June 1, 2008: Dodson Road and Dodson/Emerson Cemetary
David took me down a road today named after our family. We were in search of an old school house - Dodson School to be exact. We did not find it. We ended up on a gravel road with a gate that kept us from getting to our destination. We did, however, find an old cemetery. The Dodson/Emerson Cemetery. They misspelled the name (perhaps we can get that fixed).
We discovered some graves, of our family, back to the 1700s!!!!!!!!!
So we arrived at this grown up area in Graves County. Nothing but brush and trees. You could barely see into some of the forested areas. The mosquitoes were everywhere - tics crawling - hot, about 87 degrees and humid! It was like stepping back in time once we got in there. These old gravestones that have been untouched for who knows how many years. At first we could not find anything. We looked and looked. There was just so much brush. Finally David spotted a couple of tombstones. These were the Emerson’s. We are still working on how they are connected to the Dodson family. After finding the Emerson Tombstones we started looking for the Dodson’s.
I finally climbed up in a tree stand, that someone had built for deer hunting, and looked around the forest. Nothing. It was just too grown up. We decided to go back to the car and look at the map. We looked in one last place, while swatting mosquitoes and sweating, we found an area that was grown up and over with brush and weeds - about four-five feet high. We spotted a grave and then another. One was sticking up like a monument - about four feet high or so.
We climbed our way through the brush and made it to the first stone - DODSON was written on it. We found what we were looking for. Then we found a few more. We decided to go back to the car to get some brush clippers. We clipped for awhile - about an hour. Finally cleaned everything up and you could see all of the tombstones. At the end of the day we were still missing a few. We will have to go back!
I am going to have to ask Tony if he can help us find out if the old Dodson Schoolhouse is still on the property (photo below of fields). I am going to have to get some of my family to go out there as well!
Photos from today
Dodson Road - the road that leads to the Dodson School House.
This is the land where the school is/was located. Our family used to own this land in Graves County.
The sign for the cemetery
Elizabeth Dodson - December 12, 1825 - 1898
Elizabeth Dodson - December 12, 1825 - 1898
Four Dodson Tombstones lined up
George W. Martin - Died 1888
Albert Emerson Died January 1888
Emerson Grave Stone - we are unsure, at this point, of who the Emerson’s are. They are buried in front of
the Dodson’s. David is working on that subject.
Irwin E. Emerson Born July 28, 1878 and Died February 2, 1907
Emerson Graves
Asa Dodson - 1780-1855
Asa Dodson
Nancy Wolverton 1782-1850
Nancy Wolverton
Thomas Dodson - 1918-1892
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