Bizarre reason man's grave is located in the middle of pavement
The reason behind a man’s grave being randomly placed in the middle of a pavement has prompted people to ask what happened to all the others.
A man’s grave has been randomly sitting slap bang in the middle of a pavement for decades in a neighbourhood in Jacksonville, Florida.
The gravestone is right next to a busy road, traffic, tennis courts, a community centre - which begs the question - what on earth is it doing there?
And it’s only during recent years the reason behind the weird placement has come to light.
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Thompson Williams, who is buried there, was shot dead in 1908 after protecting the ‘honour and life’ of a woman from a ‘fiend’ who fired at her twice.
And it turns out that a map from the 1800s has revealed that the placement of the grave is far from random, as it used to be a cemetery.
A local historian and urban planner Ennis Davis told News4JAX: “You dig up older maps and I came across an 1800s map of Jacksonville that had a zoomed-in map of ownership in the LaVilla area, and this was identified as the Mount Herman Cemetery.
“This alone should let you know that the development of this street and its infrastructure was built over a cemetery, and they moved the grave in the middle of the sidewalk just to do it.”
A map from 1887 of Jacksonville, that was issued by the State Library and Archives of Florida, shows Durkeeville with train tracks next to the cemetery, just feet away from where Williams’ grave remains.
He was buried in the cemetery that was mostly for black citizens, which prompted people to ask where the rest of the graves are.
The cemetery was owned by the family of Francis L’Engle, who was the first mayor of LaVilla.
In the 1940s, they donated the cemetery to the city, which eventually removed many of the bodies and built the Emmett Reed Community Center over it.
While Williams’ grave has been left largely as it was – albeit awkwardly placed – what happened to those of many others is left unknown to this day.
A man who grew up in the town, Freddie Paney, said that the cemetery has been there since his childhood.
Despite being a native, he questions whether he will ever be able to find where his ancestors were buried.
The city has also not commented publicly on any efforts to uncover the lost graves.
Mia Williams