Kefauver Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke City                        Temporal Period:                  2nd through 4th quarters 19th c.

Realty Map:          4360603                                  Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American    

USGS Map:           Garden City                           Landform:                              Ridge bench

Grid Locus:            I-1                                           Elevation:                              940 feet

UTM Easting:       596200                                    Aspect:                                  South

UTM Northing:    4122940

 

Site Dimensions: 25.4 by 41.4 feet

 

Survey Description:   Site consists of a small family cemetery containing about 12 interments.  Five interments were marked by formal headstones, three were marked with uninscribed fieldstone markers, and four unmarked graves were identified on the basis of ground surface depressions.  Graves are enclosed by a concrete wall which measures 25.4 by 41.4 feet and about 2.5 -3 feet high.  All graves were oriented to the southeast.  Historic plantings included five large oak trees and a dense groundcover of periwinkle.   Site was field inspected, photographed, and headstone inscriptions were transcribed and compared to previous site documentation.  Site size was estimated by measuring the horizontal extent of the surrounding enclosure.  Roanoke City realty maps list site size as 50 by 50 feet.

 

Surveyed By:        T. Klatka & D. Richardson

Survey Date:         10/97

 

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 #111.

 

Additional Comments: Temporal affiliation of site was based on death dates inscribed on headstones.  These dates ranged from 1858 – 1887.  The presence of unmarked graves and graves marked by uninscribed fieldstone markers may indicate an earlier or later use of the site.  Site is not marked on the USGS Garden City map sheet, but it is marked on local realty maps.  Although no headstones or unmarked graves were identified  outside the cement wall, a lush growth of periwinkle to the west of the wall suggests the possibility that other interments might be located outside the cement wall.

 

The cemetery was initially surveyed by the Works Progress Administration of Virginia and was recorded in Document #111 of the Historical Inventory for Roanoke County, Virginia. The WPA file provided biographical information for six interments although only five grave markers were observed.  The WPA survey form notes that “Peter Kefawver [sic] was buried here as early as 1814, but there is no marker or slab.”  Five inscribed headstones are still present in the cemetery.

 

The site was also surveyed by the RVHS and their report included biographical information derived from five inscribed headstones observable in the cemetery and one interment not observed during the survey but listed on the WA survey file for the cemetery (RVHS 1986:  147-148).  Finally, records of an independent survey of the cemetery were deposited in the Cemetery Files in the Virginia Room of the Roanoke City Public Library.  The independent survey provided biographical information from the five observable headstones in the cemetery.  The following information was collected during the current survey and it repeats some information from the RVHS report.  Dashed lines in the following list indicate illegible inscriptions.


Kefauver Cemetery (continued)

 

Marker Inscriptions:

 

Susan Nidy                                                           In memory of                                         In memory of

wife of                                                                    Peter Kefauver                                      Eva C. ----

Peter Kefauver                                                      Died                                                        (inscription not

Died Sept. 3, 1887.                                                Dec’r. 28, 1877                                      legible)

Aged                                                                      Aged 76 years                                      (footstone: E.C.G.)

88 years & 2 mos.                                 (footstone: PK)

 

In memory of                                                         In memory of

W. M. Kefauver                                                   Philip Kefauver

Born Aug. 6, 1849                                                departed this life

Died June 20, 1867                                               March 31, 1858

(footstone: W.M.K.)                                            Aged 23 years and

6 days

(footstone: P.K.)

 

The RVHS report included the following information from the partially illegible headstone listed above:

Griggs, In Memory of/ Eva C., wife of Sam Griggs/ Born July 2, 1838/ Died Apr. 8, 1868

 

The same report includes the following information recorded on the WPA survey file for the cemetery.

In Memory of Mrs. Eva G. / Kefauver / Wife of Daniel / Born July 2, 1835 / Died April 8th, 1860

 

Similarities in the months and days of birth and death from these two records suggest they may refer to the same grave marker; however, archival research will be necessary in order to clarify the matter.


 

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