Cemeteries of Grayson County, Virginia

Introduction

This index lists about 560 cemeteries identified in Grayson Co. Virginia. About 500 of these have been surveyed with files listing burial information presented here. Over 25,000 graves are listed.

Included in this index are several cemeteries where there is no available information on the burials and cemeteries where we do not currently have sufficent information to find them. Some of these may be duplicates of other known cemeteries.

Cemeteries are listed in alphabetical order using the family surname, community name, institution name, etc. Cemeteries may be known under different names by different groups. We have attempted to use the most widely used name and to include alternate names in the description.

Go to Galax Cemeteries for cemeteries that are within the current city limits of Galax, Va. This list includes cemeteries that are in areas that were formerly part of Grayson or Carroll counties.

These cemetery listings are the result of the collected efforts of many people. The information in these listings is now available in a three volume book set that can be purchased from the Grayson County Virginia Heritage Foundation. These books have some additional cemeteries and corrections and updates to some of the cemetery listings that are here on New River Notes.

Currently there are no plans to keep the listings on New River Notes updated or to correct errors. However, if you have corrections or additional information about the burials listed here please send them to the Grayson County, Virginia Heritage Foundation.

Background Information on Grayson County Cemeteries Web Listing

The cemetery information provided here is based on the work of numerous individuals who visited and surveyed the cemeteries.  These are not all of the cemeteries in the county.  There are certainly many family cemeteries lost in the woods and with no visible indication of their locations.

The Grayson County cemetery index and the linked cemetery files represent the collected efforts of many people. Most of those people are identified in the individual files. In many cases the cemeteries were visited multiple times to update and correct the listings.

The surveys listed here were used as input to the three volume “Those Who Sleep Here: Grayson County, Virginia Cemeteries”  These books contain a full index to names of those buried in these cemeteries.  The listings here and in the published books are based on surveys done in primarily between 2003 and 2008 although older information was used for some of the inaccessable cemeteries.

Index Description

For each cemetery in the index the following information is provided.

• Cemetery Name: The name used in this listing may not match the name you know the cemetery by. Many family cemeteries are known by different names by different branches of the family. If there is an “official” name for the cemetery such as on a sign at the cemetery that is used. If there is a known common name that is used. In other cases the name of the earliest adult burial is used. In some cases there is no information on which to base the name. If such a cemetery has been surveyed it will be listed as Unnamed. There are also some cemeteries listed as Untitled. These are usually cemetery locations that have been identified from some source such as a USGS map and have not yet been surveyed. Also included in this name field are any other names that may be used for the cemetery.
• Statistics: The total number of graves and the date of the earliest burial are shown here. Also, if the cemtery is known to be for African-Americans only this is indicated.
• Location: This field is intended to help find the cemetery. This information was provided by various individuals and may date from the 1970’s. As time and knowledge permits this information will be updated to provide both road number and road name. It will show distances from a road junction and significant landmarks. It is not intended to provide turn by turn driving instructions.
• District: Identifies the current voting district where the cemetery is located.
• GPS: Coordinates are provided in decimal degrees. Coordinates are determined from visiting the site with a GPS receiver, USGS provided survey information, or from aerial photography. Unless identifed as estimated these coordinates should be accurate enough to allow someone with a GPS receiver to drive and walk to the cemetery. You should be able to copy these coordinates to a search engine such as Google find a cemetery on a map.
• Surveyed by: These are the many individuals who have contributed to this project.

Updated 1/19/2012

Funerary Practices in Appalachia

by Jeff Weaver

Since most of the researchers using these cemetery pages live a good distance away from the mountains of Southwestern Virginia some of us call home, I thought it would be useful to make some general remarks about grave stones and cemeteries.

Funerary practices in Appalachia are in some ways very different than they are in other parts of the world. Some places have two sets of funeral sermons, and even three or four. Some families have their own quirks about burials as well, so nothing is set in stone any where (tongue firmly in cheek).

In the earliest days of settlement, there were relatively few churches in the area, and most of those didn’t maintain a community or church cemetery, those that do exist tended to come a bit later. There are a couple of exceptions, St. Clair’s Bottom Primitive Baptist and Royal Oak Presbyterian immediately come to mind. Fox Creek Primitive Baptist in Grayson, the earliest church over there had a cemetery, but it wasn’t established for 80 or so years after the church. Senter Church in Ashe County was established in 1829, but the cemetery wasn’t started until the 1850s.

Before the church cemeteries became common, folks were usually buried in family cemeteries, usually on a hill behind the house, or grandparents house, or as time went on, where their ancestors were buried. The use of family cemeteries remained common into the early part of the 20th century. Many of these family cemeteries are still in use.

Materials used to make stones for most people were plain old wooden boards, with a name marked in chalk or ashes. Most of these have long since rotted away. Others used field stones, a relatively flat rock which would be put at the head and feet of the deceased. On RARE occasions some one would etch the names or initials on them. Most are without any inscription whatsoever. For those who had the money, and there weren’t many, the popular material for grave stones in this part of the world was sandstone, limestone or soapstone. There are a very few of these in the area, and many fewer which still can be read. These stones are soft and weather easily. There are a few left at St. Clair’s Bottom from the 1st decade of the 19th century which can still be read. Elizabeth Cemetery at Saltville, Sulphur Springs and Royal Oak’s older stones are all weathered into oblivion at this point.

As time progressed, and folks became more settled, some very wealthy or very foolish bought marble stones. These stones were brought from Louisville, Kentucky, and the freight was exceedingly expensive, but if you find an antebellum marble stone, the person was wealthy or the family squandered their money on freight to get it to the hills.

A question I often get is about Civil War deaths and burials. In the South, men were buried with a board with a whitewashed name. Most of these were illegible before the war was over. The chances of finding one of these graves is extremely remote, not impossible, but not likely.

After the Civil War, the general pervasive poverty in the south resulted in few “Store-bought” grave markers. “Store-bought stones” become common in the 1880s and 1890s, and from then on there is a good chance the graves will be marked.

Cemeteries — Most cemeteries were and are family affairs. I know in the north and west, communities have cemeteries with registers. For the most part they don’t exist in Appalachia until the mid-20th century (that’s 1950 or later folks). (And of course there are a very few exceptions). Some of these town cemeteries began their existence as something else, a family or church cemetery. Examples of this are Elizabeth Cemetery in Saltville, Virginia, which began its existence as the Elizabeth Methodist Church Cemetery. The Beattie Family Cemetery in Chilhowie is now a more formal cemetery.

Most burials in these family or church cemeteries were without charge for plots, and it is very rare that a plat of the plots was made.

Lots of folks from a distance complain about the state of the various family cemeteries, and seem to want to insist that local folks keep them up. These cemeteries were and still are the responsibility of the families to keep up, so, don’t fuss and fume at who ever owns the land to keep it up. There is a good chance they aren’t related to those buried there. So keep this in mind when inquiring about cemeteries.

Updated 8 October 2004

Visiting Cemeteries In Grayson

If you don’t live in Grayson you may need some help finding your way around.

Finding a cemetery in Grayson County is not difficult. With over 500 known or suspected cemeteries in a county of 443 square miles you are usually not far from one or more cemeteries.

Getting to the specific cemetery you are interested in may be a little difficult. Getting to most of Grayson County cemeteries requires driving over some of the over 350 miles of state maintained all weather (i.e. gravel) or graded (i.e. dirt) roads. This mileage does not include the 300 miles of state maintained hard surface highways and an unknown number of miles of private roads, forest service roads, and trails. Once you get close to the cemetery that you’re looking for you’ll likely have to go through private property to get to it.

The following discussion is an attempt to help people not familiar with Grayson find and visit the cemeteries where their ancestors are buried.

Gaining access to a Cemetery.

Many of the cemeteries in Grayson are small family cemeteries on private land. It is best to get permission from the owner before entering private property. In most cases the owner will willing to allow you to walk to the cemetery. However, some don’t want people on their property. When you do go on private property make sure that you leave all gates the way you found them and avoid damaging any crop.

Virginia code about access to a cemetery

Virginia code 57-27.1 requires that owners of private cemeteries allow family members and descendants of persons buried there, and researchers access to cemeteries. The following are sections of the code that seem to be applicable.

§ 54.1-2310. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning:

“Cemetery” means any land or structure used or intended to be used for the interment of human remains. The sprinkling of ashes or their burial in a biodegradable container on church grounds or their placement in a columbarium on church property shall not constitute the creation of a cemetery.

§ 18.2-127. Injuries to churches, church property, cemeteries, burial grounds, etc.; penalty.

A. Any person who willfully or maliciously commits any of the following acts is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor:

3. Obstructs proper ingress to and egress from any church or any cemetery or lot belonging to any memorial or monumental association.

(Code 1950, § 18.1-244; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1982, c. 561; 1983, c. 579; 1990, c. 510.)

§ 18.2-125. Trespass at night upon any cemetery.

If any person, without the consent of the owner, proprietor or custodian, go or enter in the nighttime, upon the premises, property, driveways or walks of any cemetery, either public or private, for any purpose other than to visit the burial lot or grave of some member of his family, he shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor.

(Code 1950, § 18.1-181; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15.)

§ 57-27.1. Access to private cemeteries.

§ 57-27.1. States in part “Owners of private property on which a cemetery or graves are located shall have a duty to allow ingress and egress to the cemetery or graves by (i) family members and descendants of deceased persons buried there; (ii) any cemetery plot owner; and (iii) any person engaging in genealogy research, who has given reasonable notice to the owner of record or to the occupant of the property or both. The landowner may designate the frequency of access, hours and duration of the access and the access route if no traditional access route is obviously visible by a view of the property.”

Click for the full text of this statute that describes the rights and responsibilities of the owner and persons accessing the cemetery.

(1993, c. 713; 2004, c. 831.)

Driving to a Cemetery

Where it is available the cemetery index provides a short description of the location of each cemetery and its GPS coordinates. With these and a good map you should be able to drive close to most of the cemeteries.

• Maps – As of 2004 some maps have roads identified by numbers and some by name. We have tried to use both name and number in the location description. VDOT sells county maps with road numbers. You can order these on-line at http://virginiadot.org/infoservice/maporder.asp .or you may be able to purchase them from the a VDOT office see http://virginiadot.org/quick/bristol_quick-directions.asp for locations of offices near Grayson. There is also at least one privately printed map of Grayson County that is paid for by advertisers and can sometimes be found at these various advertisers place of business. This map uses road names. Ask around for copies of this map when you visit Grayson. Most map books do not have enough detail to show the back roads of Grayson. An exception to this is the DeLorme “Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer” map book.
• Computer Maps – The computer maps seem to be ok but be aware that they have errors. These errors include incorrect and incomplete naming of roads, missing roads, and features incorrectly identified as public roads. The companies that provide the data for these maps don’t seem to have spent much time in Grayson recently. Now that you are aware of the potential problems using a computer to identify a cemetery location and plot a driving route to it may be the best approach for someone not familiar with Grayson roads. If you have a map program on your computer you should be able to use the find/search function to search based on the coordinates given in the index file. You can then generate driving instructions. If you have access to a county map it would be good to check the route against the paper map. This could help you avoid finding yourself trying to drive up a jeep trail.
• Internet Maps – Internet maps such as Mapquest, Yahoo, Google Maps, and Mappoint can have the same types of errors that computer maps can have so the same warnings hold.
  • Google Maps provide an easy way to enter coordinates. Go to this site and type or paste the coordinates of interest into the search window. Google Maps excepts coordinates in the format used in this cemetery index. So all you need to do is copy coordinates (select and then Ctrl-c) from the cemetery (for example N36.67511 W81.32198), paste (Ctrl-v) it in the Google Maps search box, and push the search button. This should bring up a display centered on the cemetery of interest with a balloon showing where the cemetery is. You may want to use the zoom in slider to get the scale you need.

    Inside the balloon marking the cemetery location is an option that will produce a map and driving directions from a location of your choice, i.e. Independence VA to the cemetery.

    At this time Google Maps is in beta. Changes may be made that will effect how this search is done.

    Google Maps lets you select a map or satellite imagery view. At this time the imagery of Grayson Co. is of too poor a resolution to be useful for cemetery identification. That’s unlikely to change in the near future.

  • Mapquest, Yahoo, and Mappoint don’t provide an easy way to enter coordinates but it is possible to search on coordinates. The following two links show the location of the Grayson County Historical Society office in Independence, VA: Mapquest Map or Mappoint Map If you click on either of these it will take you to a map. If you look in the address bar of your browser you will see a long URL. For Mapquest this will be “http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?zoom=4& I have highlighted the coordinates in the URL. To find the cemetery that you are interested in you must edit these two numbers in your browser address window to match the coordinates provided in the cemetery index. Note that the longitude must have a negative sign in front of it. Mappoint is similar but has the added feature of allowing you to put your own tag with the location.