BARRETT GRAVEYARD
The Barrett Graveyard lies some way east of the old village of
Tavennerville. It is up on the higher flat from the Kanawha River.
It lies near a bank made by a run which crosses the Central Avenue,
a new road up the Kanawha River, near the one-time baseball ground.
It is about one hundred fifty feet square, and has once had a fence,
now going to rack, made of dressed poplar boards with locust posts
hewed square. Just outside the lower fence, on top of a bank leading
down to the east side of the run, stand three magnificent oak trees
with limbs reaching forty feet or more across the graveyard.
This is down the point from the old Barrett house, a hewed log
building built by Caleb Barrett many years ago. The Barrett row is
at the lower side, by the fence, near the middle of the cemetery, and
partially under the oak tree.
There are ten graves, the parents and eight children.
Barrett,Caleb b. October 8th, 1791, d. April 25th, 1870, aged seventy-two yrs.
Barrett,Jemima d. August 4th, 1870 his wife, .
In the same row were four unmarked graves. These graves are under
the oak trees.
Barrett,Caleb C. b. 1845 - d. 1874.
Barrett,Sarah V. b. 1843 - d. 1893.
Barrett,Gertrude and Aletha.
Barceloh,A. d. 1892.
Barceloh, d.1888His wife .
Baker,A d. 1873,
Baker,d. 1888 his wife .
Chapman,John T. b. in 1827 - d.in 1898.
Chapman,Mary A., his wife, 1829 - 1895.
Chapman, child.
Clovis,Levi B. of the 14th W. Va. Inf.
Clovis,Matilda, his wife, .
Repps,d.1888 Paul Repps wife, .
J. J. Harper and wife in the 90's.
I saw no old grave stones.
On November 23rd, I paid a second visit to the Barrett graveyard,
and made some further notes. At this time, the vicinity was built up
and streets laid out. The Parkersburg Machine Company had recently
completed an extensive plant on the old Barrett farm north of the
graveyard, and near the old ball ground. The old log house was
gone, and there was a new red brick residence near the site, with
several other houses close. Euclid Avenue passed near the end of
the cemetery, but had not been opened up yet. I noticed these names:
Charles A. Alladaker.
Henry Chapman.
Moses Tefft, 1840 - 1892.
Martha A. Tefft, 1842 -1892.
Gordon S. Tefft, 1888 - 1924.
The Teffts lived over about the Pilcher place, on Hope Hill Run.
Samuel Matthews, 1835 - 1910.
Sarah Matthews, 1827 - 1898.
BECKWITH GRAVEYARD
Winter wind temper thy icy blast.
Harm not those beneath the mound.
Summer breeze whisper softly for at last
Here asleep they wait the trumpet sound.
(R. H.)
In passing over the gravelled road from Parkersburg to Belleville,
after leaving the village of Lubeck, which lies on the flatlands on
the "divide" between the waters of Neal's Run and Little Sandy Creek,
one goes to the head of one branch of the latter, crosses a very low
gap in a white oak and hickory ridge, and comes over on to Lee Creek
(South Fork - the "Broad Run" of the pioneers), just below the mouth
of Woodyard's Fork, at the old Beckwith home.
Here, on a low point to the left of the road, in a little enclosure about
one hundred by one hundred twenty-five feet, is the private burying
ground of this family of Wood County pioneers, who settled at this
spot in early pioneer days.
The farm has passed into the hands of others, strangers or descendants
so far removed they seem to have lost interest in their ancestry. Though
enclosed by a good fence, the cemetery is grown up with brush, briers,
burrs and weeds, until one can scarcely get among the decayed and
neglected tombstones.
I noted names and dates:
Barnes Beckwith, March 22nd, 1855, aged seventy-eight years,
four months. (Born August 23rd, 1776)
Betsey Beckwith, August 18th, 1826, aged thirty-nine years, 10 months
(Born July 29th, 1787).
Betsey Beckwith, September 24th, 1846, aged thirty-two years, five months
(born April 1st, 1814). (She was twelve years old when her mother died.)
Rebecca Beckwith, March 16th, 1839, aged twenty-seven years, four months
(born October 9th, 1811). (About fifteen years old when her mother
died.)
Barnes Beckwith, 1818 - 1905.
Virginia (his wife), 1820 - 1899.
Barnes Beckwith married Virginia Samuels in 1840.
L. A. Beckwith (Lewis) born 1816 - died 1896. *Lewis marked out and
Lawrence penciled in.
Mary A. (wife) born 1813 - died 1893.
They probably inherited the old homestead, as around them in the
old cemetery sleep many of their children.
Elizabeth Beckwith, 1846 - 1916.
Tapley Beckwith, 1848 - 1919.
Richard B. Beckwith, 1845, two years old.
Lewis Beckwith, 1841 - 19-- (no date) Flag. *23 penciled in after 19.
Elizabeth (wife) 1892, aged forty-three (49).
Adaline, daughter to A. N. Beckwith, died May 16th, 1890, in her
sixty-sixth year.
Philip Wigal died June 17th, 1852, in his fifty-first year.
Elizabeth Napier ("Mother") 1819 - 1905. *Gilchrist penciled in between
Elizabeth and Napier.
Infant of P. and S. Wigal, April 19th, 1815.
Otto F. Eberhardt, January 12th, 1878, aged fifty-one.
Sarah G. (his wife) August 18th, 1828 - October 16th, 1896.
Mary Smith, January 8th, 1854 - 1898.
Two children of Charles and Mary Smith. These last graves in an
outside row, away from the family burying plot.
Lewis Beckwith, who was an extensive landholder on Big Run,
dying about 1815, could hardly have been of this immediate family,
nor is it shown if he were buried in Wood County. If he was a resident,
his deeds would disclose the fact.
BELLEVILLE CEMETERY (Old Belleville Cemetery)
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed: and
he went out not knowing whither he went."
The Belleville Graveyard, when I visited it in late October, 1927,
was, for the greater part, well kept, and neat looking. It lies back
some distance from the river bank, and while the oldest date I
noticed in 1802, there are doubtless graves here one hundred
thirty-five or forty years old.
The cemetery is at the upper, or original, settlement, and about
a mile above the present village, which was founded by Edward
Anderson, about 1858.
The site of the graveyard is several yards below the Lock Number
Twenty.
Many of the inscriptions copied have been placed since the
beginning of the twentieth century.
I noted among the names:
Horace Mitchell, 1854 - 1914.
Ella Mitchell (wife) 1855 - 1902.
Henry S. Mitchell, June 9th, 1828 - October 9th, 1881.
John W. Mitchell, February 24th, 1888, aged seventy-one years,
eight months.
Minnie E., daughter H.S. and P.A. Mitchell, September, 1867.
Anthony Williamson, March 1st, 1825 - May 5th, 1905.
Sarah (wife) August 2nd, 1822 - August 2nd, 1903.
Katie A. Williamson, wife of J. E. McCoy, born October 10, 1852 - died
August 4th, 1901.
Dr. Wesley C. Keever, December 1833 - April 10th, 1899.
Ann Rebecca (wife) April 29th, 1836 - September 11th, 1905.
Dr. John Stewart Keever, June 18th, 1831 - February 2nd, 1888.
Katharine A. (wife) November 20th, 1833 - April 9th, 1916.
Frank Keever, their son (no dates copied).
Addie, wife of M. Whalen, November 1st, 1888, aged twenty-five years,
one month.
Amy Chipperfield, daughter Alexander & W. A. Burdette, born
1871 - died 1904,
aged thirty-two years, six months.
Austin Chipperfield, 1897 - 1925.
Caroline Chipperfield, 1901 - 1918.
Nathan Sheets, January 1st, 1850 - January 15th, 1917, sixty-seven years.
Sidney Agnes Sheets (wife), born February 19th, 1855, died about 1923.
John W. Buckley, died May 27th, 1885, aged thirty-eight years,
twenty-six days.
Abraham Pennybacker, August 7th, 1819, in fifty-fifth year.
Mrs. Elizabeth Pennybacker, December 6th, 1856, in sixty-seventh year.
Benjamin R. Pennybacker, 1817 - 1903.
Penelope S. (Beckwith) wife, 1821 - 1893, aged seventy-two years,
four months.
Janet (daughter) died August 20th, 1861.
David M. (son) died July 11th, 1854, aged two.
M. B. Pennybacker, born 1810 - died December 26th, 1889.
A daughter, Sallie Ann, died in 1856.
Beulah, daughter Louis R. and P. F. Pennybacker, died in 1881. Her
brother, Walter M. in 1895.
Louis R. and Elizabeth Pennybacker (no dates)
Captain Derrick Pennybacker, captain in Berks County, Pa. Militia
during the Revolution. His daughter, Mary, married Samuel Hupp,
and is buried at Belleville.
George W. Gill, died March 20th, 1887, aged seventy-two
years, six months.
Eliza D. (wife) born near Dover, N. J., 1814 - died at Belleville,
July 1st, 1882, aged sixty-eight years, five months.
George S. Arnold, 1848 - 1926.
Alcinda (wife) 1850 - no date.
Katie Remley, October 5th, 1838, aged thirty-three years, eleven months.
Violet Hardwick, January 24th, 1877, twenty-one years, four months.
W. Mitchell Spencer, May 23rd, 1891, aged twenty-one years, three months.
James H. Owings, 1832 - 1921.
Penelope, 1842 - 1873.
Martin Hupp died 1828, in thirty-first year.
Rebecca Hupp (wife) August 24th, 1878, seventy-eight years,
nine months.
William, a son, Setember, 1850, aged twenty-five.
Samuel Hupp, August 9th, 1828, in eighteenth year.
Mary (his widow) November 28th, 1795 - October 11th, 1878. (a
granddaughter of Derrick Pennybacker).
Philip Wells, 1841 - 1921 (a son of Caleb Wells). (An old home carved
sandstone)
Azubolie Ames, wife of Cyrus Ames, died June 11th, 1802, in
the twenty-eighth year of her age.
Albert G. Congrove, 1830 - 1908.
Mary C. (wife) 1812 - 1900.
Miles Jacoby, 1798 - 1884.
Louisa Jacoby, 1800 - 1888.
Cordelia Reed, 1840 - 1915.
Wife of William H. White, January 13th, 1849, aged twenty-eight years,
seven months.
Kleinfelter White (her son) November 14th, 1848.
Alexander White (her son) August 3rd, 1847.
There were three old graves without makers in the row next the river.
John Brown, Co. I., 116th O. V. I.
W. H. Sheets, Co. D., 17th W. Va.
John Humphrey, Co. E., 1st W. Va.
BELMONT CEMETERY
Sometime in October, 1927, while driving up to St. Marys, I
visited a graveyard lying back of and a little above the village
of Belmont. It lies above an old brick Church house above a
small run, which probably enters the river at the upper side of
the village.
In the early days of the county the settlements were made on
the river bank, where steamboats could land and the roads
connecting them followed in the main the bank of the stream.
Later, the road was moved back to the foot of the hill, with lanes
running back to the villages and farmsteads.
This cemetery is large and well kept. The ground in practically
level, and it covers several acres. I failed to note many early
pioneer names, but many fluttering American flags marked the
graves of patriot Americans.
I copied:
Daniel R. Dunn, 1841 - 1919. Flag.
Nathaniel Garrison, 1837 - 1917. Flag.
Minnie C. Rolston, wife of W. C. Rolston, November 11, 1881 - June 5,
1917.
Private Howard G. Ingraham, 1897 - 1918. Pro. A. M. Co. A-A.M.O.T.C.
Leslie A. Wood, 1884 - 1922. Flag.
William H. Core, 1858 - 1926. Flag.
D. C. Westfall, May 23, 1927. Aged 87.
William L. Reese, 1833 - 1908.
Elizabeth A., wife. 1840 - 1906.
Absalom Smith, September 5, 1837 - September 24, 1907.
Annie M., wife, 1845 - 1913.
Elizabeth Smith, 1821 - 1908.
Mary A., wife of Abraham B. Smith, 1876. Aged 79.
William Baird Abbot, 1838 - 1910.
Bennett H. Thorn, 1844 - 1911.
Charles W. Adams, 1855 - 1867.
I noticed other names, such as:
Adams
Bell
Bumgardner
Bull
Carey
Craig
Cornell
Cochran
Cronin
Cautuer
Dunn
Dowell
Frink
Hanes
Janes
Kesterson
Lane
McTaggart
Moore
Martin
Naish
Phelps
Phillips
Pickens
Powell
Seckman
Shingleton
Sigler
Simmons
Smith
Thomas
Williamson
Wolee
Wright
BETHEL CEMETERY
God will not seek thy race,
Nor will he ask thy birth;
Alone he will demand of thee,
What hast thou done on earth?
-- Persian.
The Bethel cemetery is on the slope of a point, on a branch
on Neal's Run, and about a half mile north of Lubeck.
This graveyard is probably older than the one just noted
(Lubeck Cemetery), but the oldest dates I saw were in the
1840's. The Baptist Church at the place, though old and
weatherworn, doesn't date back that far. There may have
been a cabin schoolhouse - church earlier, but the land was
deeded to the Baptist Church.
The grounds were under fence when I visited the place,
but in bad repair, and grown over with broomsedge, which
had ben cut off and let lie on the ground.
There is a fine grove in front of th church, and cleared out
woodlands up the run to the north. The lower end next the
church is the oldest, and there has been added to it enough
to make one a half or two acres.
I noted names of -
Jane Matheney ("Aunt Jinny") a daughter of William and
Hannah Lambert Davis and a sister of my grandmother. She
married Adam Matheney when she was old.
Jonathan L. Davis (her brother) August 21st, 1851 - aged
fifty-four years, ten months. *& 13 days penciled in. He lived
on the waters of Tygart's Creek, near here.
Of his children - Mother's cousins:
Elizabeth, wife of Martin G. Sole, died 1870, forty-six years. (born
1824)
Martin G. Sole, 1825 - 1888.
Martin J. Sole, 1866 - 1896.
Hezekiah T. Davis, December, 1895, sixty-six years, two months.
Mary J., wife of H. T. Davis, forty-three years, two months. She died
May 31st, 1875. Her maiden name was Clark.
William A. Davis, March, 1832, February 19th, 1877, aged forty-four
years, eleven months.
Lewis A. Davis, son of Jonathan, died in 1852 (September 20th) at the
age of eighteen.
Another Lewis A. Davis, son of William A. and A. E. Davis, 1861 - 1865.
Mary L. Davis, 1863 - 1865, daughter of William A. & A. E.
William A. Davis was a first cousin of my mother. She remembered his
wife as Hettie Kesterson. The initials as here given are "A. E.". It
may have been a second wife.
Nearby are the graves of -
B. F. Kesterson, 1852 - 1914, and -
William H. Kesterson, Co. D., 14th W. Va. Inf.
Thomas Marr, 1874, sixty-one years old. He lived on the ridge south
of the river. He has five children buried by him.
Then there were Fortners, kin to Mathenys.
John W. Stout, June 22nd, 1825 - March 4th, 1907.
Elias M. Stout, April 12th, 1855 - May 5th, 1892. This grave marked
with a U. S. flag. Mary, a sister of Jonathan Davis, married Abel Stout.
(Is this her son?)
Eleatha D., wife of Samuel Emrick, born Prince William County, Virginia,
December 19th, 1811, died July 21st, 1865.
Ezekiel F. Smith, born Stockbridge, Mass., October 4th, 1849, died at age
of sixty-three years, six months.
Malinda C., wife of Spencer Smith, is in the same row, but dates are
effaced.
Samuel Sams, Co. K., 5th W. Va. Cavalry.
Peter Romine, died January 20th, 1860, in eighty-third year.
Mary Maddox Romine, his wife, July 1st, 1858, in eighty-second year. Her
father was Matthew Maddox, a soldier of the Revolution. Romine came to
Wood County from Harrison County, about 1813 or 1814.
Samuel Romine, son of Peter, died March 1st, 1888, aged eighty-one years,
eleven months.
Marinda, his wife, died January 11th, 1864, aged forty-one years, eleven
months.
An earlier wife, Margaret C. Calvert was born in Staunton, Virginia,
September
11th, 1824 and died January 26th, 1860 (daughter of Samuel Calvert)
By these graves,
W. W. Romine, 1834 - 1921.
Ethel M., 1842 - 1911.
Thomas Romine, 1815 - 1902.
Ann M., wife of Thomas, 1815 - 1850.
Elizabeth, wife of James Romine, July, 1885, aged sixty-two years, one
month.
T. J. Dewey owned land and lived out on the ridge beyond Marrtown, and
was a connection of the Romines, and probably of the Belleville Deweys.
Jerusha C., his wife, died May 8th, 1858, aged fifty-three years, eight
months.,
and a son, Franklin, died in 1858, no age given, probably a small child.
Jennett Woofter, September 4th, 1880, aged fifty-three.
Florence Ann Woofter, 1886, aged eighteen, are buried on the southern
side.
In a German section near the southern fence, I copied:
Caroline Hecht, 1879, fifty-five years, eight months.
Friedrich Holtz, 1865, sixty years.
H. Schmidt, 1855 - 1872.
Dorothea S. Wulf, July 31st, 1795 - February 23rd, 1860.
Henry Pahl, May 23rd, 1876, aged fifty-two.
Sophia, his wife, 1823 - 1881.
Julia F., daughter of H. O. & D. K. Pahl, 1856 - 1880.
Daniel Bartlett, September 29th, 1893, aged seventy-four years, eleven
months. He lived out the ridge, on the Washington Bottom road, about
a half mile. Daniel Bartlett of Bryant Street is his son. His wife was
Rebecca Smitherman.
Charles W. Teater, born in Belmont County, Ohio, 1833 - 1878.
Walter J. Buckley, December 14th, 1876, aged twenty-four years, eleven
months.
David Riel, June, 1838 - 1916.
Sarah K., his wife, 1837 - 1906.
(Was this the Dave Riel of near Mount Hope, at the head of Lee Creek?)
Johann F. N. Lassi, wife of J. G. Zahrutt, died December 26th, 1861, aged
thirty-six years, twenty-eight days.
Solomon Hoff, 1869 - 1909.
Mary A. Hoff, 1810 - 1887.
Amos Bartlett, 1840 - 1910.
Mary F. Bartlett, 1840 - 1911.
Amos Strong, 1870 - aged seventy-seven years.
I only visited one corner of the graveyard where I copied all the most
noticeable of the names. In the three quarters or more of the cemetery
not visited, the dates would be later, but there were doubtless names
of persons connected with pioneer history.
BRISCOE RUN GRAVEYARD (Lower)
The Briscoe Run Graveyard, which I visited in January, 1925,
lies up from the Parkersburg - Marietta road, on a sharp point
near Charley Way's house, at an elbow turn of Briscoe's Run.
There seems to have once been a Baptist Church down on the
road some distance above. I noted several inscriptions, none
very old.
Joseph Way, 1826 - 1907.
Elizabeth (wife) 1878, aged thirty-nine years, four months. (A
second wife)
Mary Ann, wife, 1873, aged forty-eight years, one month.
Sardis Cole, probably of the Marietta family, died in 1871,
aged seventy-six.
Mary (his wife) 1858, aged sixty years.
Arius Nye Cole, born September, 1828, died Feburary 1885.
His wife was Zidana Keller, a daughter of Elias and Rachel
Kellar. She was born in 1832, died in 1914.
Jesse K. Cole died 1892, aged thirty-six. (1856) He was a son
of A. N. Cole
Jacob Uhl died December 26th, 1855, aged ninety-two years,
one day.
Susannah, his wife, died 1852, aged seventy-six.
David Uhl, 1865 - 1890.
Isaac Uhl, 1827 - 1898.
John V. Uhl, 1182, aged seventy-three.
Sarah Uhl, wife, 1882, aged fifty-three. (She was a Casey.)
BRISCOE RUN GRAVEYARD (Upper)
On the evening of Labor Day, September 5, 1934, I "discovered"
what appeared like a very old graveyard lying on a flat spot on
the top of a ridge where the road past the Briscoe Run Church
comes up on to the divide between that stream and the headwaters
of Pond Run. The lot is sixteen or more rods long, and about eight
rods wide at the northern end. There were several large cedar trees
scattered over the grounds, which are so strangely level as to
suggest the idea of having been graded. The whole surface was a
tangle of weed, brush and briers about knee high, all woven and
tied together with catberry vines and matted with patches of a
wide leaf grass. While rushbushes and yucca escaped from the
old graves ran wild.
Among the many marked graves, I noted names of:
Joanna King, 1858 - 1911.
Lemuel Anderson, 1840 - 1933.
Catherine Anderson, 1838 -1912.
John Anderson, March 29th, 1792 - April 2, 1881. (He would be
89 years old.)
Christena Moger Six, born in Germany in 1764, died in Wood
County, 1844. (She would be 80 years of age.)
Margaret A. Way, 1896 - 1897.
Under one of the big cedar trees over near the east side of the
cemetery sleeps:
William T. Way, died August 4, 1846. (Born July 4, 1789.) Aged
57 years.
Harriet, wife of William Way, March 16, 1876, at the age of 85.
William and Priscilla Dare, she a child of sixteen, died near the
same time in 1852.
Atkinson Ingram, October 1, 1811 - December 5, 1853.
There was a burial lot secured by iron palings from the intrusion
of outside trespassers, but alas, this same safeguard was but an
auxiliary to the perpetual efforts of nature to restore the primitive,
and a shield to the agencies she had set in motion for that purpose.
The names on the modest marble monuments were only accessible
by parting the weeds and briers which grew to the top of the fence,
and there was a vigorous wild cherry tree grown higher than my
head since the graveyard was last cleaned. Inside the railing were
the graves of:
George A. Seitz, died 1889, aged 88.
Catharine Seitz (wife), 1862, aged 59.
J. G. Seitz, 1882.
Owing to the sun glare and the difficulty in reading, much was
omitted as to dates. Frequently I was compelled to feel the
spelling with my fingers, and sometimes even that failed. There
may be errors. I have a map of section made in the 1880's, in
which many of these names appear as neighboring farmers.
This was a public cemetery, and probably connected with the
church which stands at the forks of Briscoe's Run, about a half
mile distant.
