Burnett Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke County                  Temporal Period:                  2nd half 19th c., 1st half 20th c.

Realty Map:          16.00-1-2.1                             Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Salem                                      Landform:                              Terrace

Grid Locus:            J-1                                           Elevation:                              1300 feet

UTM Easting:       586380                                    Aspect:                                  South

UTM Northing:    4136530

 

Site Dimensions:  36 by 40 feet

 

Survey Description:  Site consists of a small cemetery with about eight interments oriented to the northeast.  One grave is marked with a metal alloy marker, two with inscribed fieldstones and five with uninscribed fieldstones.  The cemetery features an early example of an inscribed memorial marker erected between two graves.  Site is located about 100 feet northwest of Route 740 and adjacent to a gravel-covered road.  A wood post and wire mesh fence surrounds the cemetery.  One fence line passes directly over the most northern interment.  Historic plantings include a cedar tree.  Site was field inspected, photographed, and headstone inscriptions were transcribed and compared to previous site documentation.  Site size was estimated by pacing the horizontal extent of the surrounding fence lines and observed graves. 

 

Survey Date:         9/97

 

Field Notes:           _x_Yes   ___No

Photographs:        _x_Yes   ___No

 

Reference(s):         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 #314.

 

Additional Comments:   Assigned temporal period was based on death dates inscribed on headstones.  However, the presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers may indicate an earlier and later use of the site. Site is not marked on the USGS Salem map sheet, but it is marked on the local realty map and labeled as the “Smith Cemetery.”

 

This cemetery was initially surveyed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration of Virginia and recorded as the “Burnett Cemetery” in Document #314 of the Historical Inventory of Roanoke County, Virginia.  The WPA file provided biographical information for  Joshua Burnett (1768 – September 2, 1852, age 84 years) and Sallie Burnett (died December 10, 1855).  The survey file stated that “likely those of the family connection are buried here too ” and reported that Joshua Burnett “reserved in his will of 1850 the location and grounds for this cemetery.”  The cemetery was also surveyed by the RVHS (1986:  32) and described as “a fenced area, about 40’ X 33’, in fair condition.  Three graves are recent, two early stones are practically illegible, others are entirely so.” The RVHS listed the two inscriptions (J.B.  Sept. 1852 and S.B.  Dec. 10, 1855) and referenced the WPA documentation.

 

Marker Inscriptions:

 

SB                           We lay here together                           JB                            Coleman L. Smith

Dec. the                 In the embraces of death                                                    1859 - 1938

10: 1855 Till we rise from the grave                                                  (metal marker)

                                In newness of life.

                                (memorial fieldstone marker

                                between the headstones for

                                Sallie and Joshua Burnett)

 

 

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