October 02, 2018

29 Days - Cemetery Tuesday / Goodrich Cemetery Revisited

Goodrich Cemetery is a small cemetery in rural Bruce Township / Romeo, Michigan area.  FindAGrave says there are around 174 burials here.

I first posted about Goodrich Cemetery in the 2012 Countdown to Halloween.  That post was a bit scarce on the photos, but it was neat to compare some from then to now. 
8/27/12
There was actually a cemetery sign in 2012.  
Now the sign is gone and the gates stand open.
It's extremely well kept for such an isolated cemetery.  From what I could tell from FindAGrave, the most recent burial is from 1962, but most are from the mid- to late 1800s.  There are 5 Civil War veterans buried here. 

As I was doing some research, I learned that some vandals struck in August 2013 and knocked over or broke most of the stones here.  But the local community pulled together to restore it and the township supervisor had to turn volunteers away!  They had 150 people there including the local football team, a National Guard troop and a funeral director.  Supposedly they installed motion detector cameras, but quite honestly - we looked and couldn't imagine where such cameras would even be.  With the exception of the dirt road, it's surrounded on 3 sides by tall trees, brush and cornfields beyond that.  There are no telephone poles or anything in the vicinity.  We have nothing to worry about anyway.  We would never dream of vandalizing a cemetery!  
I sure don't want a pissed off 200 year old ghost coming after me!  

Anyhoo. 
I have an ulterior motive for this post, too.  Each spring I've had the Spawn's pictures taken in her dance costumes from that season.  This year, she wasn't able to have individual photos taken at the studio when the photographers were there, so I opted to do them myself.  We had a discussion about cool places to do photoshoots at and for this particular jazz costume, I thought an old cemetery would be awesome!  She named Goodrich right away.   I think it worked.    
Prepare to see random shots of her throughout this post. 
To the right of the gate
To the left of the gate.
As I mentioned in my 2012 post, this is the area where there is supposedly a portal for the spirits. 
Now that's random!
This is the face I got when I suggested doing a sort of diving roll between these 2 stones. 
It didn't happen.
This stone is oddly out in overgrown back area of the cemetery.
 
In 2012, it had been knocked over.  And a suspiciously well-beaten path. 

John Gate
Martha, his wife
Emily, his second wife
 
 
 
 
Detail below
This is likely a memorial stone for Ephriam.
He was a sergeant in the 5th Michigan Cavalry and was killed in action in Middletown, VA
October 19, 1864.
 
Betzy is an oddly modern spelling for 1842!
8/27/12
I was happy to see the marble ball was replaced!
You can see it in the woods, next to the tree.
 
 
 
This tree has grown a lot, so this stone won't stay on its base anymore.
Time has really eroded the epitaph, too.
It says 1871 across the base.
 8/27/12
You can see how much straighter it's sitting here.
It was just balanced on the base, too.
This person isn't listed on FindAGrave - I'd add it, but I can't make out what the first name is.
The last names are Ward Fatin.  It was next to other Fatin stones.
 Gulbert?  Gilbert?  Gulbern?
 
 



Ya think *maybe* Jerome is buried elsewhere?

As mentioned before - Goodrich is supposed to have a resident spirit named George.  According to FindAGrave, there is only one George buried here.  His headstone is sideways!


Huldah Goodrich
There is a large number of Goodrich's buried here - I have to assume they're who the cemetery is named after.

Dewitt Gould




I made sure to thank the Bishops for this!
This is the *only* stone here we considered doing this on -
all the rest were entirely too fragile.
It's good to have tall friends along for the adventure!
 
 
 Daughters Alice & Edith listed on one side and sons Jay & Truman P on the other
Lowley Reynolds
Roxey Bradley
Bezaleel Bristol
There's a name for ya!
Aseneth Bristol
 She'd already changed costumes for the next location when I had her do some leaps.
One of the articles I read by the paranormal investigators claimed they'd made contact with George and that he had a sense of humor.  If so, I'm sure he was entertained by this, since you can see his sideways stones in each shot.   In fact, it's under her right calf in the shot right above!
 


Countdown to Halloween

 photo http---signatures.mylivesignature.com-54494-164-6E1F2937D85F5FD3EB8A14DC4819E6EF_zpsg5damrgy.png

1 comment:

  1. Went to this cemetery many times for spooks starting in the early 2000s! It's changed so much over the years. I had the one and only unexplainable thing happen there. Apparition, but it looked like a blobby shadow. One of the strangest things I've ever seen.

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