Ground-Garst Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke City                        Temporal Period:                  1st, 2nd, 3rd, quarters 19th century

Realty Map:          6380201                                  Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Salem                                      Landform:                              Ridge bench

Grid Locus:            L-8/L-9                                   Elevation:                              1080 feet

UTM Easting:       588240                                    Aspect:                                  Northwest

UTM Northing:    4129010 

 

Site Dimensions:  35 by 35 feet

 

Survey Description:  Site consists of a small family cemetery with at least seven graves.  Two graves were marked by a modern headstone, one grave was marked by a fragmented headstone, one grave was marked by an uninscribed footstone, and three unmarked graves were identified on the basis of ground surface depressions.  Other graves may be present.  All of the observed graves were oriented to the east.  This cemetery is in poor condition, covered with scrub brush, saplings, and littered with refuse.  Site was field inspected, photographed, and grave marker inscriptions were transcribed and compared to previous documentation.  Site size was estimated by pacing the horizontal extent of the observed graves.

 

Survey Date:         11/98

 

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 #59.

 

Additional Comments:  Assigned temporal period was based on the 1821 through 1875 range of death dates inscribed on observed headstones or documented by previous surveys.  However, the presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers and unmarked graves may reflect an earlier or later use of the site.  The cemetery is not marked on the USGS Salem map sheet and or on local realty maps.  The name of the cemetery has been altered to include both of the families know to have used the cemetery.

 

This cemetery was initially surveyed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration of Virginia and recorded as the “Ground Cemetery” in Document #59 of the Historical Inventory of Roanoke County, Virginia.  The WPA file provided biographical information for George Ground, Elizabeth Ground, John Garst, Sr., and Christine Garst.   The WPA file described the cemetery as “… a private cemetery intended for use by two families.  The owners are George Ground and John Grant.”

 

The RVHS also surveyed the cemetery and documented biographical information derived from inscriptions on four headstones that predated 1920 (1986:  130).  All of the headstones recorded by the WPA were also recorded by RVHS; however, the WPA recorded the name Christine Ground while the RVHS recorded the name Christina Grounds.  The RVHS report also noted that the marker for Christina and John Garst was a replacement stone set around 1952.  In the following transcription of grave markers, bold print indicates information recorded by the RVHS but not observed during the 1998 survey because of fragmented markers.  Italicized print indicates information observed during the 1998 survey but not documented by the RVHS.


Ground-Garst Cemetery (continued)

 

Marker Inscriptions:

 

John Garst, Sr.      Christina P. Garst                 To the memory                                      George Ground

Nov. 10, 1796        Mar. 2, 1798                           Elizabeth Ground                                  February 9, 1773

June 25, 1875         Sept. 25, 1861                        Consort of George Ground                January 12, 1842

                                                                                Died                                                        Age 88 Y 11 M 28 Days

April the 25th 1821

                                                                                Those

                                                                                Was erected to

                                                                                Their memory

                                                                                By L. Zirkle

                                                                                          wife


 

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