Jefferson Davis Memorial

Several years ago in the course of traveling across southern Kentucky on US Hwy 68/Hwy 80 from the Jackson Purchase area to Russellville, I suddenly noticed an obelisk that would look more at home in Egypt than in Kentucky. This definitely required turning around and going back to investigate.

As it turns out, the monument and surrounding park are a memorial to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis was born not far from this site on June 3, 1808 in what is now Fairview, Kentucky, located on the Todd and Christian County line.



The monument was conceived in 1907 at a reunion of the First Kentucky Brigade of the CSA, known as the "Orphan Brigade". The First Kentucky was formed primarily from residents of the western area of Kentucky. In 1917 construction began, then was suspended during World War I and the obelisk was finally completed in 1924. It is 351 feet tall and the fifth tallest monument in the United States. The walls are seven feet thick at the base, two feet thick at the top and it features an elevator to an observation room.

Since I recently became aware that the Civil War Sesquicentennial is being held 2011 to 2015 with numerous events taking place memorializing that period of our history, I thought it was a good time to post these photos.

A historical marker at the site is inscribed: "Here the only President of the Confederate States of America was born June 3, 1808, the son of Samuel and Jane Cook Davis. The family moved to Mississippi during his infancy."

Tombstone Tuesday - Henry Bascom Hicks

The Civil War left wounds still raw in many parts of the country even after 150 years. In countless areas, civilians were preyed upon by military forces of one army or the other, while in others helpless civilians were robbed and violated by "bushwackers" or lawless elements who merely pretended an allegiance to a particular army.

In Graves County, Kentucky the wounds still run deep from what is referred to as the "reign of terror" of Union Gen. Eleazar Paine. In Maplewood Cemetery of Mayfield, Kentucky there is a monument in the form of a slab over the grave of young Henry Bascom Hicks. He was killed by order of General Paine on the streets of Mayfield in August of 1864. The 18 year old student was accused of being a spy. Paine had been removed from his post in Gallatin, Tennessee in April of 1864 by the order of Major General William T. Sherman after Paine and his men were found guilty of "extreme cruelty and extortion". He was subsequently posted to western Kentucky.

Hopefully there will never be another time when the people of this country turn against each other with such intolerance and cruelty.






A heavy morning dew on the fall day I photographed Henry's grave accentuates the inscription making it more visible and easily readible.

Tombstone Tuesday - the Chandlers

Lucinda Jane Wingo Chandler and John Hyran Chandler are buried in the Greer Cemetery of Wingo, Graves County, Kentucky.

Lucinda was born shortly after the family's move from Pittsylvania County, Virginia to the Jackson Purchase area of Kentucky which had just been opened for settlement.

Military Monday - William Holifield, War of 1812

WILLIAM
HOLIFIELD

Pvt
KY Detached
Militia
War of 1812

Apr 7, 1784
Jun 23, 1860

Battle of
New Orleans

William Holifield and his wife, Elizabeth Copeland Holifield, along with other family members are buried in the Old Bethel Cemetery just east of Pryorsburg in Graves County, Kentucky.

Original Gravestone

(Photo of original gravestone by westkygenealogy for Find A Grave)

Wednesday's Child - Jackson Hall

INFANT

Son of
D. & M.W. HALL

DIED
Aug. 11, 1875

Though his gravestone simply lists him as the infant son of David and Martha W. (Elsey) Hall, his name was Jackson. He was one of the four babies born to David and Mattie between 1874 and 1880 who died under the age of two years old. By 1882, Mattie had also died.

Jackson is buried along with the other members of his family in the Blandville Cemetery in Blandville, Ballard County, Kentucky.

The Pryors of Pryorsburg

Jonathan Pryor and his brother, James, were among the earliest settlers to Graves County, Kentucky. From the records of land grants west of the Tennessee River in Kentucky, Jonathan and James Pryor had each purchased over 3000 acres before 1830. It is said that together they owned all the land between Pryorsburg and Mayfield at one time.

This cemetery is on land once owned by Jonathan Pryor. Even with GPS coordinates it is difficult to find yet it is within the small town of Pryorsburg.

ELIZABETH

Wife of
JONATHAN PRYOR

BORN
Mar. 27, 1788
DIED
July 7, 1857
Aged 69 y. 4 m.
27 D.

(Error in Days)

The graves of Jonathan Pryor, Jr. and his wife Frances E. Rozzell Pryor along with their fourteen year old son Jerimiah are also in this cemetery.

In memory of JONATHAN PRYOR BORN July 13, 1820 DIED Oct. 29, 1857 AGED 37 Yrs. 3 mo. & 9 dys.

In memory of FRANCES E. Wife of JONATHAN PRYOR BORN June 17,1818 DIED May 17, 1858 AGED 39 Yrs. 9 Mo.

JERIMIAH

Son of
J. & F.E. PRYOR
BORN
Mar. 21, 1843

DIED
Jan. 18, 1858
AGED
14 Yrs. 8 mo.
27 Ds.

(Age is almost illegible)

(It should be noted that this cemetery now includes a stone for Jonathan Pryor, Sr. which is not original and has an incorrect date of death as 1857 although he was recorded living in the 1860 census. The stone is of recent addition and accordingly is not included here.)

Tombstone Tuesday - the Bosticks

F. M. BOSTICK

DIED
Dec. 19, 1851

Aged 48 yrs
11 mo 28 ds

LUCY

wife of
F.M. BOSTICK

Born
Dec. 6, 1805

Died
April 9, 1865

Aged 59 yrs
4 mo's & 3 da's

Originally from Halifax County, Virginia, Frances Moore Bostick and his wife, Lucy White Palmer, were among the earliest settlers to Graves County in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Area. They are buried with other early pioneers in the Greer Cemetery at Wingo, Kentucky.

Wednesday's Child - Della Lee Chandler

DELLA LEE

Daugh. of

J. H. & L. J.
CHANDLER
DIED
Aug. 16, 1868
AGED
1 Yr 2 Mo's 23 Da's

Della Lee Chandler was the daughter of John H. and Lucinda Jane Wingo Chandler who lost several other children in infancy or early childhood. Della Lee is buried in the Greer Cemetery in Wingo, Graves County, Kentucky with her parents, maternal grandparents and two brothers.

Kentucky's Red River Meeting House

The cemetery at the Red River Meeting House just south of Russellville in Logan County, Kentucky contains the graves of numerous soldiers of the Revolution and the War of 1812. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The "Shaker Movement" of the Presbyterian Church began at the Red River Meeting House and the great revival of 1800 produced the first ever camp meeting. It is said that thousands came in wagons and stayed for days.

The cabin currently located at the site was built in 1994 to replace the original which collapsed in 1856.

Sacred
to the Memory
of
EVAN McPHESON
Born in the Highlands
of Scotland in 1787
Immigrated to this country
in 1809 and Died
in 1849

At right - the back of the stone
is said to be the
23rd Psalm in Gaelic





(Thanks to my cousin, Debby Johnson, for her photos.)

Bogus Grave Memorials on Find A Grave

No tombstones today - I thought instead I would get on my soapbox in regard to the current abundance of bogus grave memorials on Find A Grave. I have always felt that Find A Grave was a wonderful resource and have submitted all of the cemetery photos I take to that site. I also search Find A Grave in the course of researching various individuals. It’s a great source of birth and death dates for those who lived long before birth and death certificates existed.

However lately I see more and more bogus grave memorials entered there. Yesterday I discovered a fictitious grave memorial for a great great uncle. One of his descendants had previously submitted a photo of his gravestone and entered a memorial for the cemetery where he is actually buried which is in the same county. There was another bogus memorial in the same Kentucky cemetery by the same person (not a descendant) for another great great uncle from the same family who had actually died in another state.

Am I the only one who is concerned about this practice and how rampant it is becoming on Find A Grave? Find A Grave doesn’t seem to care and apparently has no restrictions as to whether entering a memorial should require the presence of a legitimate grave in the cemetery. They also don’t make it very easy to contact them to complain – hence my post here.

It concerns me that these practices will eventually ruin the site as a tool for researchers if they haven’t already. I’m not sure whether I will stop submitting my photos there but I may investigate the new Cemetery Transcription Project of the US GenWeb Archives as an alternative to Find A Grave.

Anyone else have an opinion?

January 2014 - Update
This week I've encountered another incident concerning a bogus Find A Grave memorial. I received a message through Find A Grave requesting that I add a relationship link to the memorial I had placed several years ago for Thomas Slayden at Maplewood Cemetery in Mayfield, Kentucky. The link was supposedly to his father Stokley Slayden, memorial number 123010442, at a cemetery in Weakley County, Tennessee. Several years ago a memorial (84242079) had been entered for Stokley Slayden at the Baltimore Cemetery in Graves County, Kentucky where both he and his wife Nancy are buried. The person who made the duplicate memorial in Weakley County had copied the photo from the legitimate first memorial and used it for the bogus one. I wrote the person and nicely told them that I had linked the grave of Thomas Slayden to his father's actual grave in the Baltimore Cemetery and that they should delete their duplicate. Today I see that they have now added their duplicate memorial along with the purloined photo to the Baltimore Cemetery.

There are genealogists who praise Find A Grave and promote it, but I personally have serious misgivings about the entire site based on the numerous incidences of fraudulent memorials.

I have to wonder how many people have made trips, possibly from some distance, to visit a cemetery where the grave as listed on Find A Grave doesn't exist.

Maplewood Cemetery of Mayfield, Kentucky

Maplewood Cemetery in Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky is a large, diverse cemetery. There are very old stones, crypts and Confederate monuments, not to mention the Woolbridge Monuments. I have many relatives interred there - the Bolingers, Beadles, Slaydens and even a Pryor or two. There are so many photos from this cemetery that it may develop into a series but for today, just one post.

The famous Woolbridge Monuments of Maplewood were extensively damaged when a tree fell on them during the severe ice storm that Kentucky experienced in the winter of 2008-2009. Thankfully they have now been restored.



One of the largest monuments in Maplewood, called the Angel Rock, was erected by William Slayden for his wife Agnes Mayes Slayden and their five young children.

Lucinda (Wingo) Bolinger
1804
May 13, 1856

George W. Bolinger
July 3, 1781
May 18, 1885

Mill Springs Battlefield

Driving across Kentucky on a southerly route in an effort to retrace the migration of our ancestors and travel from Kentucky back through the Cumberland Gap into Virginia, we came upon a little known Civil War battlefield just outside of Nancy, Kentucky.

Zollicoffer Park is named for Confederate Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer who is said to have died on this spot. Additionally the park contains a Confederate Cemetery and memorial.



On that sunny fall day, it was hard to imagine the carnage of a Civil War battle in this beautiful, quiet place.

Camp Beauregard

In southern Graves County, Kentucky just a few miles north of the Tennessee border atop a rolling hill, Camp Beauregard Cemetery gives no hint of its tragic history. Originally a Confederate military training camp, it was only an active military installation from September of 1861 until March of 1862. During that time approximately 1,500 confederate soldiers died of diseases such as meningitis, pneumonia and thyphoid fever and the camp was closed.

Area residents claim that the now private cemetery is haunted, but my cousin and I spent a lovely spring morning there several years ago and encountered no one, unearthly or otherwise.






In 1909, the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed a memorial to the fallen soldiers within the cemetery. The Confederate memorial is inscribed -

In memory of the loyal men who
died here September 1861 to March 1862
for the Confederate States of America,
and were thus denied the glory of heroic
service in battle.

Thirty years later

Revisiting Greer Cemetery again in 2009, there are a few changes thanks to the Wingo Homemakers Club's restoration efforts around 1990. Stones were repaired and reset, but the cemetery is essentially as it was the first time I saw it in 1979.

The grave of Elizabeth Howard is unchanged.





My ggg grandfather Wingo's stone which has been repaired and reset, is now joined by ggg grandmother Ann Yancey Beadles Wingo's stone previously buried under a layer of dirt and vines before the restoration.





Sadly, the stone of Margaret Beadles is no longer standing and is too degraded to read but other stones are now accessible.



And the restoration included a monument with the cemetery's name and concrete benches for visitors.

In the beginning...

It seems only fitting to begin with the photos that began my fascination with rambling through neglected cemeteries. From 1979, my first tombstone photos from the Greer Cemetery in Wingo, Kentucky - the grave of twenty year old Elizabeth Howard.



And Margaret Beadles, another young pioneer wife who died too young.



My ggg grandfather, Jerman Jeduthan Wingo.