Talking Cemeteries with the Ashe County Cemetery Committee by Lonnie Jones

Members of the Ashe County Cemetery Committee pause for a photo after a day of cleaning out overgrown cemeteries. 

The Ashe County Cemetery Committee recently visited cemeteries located on a hill on the John Halsey Road in the Grassy Creek Community. In that visit we discovered a hill with three distinct cemeteries, or cemeteries started and used at three different periods of time in Ashe County history.

One of these cemeteries was the Rev. Elisha Anderson Cemetery. He was born in 1799 (the same year Ashe County became a county) and died in 1845. His wife, Ruth Pugh, is also buried here; she was the daughter of David Pugh, who was one of the first settlers in Grayson County, Virginia, and a large landowner there. It is a distinct possibility that his father, William Anderson, born 1770 and died 1857, is buried here also. There are as many as 100-120 graves in this cemetery. As many as 30 of the markers are currently taken up, lying against a large dead locust tree. It is obvious that the cemetery was damaged in the past, although current owners are keeping it safe. Many fieldstones and grave markers were and still are buried in the ground. On the lower left side of the cemetery are mounds of dirt beside shallow holes. This may indicate mounded graves, as was done in some graveyards in the older days. There are too many to indicate moved graves, we believe. Several small trees can be removed, but many larger trees will remain, and currently the cemetery is ready for a ground-penetrating radar survey.

Also buried here are James Grimsley and his wife, Catherine Bowers Grimsley. She was the daughter of John Bowers, one of the founding fathers of Ashe County and Jefferson. He and his brother Adam sold the 50 acres that Jefferson is built on. Catherine’s brothers, George and Absolom Bowers, also play a large part in Ashe County history. The Grimsley had a large, successful farm and a large family in Grassy Creek.

Other names in the cemetery are indeed first settler names of Ashe County and Grassy Creek families. Has, May, Jones, Baker, Hawks, Cox, Anderson, Testerman, Bumgarner, Greer, Pierce, Spencer, and Taylor are found on the markers with names in the three cemeteries.

Why three separate cemeteries? Apparently the one older Anderson Cemetery started before the others, then the Thomas “Dick” Jones Cemetery. The Jones Cemetery has a chain-link fence around it and was started by the Isaac Newt Jones family, who moved to Ashe from Grayson County around 1830. The other end contains the Cox graves and is still being cared for by descendants. About one-fifth of the total cemetery is being mowed, just the “Cox” part.

These cemeteries are an example of why our committee exists. Here are almost 200 lost graves in the sense that they were uncared for, covered by dirt, grass, and trees; many of their descendants are deceased, elderly, or uncaring; and the cemetery itself is almost totally inaccessible. In the graves are the people who built this community, people who should not be forgotten, whose stories should be known. Those stories are heroic, colorful, sentimental, happy, sad, full of strength, of faith, of loss, of just plain life.

The cemeteries in many cases bear the marks of past neglect, desecration, and even deliberate destruction, but the fieldstones and markers still bear testimony of the lives of the people buried there. The promise was and always is that the 6 foot plot of ground would be honored, protected, and held holy. So there is that obligation that passes down continually to descendants and to landowners.

We are glad the law recognizes the need to meet this legal and cultural obligation. Most landowners in Ashe County are very supportive of the need to maintain cemeteries and allow access to cemeteries. The law requires access and requires they not be destroyed. Maintaining a cemetery by a landowner is not required, but it cannot be desecrated or destroyed.

In the case of the three cemeteries on John Halsey Road, the landowner, Mr. Sanford Fishel, has been extremely supportive. He made it clear from the start he wanted us to do what was necessary and even offered to help in any way necessary to make the way into the cemetery more accessible.

We thank Wayne Banks and his brothers for two trips to mow, trim, and cut to clean the areas. The crew of 14 people who showed up on May 24 to work completed the work to get the Anderson Cemetery ready to do a ground-penetrating radar survey. Then we will reset the grave markers we can at the proper graves. Those stacked at the trees with no names will be put in a grave with no marker found by GPS. Those with names will be left at the tree or set up in an area where there are obviously no graves.

We continue to work to rescue lost and abandoned cemeteries. Our next one will be in the Blue Ridge Manor area.