Odd Fellows Cemetery I

Odd Fellows Cemetery

Click pic above for photos.

This cemetery is right here in Starkville where I go to school, just right up the street from my apartment.

This is probably one of the saddest little cemeteries I've ever been seen. Not only was it not properly cared for (parts are overgrown and covered in anthills, knocked over and broken tombstones), but many of the graves didn't have headstones at all. Instead, they had the little green plaques that are temporarily placed over graves. Oftentimes, these plaques will stay there because the family can't afford a tombstone, or there is no family around.

According to the sign at the foot of the hill, Odd Fellows is one of the oldest black cemeteries in Mississippi.

Next post will include photos from the allegedly haunted Gulf Hills Resort. Also, this weekend there is a good possibility I'll be driving out into Noxubee county to document a really creepy, really old cemetery out near the wildlife refuge. Stay tuned. :)

Welcome!

Hopefully my blog description up there has enlightened you a little bit about my little bit of intarweb space here. My name's Jes (or Jessie, or Jessica, whatever really) and I am really excited about starting up this little project. And what a fantastic month to start--October!

First, a little history--I've been fascinated by cemeteries since I was a little girl. Odd fascination, isn't it? I think it started on a field trip to Beauvoir Mansion when I was in fifth grade. They let us take grave rubbings in the old Confederate cemetery, and I've been hooked ever since. I've sneaked into many a graveyard after dark (and gotten busted) back home and it's a love that just grows with time.
I love knowing that I'm remembering someone for whom no one may even be alive to remember anymore. The family may have died out, moved on, or the deceased is just so far back into the family tree that no living family members know they ever existed. To me, every graveyard is a little museum.

So what I'm going to be doing here is posting the photographs I take in cemeteries all across the Southeast (but probably mostly from Mississippi, since that's where I live and I'm a financially-challenged college student) and giving as much history on these graveyards and families as I can. I want this to be a collaborative project, so if you know something I don't, or would like to share something (pictures, history, what have you), please email and let me know!

This place will most definitely not be limited to only graveyard photos. I have a fascination with the occult that would probably deeply upset my grandmother, so I'll be including photos of alleged haunted places, orbs, and any and all creepy urban legends and/or ghost stories I come across. Again, this is a collaborative website--so speak up!

Cheers,
Jes