Betts Cemetery

Locality: Roanoke City Temporal Period: 1^st half 19^th century

Realty Map: 3170320 Cultural Affiliation: Euro-American

USGS Map: Roanoke Landform: Ridge top

Grid Locus: G-8 Elevation: 1080 Feet

UTM Easting: 594130 Aspect: Flat

UTM Northing: 4129440

Site Dimensions: Unknown

Survey Description: Site consists of a small family cemetery with at least three graves. One grave was marked with a marble headstone, but surface evidence for the other two graves was not observed. A previous survey documented the other two graves and transcribed headstone inscriptions. A limestone slab set flush with the ground surface may represent part of a marker for one of the other grave. The slab is located to the immediate south (left) of the visible headstone. It is not known if the cemetery contains other unmarked graves. The site is no longer enclosed and is covered with mowed grass. The nearby presence of periwinkle ground cover suggests it may have been a historic planting on the cemetery. Site was field inspected, photographed, and the inscription on the visible marker was transcribed and compared to previous documentation. Site size remains unknown.

Survey Date: 7/99

Field Notes: _x_Yes ___No

Photographs: _x_Yes ___No

References: Roanoke Valley Historical Society

1986 Roanoke County Graveyards Through 1920. Privately printed, RVHS, Roanoke.

Works Progress Administration of Virginia, Historical Inventory, Roanoke County, Virginia, Document #120.

Additional Comments: Assigned temporal period was based on the 1825 through 1849 range of death dates documented for inscribed headstones. The cemetery is not marked on the USGS Roanoke map sheet or on local realty maps. The cemetery is located on a five-acre parcel at 320 Huntington Boulevard. More specifically, it is directly behind the Huntington house and approximately 10 feet south of a chain link fence along the rear property boundary.

This cemetery was initially surveyed in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration of Virginia and recorded as the “Betts Graveyard” in Document #120 of the Historical Inventory of Roanoke County, Virginia. The WPA file provided biographical information for the graves of Elisha Betts, Sarah Betts, and Elizabeth Guerrant Knight. The WPA file described the cemetery as “a private burying ground on the old estate of the former owner, Elisha Betts. It has not been used for many years. A brick wall once surrounded the place, but little of it is left. Trees and undergrowth now cover the place.”

The RVHS also recorded the cemetery and documented biographical information derived from inscriptions from three headstones that predated 1920 (1986: 14). Apparently, the RVHS did not survey the cemetery, but used the WPA file information to document the site. According to the RVHS, “no trace remains of what was a private burying ground on the estate of Elisha Betts.”
Betts Cemetery (continued)

Marker Inscriptions:

Bold italics denotes information documented by the WPA, but not observed during the 1999 survey.

Elisha Betts Elizabeth Guerrant

Died March 14, 1825 Wife of Col. William C. Knight

Aged 62 years & 13 days. And daughter of

He was the poor man’s friend Robert & Mary P. Dickinson

And a Father to the Fatherless. of Inverness, Nottoway County, Va.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor. Born March 7^th, 1818

The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The darling of her family, the pride

and joy of her husband; Beloved by all

Sarah Betts who knew her; She gently sunk to rest in

Born April 29^th 1772 all her loveliness.

Died March 5^th 1857 September 8^th, 1849,

A devout woman In the full hope of a joyful Resur-

and one that feared God, rection.

full of good works and alms deeds. (Maker’s maker on reverse side of marker

partially illegible due to breakage of stone:

J.B. Gaddess & B…

Lynchburg, …..?)

Back to Cemetery Link Page

Back to HomePage