Once the graveyard of the Reformed Church of Beacon this has been long abandoned. I’ve seen a number of abandoned graveyards before: completely overgrown and with tilted and broken gravestones, but I’ve never seen one quite like this. To me what makes this one different are the abandoned vaults, from which the remains have been removed and re-interred elsewhere. According to a marker in front of the Reformed Church one of the more famous re-interrments was Colonel William Few. Few signed the US Constitution for the state of Georgia. He was interred in the Chrystie family vault, but was later removed to his home state, Georgia.

One of the more impressive memorials with the Reformed Church in the background .

I’ve seen toys left on graves before, usually graves of children who died young and at first I thought this might be the case here. However, it’s clear that nobody has been buried here for a very long time. Moreover, the gravestone on which the toy had been placed read “James Mackin. Died March 1, 1862 aged 37 years, 1 month and 1 day”. So not a child and the toy was a bit of a mystery. Although wet and bedraggled it still worked though: if you pulled a ring on the side it played a tune.

Gravestones.

Tilted gravestone and fallen trees.

Graveyard with opened vaults in the background. At first glance they look like the stone chambers which abound in Putnam County but they are built of brick and clearly of much more recent vintage. They are obviously abandoned – or are they….

One of the “abandoned” vaults had a chair inside and, as this picture shows, a solar powered light outside. There were also other signs of occupation e.g. the Pumpkin. Someone is, at least from time to time, using this vault – perhaps the same person who left the toy?