home, often as a favor to the surviving family members. So far, he has
found 630 obscure burial grounds in Smith County, most of them on
farms, where families typically buried their dead prior to World War II.
Lately, Waggoner has focused his efforts on grave houses. He's located just more than 100 of the structures in seven states throughout the South. Some of the grave houses are built of logs, while others resemble miniature farmhouses. Virtually all the grave houses that Waggoner has located were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and, in many cases, there's not much left.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
John and his wife Retta have documented their work online at their website, TheGraveWalkers.com.
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