Hundreds Of Pre-Civil War Graves Found In Albany
By: Brendaliss Gonzalez
Updated: April 17, 2012
Beneath the land lie hundreds of graves dating back to 1856.
"We need to document the cemetery, we need to let people know its here," said Julia Putnam, whose family owns the site.
Putnam and her family own the Camp Cooper Ranch, home to an old Civil War fort and she's dedicated the past three years to unveil the hidden cemetery.
"We have a very rich history in this particular area of southern fort martin and norther Shakelford counties," she said.
She discovered just how big the graveyard was after a historian friends hunch.
"The floods over the years had washed away all of the markers and he said that he knew some people who could help me identify the graves in the cemetery and he asked if i was interested and of course i was interested," said Putnam.
That hunch lead lead to finding the graves- 30 of which are thought to be of soldiers stationed at the Fort.
The chair of the Shackelford County Historical Society also found parts of uniforms dating back to the post Civil War.
This has all sparked plenty of plans for Putnam to continue digging up the history behind the graves.
"Eventually I hope to mark all the graves with headstones or markers of some kind and possibly fence in the area," she said.


