KINFOLK

"Old" Laurel Fork Cemetery

Located in Upshur County, WV

We were able to reconstruct the following tombstones at the "old" Laurel Fork Cemetery, situated on a hillside on Laurel Fork Road, two-tenths of a mile from the Adrian-Evergreen Road, not far from Buckhannon, W. Va.

Eleven people worked on cleaning and renovating the old graveyard where Troy Brady's great-grandparents, William Sherman Brady and Frances Jane Lemons are buried The Brady "clan" bought a new marker for their groves, since Wm. S. marker was just a large fieldstone. It, as well as the marker placed for her, were left standing as they were. (After hers was repaired)

All the tombstones in the cemetery were broken, in from two to five pieces, and one was so demolished that we could not reconstruct it, or even make out the name. We were not able to find parts of two or three others, but Troy repaired all that could be repaired by cementing patio blocks to the backs of them. I (Elizabeth T. Brady) spent most of my time deciphering the inscriptions on the tombstones. The epitaphs were especially hard to read. By sanding them with a stone I was able to make out most of the inscriptions. Several of the graves had only field stones as markers (perfectly blank), but the others are:

Our mother here lies under ground, The dearest friend we ever found;
But through the Lord's unbounded love, We’ll meet again in realms above.

Earth counts a mortal less , Heaven an angel more.

Lone is the house, And sad the home
Since thy sweet smile is gone.
Another better home than ours
In heavens now thy own.

Husband and children I must leave you.
Leave--yes, leave you all alone,
But my blessed Saviour calls me—
Calls me to a heavenly home

Lone is the house and sad the home
Since thy sweet smile is gone,
But, Oh! a brighter home than ours
In heavens now thine own

Sweetly sleep my precious daughter
Holy angels guard thy bed
Gently rest in Jesus, darling,
Till he calls thee from thy rest

One little angel more Singing with voice so sweet
flinging its crown of gold Down at the Saviour’s feet

Dearest child thou hast left us
And thy loss we deeply feel
Tis the Lord that hath bereft us
Of the one we loved so well.

Transcribed From Research Notes (more cemetery searches)

Ever since I became interested in my family history I have wanted to go to Albemarle and Nelson Counties in Virginia, because I learned early that my mother's people, the Wingfields and Hendersons, settled in that section after coming from their native lands. Later they came across the mountains into what is now West Virginia just before, or during, the Civil War. In August of 1977 we decided that we would do some real research on our "Roots" each week, before going to Florida for the winter.

We spent the entire day of August 31st equipping the car for camping and the next day started for Nelson County. Almost the entire day of September 1st was spent in the small Court House in Lovingston, with very gratifying results. My forebearers really began to come to life when I saw legal documents concerning them. Some of these records we found in Nelson County and some the next day in Albemarle County. We noted a lot of records and jotted them down, to be compared with what we already have. Of course we know that many of them will not concern my direct line of descent, but I was able to verify so much that my records took on the look of a much corrected thesis. I plan to make each of our sons a copy after we have completed our research.

We returned again to Nelson and Albemarle Counties on October 4th to double check our records and to get photo static copies of the legal documents which concerned our ancestors. These copies cost us $9.50.

Between the two trips to these two counties we made a trip to Page County, on Sept 15th, to search the records there, for information on the Row side of Troy’s family. Tradition told us that Benjamin and Sally had come from Germany and settled in Page County, Virginia, but we were not sure this was correct, until we found there the deed to 200+ acres that they had purchased. The results of this trip are fully recorded in the Row history section of this volume.

During Senior Citizens' Camp at Ev-Un-Breth Acres in 1977 plans were made to meet there the third week in September, to remodel one of the dormitories to better accommodate married couples. Dr. and Mrs. Miles, Guy and Oma Clevenger, Jim and Opal Reed, Clellie and Ruby Rexroad, Troy and I reported for work on Monday. Troy got up at daybreak on the 20th and painted several hours before breakfast, so that we would feel free to leave camp early in the afternoon. We wanted to search for the burial place of his great-grandparents, William Sherman Brady and his wife, Frances Jane (Lemons) Brady.

We had already visited with his father's first cousin, Flora Brady Tillet, who knew the location of the old cemetery. Flora will be 82 years old on the 6th of November of this year. She and her sister, Lillie Gould, are the only living children of William Tecumseh Sherman Brady, a brother of Troy's grandfather. Flora could pass for 70 in both looks and agility and she wanted to accompany us to the cemetery. She had lived in the vicinity of Buckhannon, W. Va. all her life, and passed within a quarter of a mile of the graveyard, yet had never visited the graves of her grandparents! When we got to the area of the graves and learned that it would be a rather hard climb up a brushy hillside, we asked if she would like to wait in the car for us. She was anxious to go and seemed to make her way up the hill almost as easily as we did.

The burial ground was in deplorable condition. The fence had been down for years, but a few old leaning posts and some completely flat, told us fairly well the area of the burial grounds. Many of the groves were marked with field stones only, and not a single commercial marker was intact Some were so crushed that they could not be put back together. All those buried there seemed to be of Brady or Lemons descent.

There were several graves of people that Troy and Flora knew by tradition. We had just about decided that Troy's grandparents' graves were just marked with field stones and we would not be able to identify them when I noticed a white gleam near the top of the hill, beyond the other graves. This proved to be the marker for the grave of Troy's great-grandmother, and although broken in two we could read all but the poetry inscription at its base. It read:

Frances J.
Wife of Wm. S. Brady
Died Oct. 26, 1882
Aged 57 ys. 10 mo. 25ds.

She must have been born in December of 1824. She died before the death of her husband His children had not placed a marker at his grave, but there was a grave by her’s marked with two large field stones, so we were sure that one was his. Allen Wane Brady was one of the sons of the above couple. He was married three times, and the grave of his fast young wife and two of her children were in this old cemetery. Troy knew this great-uncle as Uncle Bo. His wife's inscription read:

Ellen E., wife of A. W. Brady,
Died March 31, 1882
Aged 20 ys. 1 mo. 24 ds.

Our mother lies here underground
The dearest friend we ever found,
But through the Lord's unbounded love
We'll meet again in heaven above.

Llewelyn E., Died
May 19, 1882
Age 2 mo. 9 da.

Mary B., Died
Sept 17, 1884
Age 5 yrs. 5 mo. 21 da.

In case someone reading this is interested in finding this old graveyard, it is on the left of the road leading to the Laurel Fork United Methodist Church, from the Adrian-Evergreen Road. In 1977, there was a mobile home near the road and the cemetery lay up the hill and a little to the left of its location. We inquired about it and the lady there gave us directions. She said she would go with us but had company at that time.

She came while we were still there and helped Flora back down the hill. Troy was thrilled to find a perfect piece of petrified wood just down the hill from where the fence had been. It will be a little memento to pass on to a descendent. If the person who gets it does not care for it, give it to someone who will enjoy it. There may be a rock collector in the family.

We stayed one more night at Ev-Un-Breth Acres after the other workers had gone home. The work was finished by noon on the 21st. Troy and I spent a little time that afternoon in the courthouse in Buckhannon, then went on to Tenmile. Here we went through the cemetery near the Tenmile Baptist Church. I was thrilled to find the grave of my great-uncle, Robert E. Wingfield, whose obituary I have had in my possession for over fifty years. It was always kept in the family Bible and since I was such a great hand to keep scrapbooks mother gave it to me. We were searching for the graves of my great-grandparents, the Wingfields. Not finding them here we decided to inquire at a farmhouse, to learn if there were private cemeteries in the area. We stopped at the Paul Shaw home and to our surprise learned that we were on the very farm where the Wingfields had settled when they came from Albemarle County, Virginia, before the Civil War.

Mr. Shaw was a very friendly man and we enjoyed talking to him. He invited me into the house and showed me, through the dining room window, the burial place of my great-grandparents. It was a little fenced in plot in the middle of his pasture field. Mr. Shaw was alone and waiting for a call to train duty but he told us to feel free to drive or walk out to the burial ground.

I opened the cattle gate and we drove out to inspect the graveyard. There was a nice marker for the graves of Robert C. and his wife, Eliza, and smaller ones for their daughter-in-law, Sarah Jane Wingfield, and her fifteen-year-old daughter Selina E. I learned later that the young girl was the "Fanny," mentioned in the obituary of Robert E. Wingfield. This was according to Artie Norvell. When I compare the dates of the deaths, I am not sure of this. (I am copying the notes again while in Florida and do not have the obituary with me.) Sarah Jane died in 1887 and her daughter a little over a year later. Her father-in-law did not die until 1905. Those are the dates on the tombstones. Robert E. never remarried and the section of the farm where the four graves are located had probably passed into the hands of the Shaws, since he was buried in the church cemetery instead of by his wife. Mr. Shaw said the farm had been in their family for three generations.

I have in my possession a little booklet published by the Farm Women's Club of Upshur County. A short history is given of the Tenmile Baptist Church, along with other Centennial Churches in this county. Four of the seven charter members of the church were Wingfields; both my great-grandparents, and two of my great-uncles.

"The Tenmile Baptist Church was organized by seven people who had immigrated from Virginia: H. H. Leigh; the R. C. Wingfields; R. E. Wingfield; the George T. Herndons, and John R. Wingfield; Being members of Baptist Churches in Nelson and Taylor Counties, Virginia, their first move was to establish a new church in this wilderness beyond the mountains.

"R. C. Wingfield bought 531 acres of land for $2.00 an acre sight unseen, through a land agent in Virginia. His home church, Adial Baptist Church still stands at Nellyford, Virginia. He and his wife, Eliza, are buried in a private cemetery on the Paul Shaw property--Eliza in her good black burying dress, which she kept for many years in waiting. Preacher Bard preached Mother Wingfield's service at the same time as that of his grandson, although they had been buried weeks before."

RESEARCH SEPTEMBER 22nd & 23rd – 1977

(Another Cemetery Search)

At the Thrash reunion at Ted's and Blossom's this year some of us made plans to visit our brother's, Wilbur and Percy’s graves. Beulah, Buddy, Troy and I had been there recently and noticed that the lettering on the monument was hard to decipher. We decided that some of us would go back, pick it up and take it to the Kelly Monument Works in Elkins, West Virginia, for recutting. Gotthart did not know that a monument had been bought for their graves by Mother and Dad, after they moved to Akron. He may have just forgotten it.

The arrangements made was for Elma to pick Gotthart up and drive to Ruby's in Elizabeth, W. Va. There they would get with Ruby and John and the four would meet us in Burnsville. We would already be at the church camp for the work week, so that would shorten the trip so much for us. We were to meet in Burnsville, at 10:00 am. On the 22nd. This plan worked out fairly well except that Gotthart was not able to make the trip.

Since we were there about 9:00 o’clock, we decided to visit the town cemetery. We inquired at a house adjacent to the graveyard and was told by the lady that her parents and a grandchild were interred there; that she had been over it hundreds of times and that no Hendersons or Thrashes were buried there. So we just killed time by going from one service station to another, so we would not miss the others. They did not come until almost noon, so we had time to interview some of the older citizens. We talked to some who remembered my mother's sister, May Carder, and her family. They had retired in Burnsville, but of course none were old enough to remember my mother or her parents.

We visited the cemetery where the boys are buried and picked up the marker there, after eating our lunches together in Sutton. Ruby pointed out the school she attended in the first grade and we took some pictures of her them. The school is now a community building.

We were hoping all of us could stay in Sutton or Burnsville at a motel that night but John and Ruby seemed anxious to get back home. I know Elma was very disappointed that she could not stay with us. We had quite a time finding the first cemetery we visited. It was a comparatively new one, up the river from Sutton, just below the Sutton Dam. We were almost sure it was not the one where our people were buried.

Ruby had told us that it was on a steep hill. They had buried one of the Carder boys there before the death of Don Pomroy (Ruby's husband, and funeral director in Elizabeth, W. Va.).

After much searching and asking questions we located the right one. The road to it was absolutely impassable with a car; very steep and eroded. Here we found the graves of Aunt Mollie and her husband, Joseph Ritter. Mollie’s real name was Mary Frances. Aunt Mildred May Carder and her husband, Rev. Jacob Carder and their son, Henderson, are also buried in this cemetery. Henderson was the cousin Ruby and Don buried. I doubt very much that the others would have been able to walk up there if they had stayed.

This abandoned cemetery is about a quarter of a mile up the Little Kanawha River from Burnsville. We were not able to locate the graves of my grandparents, William Warder Henderson and Elizabeth Ann Wingfield Henderson. Later Ruby said they were there in the row with the other relatives; probably in graves marked with field stone.

Not having this information we continued to inquire and search. When we got to Napier a lady told us she was sure they were buried in a little, abandoned cemetery on a hill in back of the Baptist Church in Burnsville. In our inquiries we learned that many bodies had been moved from old sites, to allow the Sutton Dam to be built. These had been placed in a nice location on Saltlick Road, near Gem, W. Va. Either their own markers had been moved and reset at the new location, or the government had placed small, substantial ones for them, with just their names and dates. If the person was unknown the word "Unknown" was on the marker. There was also a bronze plaque for each family group. We searched this cemetery thoroughly, hoping to locate my grandparents.

We went on to Napier, but there was no cemetery at the church. We asked who we could contact that might be able to give us information about old inhabitants. We were directed to an old gentleman by the name of Singleton. He lived on Old Route 19, northeast of Heaters, W. Va. He said "Yes, I knew Mike Thrash well and his son Claud. He used to run a store here." He also told us that he remembered my grandfather's funeral although he was a small boy at that time, and that he was buried in the Big Run Cemetery. He gave us directions on how to find it. We went up to the top of the hill at Napier. At the church we turned right on a stone-based road, went down a steep hill, passing two houses; then through a gate and up the hill to the right. In this little cemetery we found the graves of my Thrash grandparents, Rachel Elma Crislip Thrash and Michael Thrash. There was a tombstone at Grandfather's grave, but none at Grandmothers. He died in 1903 and she in 1909.

In the Buxton County Courthouse in Sutton we found the will of Grandfather. It was dated just exactly a week before his death. He was too weak to sign his name and just signed an "x". It was witnessed by two Napier neighbors. He was a merchant so I knew he could write. (Years later this was confirmed when I was given a letter he had written to a half-brother. A copy of this letter was reproduced in my book, "Reclaimed Memories," in 1991.)

Uncle Claude and Aunt Dora were still single and living at home. Yet Claude got everything, including the personal property as well as the real estate. The other ten children were to get $10.00 each, to be paid to them by Claude within two years. No security was required, so I wonder if they ever received that. Claude was to take care of Grandmother. Some of the older cousins disagree as to where she died. Sister Ruby and first cousin, Amy Wilson, thinks she did live with Claude until her death. Rachel Swisher (Day) thinks she was with Aunt Dora for a period of time and died in her home.

Aunt Dora Rader and her husband, Burton, are buried on the Thrash lot in the cemetery. Evidently, Aunt Dora had the markers placed soon after her husband's death. His stone is cut with the dates of his birth and death, 1880-1931, but hers is cut with only her birth, 1880. She died just seven months after the death of Burton. We visited her in the summer of '32 and she died September 11, 1932. She was not bedfast when we were there, but was in bad condition, with much swelling in her legs and body.

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