Dooley-Blankenship Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke County                  Temporal Period:                  Late 18^th c. – 19^th c.

Realty Map:                                                          Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Salem                                      Landform:                              Ridge bench

Grid Locus:            G-7                                          Elevation:                              1240 feet

UTM Easting:       583700                                    Aspect:                                  Southeast

UTM Northing:    4130170

 

Site Dimensions:  131 by 164 feet

 

Survey Description:  Site consists of a small family cemetery with about 16 graves.  Observed graves include 14 with uninscribed fieldstone markers and two unmarked graves visible as ground surface depressions.  All of the observed graves were oriented to the east.  Other graves may be present.  Graves have been enclosed by a modern fence with a locked gate.  One inscribed modern monument has been placed in the cemetery.  The site is covered with mowed grass and historic plantings oak trees.   Site was field inspected and photographed during an archaeological survey conducted for the proposed widening of Route 81.

 

Surveyed By:        Maureen Myers, Louis Berger & Associates

Survey Date:         12/99

 

Field Notes:           ___Yes  ___No

Photographs:        ___Yes  ___No

 

References:           Myers, Maureen

2000        Route 81 Widening, Roanoke and Botetourt Counties, Virginia.  Draft report submitted by Louis Berger & Associates, Inc. to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

 

Additional Comments:        Temporal period is poorly understood.  The assigned temporal period was based tentatively on oral histories and the 1789 date inscribed on the modern monument in the cemetery.  Documentary research may provide additional temporal and social information.  However, the presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers and unmarked graves may reflect a later use of the site.  The cemetery is not marked on the USGS Salem map sheet or on local realty maps.  This cemetery is located next to a commuter park-and-ride parking lot between Route 1150 (Edgebrook Drive) and Route 311 (Thompson Memorial Drive) just north of Route 81.  According to oral histories, the cemetery contains graves for the Dooley children who died during an diphtheria epidemic.  One historic reference reports Georgiana, John and Laura Dooley died of diphtheria in 1860.

 

Marker Inscription:

 

Dooley and Blankenship

Cemetery Est.1789

(modern monument)

 

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