While living and working in Nashville, I had to go help do some landscaping at a new home we picked up in a new subdivision well outside town. All was cool, and the job went easily, except for one small out-of-place thing- exactly between the house and the neighbor's house was a clump of wild, weedy trees. The whole thing was perhaps thirty feet across, and I wondered why it had not been cleaned up with the rest of the property when the houses were built.
I soon found out- my boss told me there were some graves inside the area, and it's illegal to disturb them. It's still considered to be Sanctified ground. Cool, said I- I can understand that. So I went in to look, and sure enough there was a group of three gravestones in the middle of it all. I took some pictures and forgot all about it until I found the negatives a couple days ago.
Two markers were illegible due to extreme age, but the third one, resting against a tree, had been slightly better protected. After analyzing the photos I saw the stand of trees is permanently occupied by one Sterling B. Thornton and at least two others. It appears he died in either 1842 or 1847 (the death date is partially blocked by some leaves on a weedy branch). Although I can't prove it, I suspect it may have been a multiple burial due to disease or disaster. Remember, this was outside of Nashville Tennessee a hundred fifty years ago. The area was still very much untamed at the time and real civilization was many miles away.
Whomever these souls may be, may they Rest In Peace.