Butts Cemetery

 

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

Realty Map:          55.01-1-21                              Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Glenvar                                  Landform:                              Ridgetop

Grid Locus:            L-10/11                                   Elevation:                              1260 feet

UTM Easting:       577100                                    Aspect:                                  Flat

UTM Northing:    4127000

 

Site Dimensions:  110.3 by 378.2 by 107 by 378.7

 

Survey Description:  Site consists of a large and active community cemetery that began as a cemetery for the Butts family.  The cemetery contains hundreds of graves including a number of unmarked graves and graves marked with deteriorating markers.  This cemetery is enclosed by a modern chain link fence, is well cared for, and Roanoke County apparently performs landscape maintenance.  The cemetery is covered with mowed grass and historic plantings include oak trees.  Site was field inspected, photographed, and grave marker inscriptions in the Butts family section were transcribed and compared to previous documentation.  While the entire site was field inspected, there was no attempt to transcribed inscriptions on all of the headstones in the cemetery. Site size was derived from local realty maps.

 

Survey Date:         11/98

 

Field Notes:           _x_Yes   ___No

Photographs:        __Yes     ___No

 

References:           Roanoke Valley Historical Society

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

 

Additional Comments:  Assigned temporal period was based on the 1869 through 1998 range of death dates inscribed on observed headstones.  However, the presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers and unmarked graves may reflect an earlier use of the site.  The cemetery is marked on the USGS Glenvar map sheet and identified as the “Butts Cem.”  It is also marked on local realty maps and labeled “cemetery.”

 

This cemetery was initially surveyed by the RVHS and recorded as the “Butt Cemetery.”  The survey report documented biographical information derived from inscriptions on five headstones in the Butt family section that predated 1921 (1986: 37).  All of the headstones recorded by the RVHS were also observed during the 1998 survey.

 

Marker Inscriptions in the Butts family section:

 

Bettie C.                                                 Illegible, inscribed                                                J B H

Wife of                                                   fieldstone                                                              (inscribed fieldstone)

E.G. Butt

Born Aug. 28, 1874

Died Dec. 13, 1921

 

Broken, uninscribed                            Uninscribed fieldstone

Fieldstone

Butts Cemetery (continued)

 

Ida                                                          Lucy A. Dowdy                                                    George W.

Butt                                                        wife of                                                                    Butts

May                                                        G.W. Butts                                                            Died

Born                                                       Nov. 16, 1944                                                        Oct. 25, 1916

July 14, 1881                                          Aged                                                                      Aged

Died                                                        87 years                                                                 61 years

Nov. 4, 1917

(Obelisk)

 

Uninscribed fieldstone                        Butts                                                                      Uninscribed fieldstone

                                                                (Cement marker)

 

Mrs.                                                        LJL                                                                          RLL

Saloam F. Wood                                   (inscribed fieldstone)                                          (inscribed fieldstone)

Did the 26^th day

Of December

1869

(Inscribed fieldstone)

 

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