Is this a Mass grave in Rawl West Virginia?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- While looking for a certain grave and documenting the very large, and spread out Rawl Cemetery, Leo met a couple locals who told him about a mass grave and its location. Leo sets out to find the area and video it for the first time.
This area was once a coal mining community broke up into areas according to race. This is supposed to be the African American burial spot we are told.
Thank you members, subscribers and Patreon members! You help keep us on the road!
If any of you would like to contribute to the "gas fund" to help go find all these amazing places, we would sure appreciate the help! Doing videos gets harder as we go. The best way to help is directly through Paypal. Our address is: leonardnew@hotmail.com
Cash App $hauntedheather
Join this channel to help us do more!
/ @thehillbillyfiles
Patreon link patreon.com/us...
Want a special video message from Leo? follow our link to order one! www.cameo.com/...
Leo That is truly an African American grave site! The stacked stones that you said looked to be benches, is what they are! They brought the casket through one opening and out the other. They sat as sang hymns, prayed and preached, just like today at a funeral. The blacks were segregated from the white cemeteries. Should be cleaned up and get all the names you can! Awesome find, God Bless you and Heather! (Glen). WV.
Bring in historical society they will do the work to find out who they are and put the cemetery on records for the respect they deserve..
Right on! You are absolutely right.
If you go around to Nursing Homes and find elderly African Americans to talk to, you just might find out more about it! I hope this helps🙋🏻♀️
Leo, Do you think the wall could have been built, to surround the mass grave?
Sometimes you hear tales about mass graves from bad tornadoes that went through way back and wiped out several families with nobody left to place individual markers. There’s an old cemetery in middle southern Tennessee somebody told me years ago had a mass grave from an early 1900’s tornado but I haven’t tried to verify it. It’s way out in the boonies and the butterflies used to be amazing there.
Awesome finds but so sad to be forgotten!!!! Thanks Leo and Heather!!! ❤️
Wouldn’t that horse shoe shaped monument mean the mass grave was there?
I thought the same thing
Would be cool to do some Lidar scanning to show each grave 🤔
Looks like another camp site for Leo and his weed eater. My grandmother was born in 1911 and at birth her mama died she was 7 months premature they didn't think she was going to live so there was no birth certificate her sister's raised her she lived in an oven for a couple to 3 months till she gained weight and could live. Her sister's neighbor witnessed her birth and so did her sister yes things back then was different and she lived in the middle of a town thanks Leo for sharing thank you heather keep up the good work
Thank You for sharing your story, would be awesome if someone could get together group to mark clean and put up a sign tell this story. Our younger people need to hear the stories of the pass , hopefully this will not be forgotten again
That was my frist thought, that could be the resting place ...a mass grave. Y'all are so good at this!!! Thank you!!
Periwinkle is the ground cover, see it everywhere around old home sites and cemeteries in Virginia,
As always great show, enjoy watching y’all get out there when I’m not able to
Eastern Kentucky as well
Such a beautiful resting place. Thanks Leo and Heather. Now they are remembered.
Please hit the thumbs up button. Right now it's 139 views and 42 thumbs up. It's free and only takes a few seconds to do
For real he has a lot more views than likes!!! ❤
Heather I also wondered if the rock walls encircled the mass grave. Did the local man know what decade the sickness took place. I thought the mass grave would have a very large indention. I also wondered if anybody knows approximately how many people were buried in the mass grave. I hate questions that the answers are lost in the midst of time. The questions will drive me crazy ❤
Wow, that’s amazing. They gotta be some kind of records or something somewhere or there is a stone somewhere that needs to be uncovered that has some kind of information on it. I’d really like to know that so Heather get ready start looking.😊
Thank you for all you and Heather do to record history 🌹
Oh again another location the local historical society needs to investigate and honor.
Thank you for the latest upload . Very but interesting in equal measure .
Greetings to all from Derbyshire , England .
Thanks for listening!
Another amazing discovery 👍🇺🇸
Ty and Heather for everything. This is so sad.
Awesome word of mouth find! We all need to identfy perserve and document these historical areas❤❤❤
Thank You Leo & Heather for all your content! I just have to say you are so good natured and can tell you love what you do and that is what keeps people wanting to watch! I hate to mention the “competition” as they seem to have made themselves, but I try to watch for the history but I cannot because of the attitude that comes across, the condescending nature and they interrupt each other talking! So A BIG THANK YOU for the friendly nature you have that transcends across your channels and keeps me coming back to watch everyday! 🫶🏼
Thank You
How sad for those families. Maybe some church volunteers can give it some TLC so that a memorial can be placed there.
I read an article on those Af-Am cemetery rock walls. It seems that when funerals cannot be performed, family and friends build the rock walled area to memorialize the dead. That practice began with slave cemeteries.
Amazing video I'm sure the fellow who you guys obviously stay rent free in his head will have something to say. Keep pushing your Amazing growth and Amazing locations . At least your channel is proving views for them finally. Love the history!
LOL I like you! :-)
thank you leo great video and great history
That's very interesting ! It makes me curious about what's there. Thanks Leo and Heather !!
That horse shoe shaped wall probably marks the mass grave.
But, why is the area smooth, without any any dips as you said Leo? Great video, thank you very much Leo and Heather. Have a great day. 😊
Great video keep up the great work from Vermont
Very interesting. I hope you can find out more about this cemetery its got have a great story.
This is a great find!! 🙌🏼
So sad to be forgotten! ❤❤❤
Maybe get some young people together to rake, and bag leaves, weed whack would be educational. Worse ideas!
PLEASE READ: In my opinion, if people went to the effort to shape all those stones, then transport them & all that's needed to cement
the stones in place to surround the mass grave, they would have VERY LIKELY carved names of those who are buried in the mass grave
onto the stones. I think I just wrote the longest "running sentence" of my life. 🙂 Anyway...when you return to this site...I respectfully
suggest you bring a few stiff plastic bristle brushes & whatever else you think will help you remove the decades of accumulated moss,
dirt, etc. from the top stones of that "somewhat circular" group of stones. Also, anything that would give the worn, carved information on
the stones more definition would be good to have with you. If you're lucky, you'll likely find the names of those buried in the mass grave
those stones surround.
Best regards to you both from a Kentucky Hillbilly in Yucatan Mexico,
Ben
P.S. I suggest wearing a...COVID-type...facemask while you're brushing away the moss, etc. Ya' don't wanna' inhale those spores.
Leo at 7:59 time stamp what kind of a tree is that. It's not native around there is it. Thinking it could have been planted as a memorial for that area
Very Possible.
Pretty sure it’s a big leaf magnolia. They are native here and that one looks to be a young one.
Thank you Ricky
Very interesting
I'm glad you didn't get stuck. I like your idea of the stone wall as a place for a group to sit, maybe sing songs and remember their loved ones.
People use to bury bed springs over the body of loved ones to keep wild animals from digging them up, especially if buried in a box or just buried without a box.
That site definitely needs more research and investigation. I'm thinking it's an early mountain cemetery with graves marked with only a field stone (if they are marked at all), or it could be a long forgotten area for church picnics, revivals, etc. The old rusted mattress spring is what makes me propose the latter. Mattress springs were often used over a barbecue pit to lay a butterflied hog over hot coals. People also used to picnic near cemeteries in the old days, so it could have been dual purpose. With no stones at any of the grave sites, it's evident that it served a poor population.
The only reason I'm skeptical about the mass grave theory is I've not seen anything recorded about epidemics taking out large populations of coal camps in Southern WV other than the Spanish Flu of 1918-19, and it only killed a fraction of those who were infected. I would also suspect this site pre-dates the Spanish Flu. There has to be someone out there who has heard their grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., speak of this site.
Maybe an Indian mounds burial?
The US Navy provides all servicemen a memorial marker. More than likely, the family could not afford markers. So sad.
It seems that you have found gold in this African American cemetery. WOW! What an interesting piece of forgotten history in WV! There is an interesting cemetery in the heart of Bowling Green, KY. A similar epidemic came through that city years and years ago. African Americans were buried along with white people as there was no other cemetery in the area (I found that odd). Anyway, white people put up beautiful tombstones while the African Americans had only a stone (some had nothing at all). Many years later, land for a cemetery was given to the city. Many of the white people buried in the old cemetery were moved to the new cemetery. During the 25 years I lived in BG, I learned that other land had been given for a separate, larger African American people. It is interesting.
Im sure if there is any info out there to be found, miss Heather will find it. Don't forget to give us an update please. Its sad to know that someone is buried and long since forgotten
There cutting timber up in there so be careful theres rattlesnakea every where up in there only reason i know that i have a friend that lives up in there thats killed 3 this year.
❤😊❤ Nice 1 Leo!
' sad '
What camera model are you using?
Gopro 11 in daylight, Apple 13 mini in low light and at night.
People lived and died without any kind of certificates. You know about them because of census records.
I’m about positive the mass grave is inside of the horseshoe. That’s really the only thing that makes sense.
🖐🥰🪦
Leo where in Rawl is this?
The turnoff Is about 300 yards from the mouth of the holler on the right.
Hello Leo, we've spoken in the past and that cemetery is where my grandparents and great grandmother are buried. I'm estactic that you went there. My mama grew up in rawl holler. That man was living there when I was there about 9 or 10 years ago.
There's a black only cemetery up here in Ohio. Little town called wren