Billy Taph

Part 3 of 3 - We find clues to the mystery of why kids call this abandoned place The Devil's Graveyard. Yes, there are people here that were part of groups like the Masons, or Order of the Eastern Star maybe, but there is no Devil here. There are just folks here, veterans, rich folks and some poor. Did the missing and damaged gravestones have Masonic type symbols? Most likely. I think we will be back to do a little yardwork and cleaning up. We would want the same done for us. #cemetery #grave #graveyard #mystery https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

Part 2 of 3 - Exploring this abandoned graveyard. Nature is slowly taking back this place. A lot of the gravestones are damaged or missing, and the graves are being lost to forest. But some of the gifts left for the dead are still here, leaving clues to the lives behind the names. #cemetery #graveyard #grave https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

Part 1 of 3 - Join me as we head out to look for The Devil's Graveyard In Dothan, Alabama. Legend says that the devil haunts this abandoned graveyard. Let's go see what we can see... #graveyard #grave #cemetery https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

Join me as we travel to Dothan Alabama to walk around the world's smallest city block. Is that a tombstone in the middle of the road? #cemetery #grave #weird #graveyard #localattraction #dothan https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

I take a walk through the Dothan City Cemetery. One of two managed by the city. There is so much to see, you cannot take it all in in one visit. They have plot-maps on the city website if you are looking for someone in particular. I did not find this out until after my visit, it was a spur of the moment trip. https://www.dothan.org/307/City-Cemetery https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

I take a walk through the Dothan City Cemetery and find a famous grave. Haywood Cooper Sullivan was an American college and professional baseball player who was a catcher, manager, general manager and club owner in Major League Baseball. Read more about him: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/haywood-sullivan/ https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

I take a walk through the Dothan City Cemetery. We find two folks in love, and Just Joan. They have plot-maps on the city website if you are looking for someone in particular. Or you can leave a comment and ask me to find out more, or give you a better view of a grave we pass too fast. https://www.dothan.org/307/City-Cemetery https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

I took a trip over to the Dothan City Cemetery to search for a Red Sox player and veteran. On the way, a MAC Tools truck gives us some good advice. Let's go find Haywood Cooper Sullivan. https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

Join me as I search for a name in the downtown Enterprise City Cemetery in Enterprise, AL. I end up walking right past the folks I was there to photograph. But this cemetery is very well maintained. Remember, a lot of local cemeteries are maintained by donations and volunteers. Check out if your local cemetery has a website where you can donate a few bucks to keep it a nice place to visit your loved ones. https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

We traveled to Enterprise Cemetery tracking down some folks for a friend, and found homemade and damaged headstones. https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

Join me as I search for a name in the old Clark Cemetery in Dothan, AL. https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

I got contacted by a friend who asked me to go over to Clark cemetery and look for a gravestone for him. I found it! It was a very interesting stone, a woodmen of the world draped obelisk. Woodmen of the World derived from the Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal group which was founded in 1883. Fraternal scholar William Whalen describes it as an insurance society with some fraternal lodge features. Woodmen advertised themselves as an organization for the "Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, the agnostic and atheist." The Woodmen of the World emblem is a sawed-off tree stump, often with a mallet or beetle, an ax, and a wedge: the motto "Dum, Tacet Clamat" ("Though Silent He Speaks") usually appears somewhere on the border. These Woodmen emblems are found throughout the United States, but the largest concentration is in the South and Midwest. The obelisk has its roots in Egyptian architecture and culture, representing a ray of sunlight. The drapery provides the added sentiment of mourning, the death shroud, or the thin veil between Heaven and earth. https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph

Coming soon. Billy loves cemeteries, documenting gravestones, and reuniting people with their past. Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige's wall, there was this one: "Matters of great concern should be treated lightly." Master Ittei commented, "Matters of small concern should be treated seriously." --- Ghost Dog https://www.facebook.com/billytaph Treat me to a road coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/billytaph #graveyard #cemetery #grave