Henderson Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke County                  Temporal Period:                  4th Quarter 19th c., 1st  20th c.

Realty Map:          21.00-1-35                              Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Glenvar                                  Landform:                              Ridge bench

Grid Locus:            D-4                                          Elevation:                              2250 ft

UTM Easting:       569580                                    Aspect:                                  Flat

UTM Northing:    4133550

 

Site Dimensions: 25  by 25 feet

 

Survey Description:  This small cemetery contains seven graves.  All of these graves were oriented to the northeast and marked with inscribed marble markers.  A wood post and wire mesh fence once surrounded the cemetery but only deteriorated remnants remain today.   The surrounding land is used as pasturage.  Cattle have trampled the site surface and toppled most of the markers.  Weeds and a few deciduous saplings grow on the site, and the only historic plantings appear to be a large cedar and a wild rose bush.  The site is not maintained.  The site was field inspected, photographed, and headstone inscriptions were compared with previous site documentation.  Site size was obtained by measuring the horizontal extent of the remnant fence posts around the cemetery.

 

Surveyed By:        T. Klatka & A. Sweeney

Survey Date:         4/97

 

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.

 

Additional Comments:  Assigned temporal period was based on the range of death dates inscribed on observed headstones.  These dates ranged from 1875 through 1916.  All of the headstones in the cemetery were originally set so that the inscriptions faced to the southwest.  However, the location of associated ground surface depressions and footstones indicated that all of the graves were oriented to the northeast.  All of this suggests the cemetery was originally designed with an approach or entrance along the southwest side.  The cemetery is not marked on the Glenvar map sheet or on local realty maps.

 

The RVHS surveyed this cemetery and documented biographical information from all of the headstones in the cemetery (1986:  139).  This information was verified during the 1997 survey.

 

Marker inscriptions:

 

Mary C.                                                  J.A. Henderson                                    Sarah R. Henderson

Wife of                                                   Aug. 17, 1840                                        Nov. 11, 1811

Henderson                                            June 18, 1898                                         June 20, 1892

Oct. 23, 1842                                                                                                          Rest, Mother, rest in

May 24, 1916                                                                                                         quiet peace, while

She was a kind                                                                                                      friends in sorrow o’er

and affectionate wife                                                                                           thee weep.

a fond Mother, and

a friend to all.


Henderson Cemetery (continued)

 

A. Lucy                                                  John M. Henderson                             Paris M.

Daughter of                                           Jan. 1, 1808                                            Son of

JA & MC Henderson                          June 1, 1875                                           John A. & Mary C. Henderson

Nov. 2, 1882                                          Gone but not forgotten                       June 4, 1868

Nov. 6, 1885                                                                                                          Apr. 13, 1890

Suffer little children                                                                                             God called him home

to come unto me.                                                                                                  He thought it best.

 

Elizabeth A. Henderson

Jan. 10, 1849

July 12, 1899

She believed and sleeps in Jesus


 

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