Newton Jasper Tillman

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)-- During a renovation project, a Fayetteville contractor found a tombstone dating back to the 19th century buried among the trash.

John Dickerson has been working on a house off Juneway Terrace for about two weeks.

He called it the dirtiest house he has ever worked on.

“There was trash and debris stacked up waist deep all through the house and down the car port and in the room on the side," said Dickerson.

After about 10 dumpsters full of trash were removed from the house, Dickerson said he found the tombstone.

It reads N.J. Tillman, Born Jan. 1, 1832, Died Feb. 21, 1895, His Record Is On High.

Dickerson said he does not know where the stone could have come from.

In his 30 years of renovating homes, Dickerson said he has never come across anything like this before.

He did say there were items in the house that gave him an idea of how it may have gotten into the home.

“We figured out this was a crack house or full of meth heads or whatever," Dickerson said. "They had a party room here and they wrote poems on this one door. Maybe they got strung out and maybe they found an old cemetery around here and pulled it up from somewhere. I have no idea.”

The contractor has no desire to keep the marker.

He hopes someone who knows about it or is a relative of Tillman will reach out to return the stone back to its rightful home.

Dickerson said he can be reached by email at txndwnunder@yahoo.com but those claiming to be family will have to show some form of identification.

• Source - http://5newsonline.com/2017/02/26/contractor-finds-tombstone-in-fay...