Martin-Simpson Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke County                  Temporal Period:                  19th c. – 20th c.

Realty Map:          94.02-2-3                                Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Bent Mountain                     Landform:                              Ridge bench

Grid Locus:            C-6                                          Elevation:                              1660 feet

UTM Easting:       579220                                    Aspect:                                  South

UTM Northing:    4117030

 

Site Dimensions:  50 by 75 feet

 

Survey Description:  Site consists of a family cemetery with at least 37 graves.  Observed graves were aligned in six rows and included 32 marked with uninscribed fieldstone markers, one marked with a broken metal marker, and four unmarked graves identified on the basis of ground surface depressions.  The observed graves ranged in orientation from 96 to 105 degrees east of north.  Other graves may be present.  Site is surrounded by a mixed deciduous-pine forest.  Historic plantings observed on the site included oak and poplar trees, periwinkle, and yucca.  Site was field inspected and the single grave marker inscription was transcribed.  Site size was estimated by pacing the horizontal extent of the observed graves.

 

Survey Date:         8/98

 

Field Notes:           _x_Yes   ___No

Photographs:        ___Yes  _x_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 #157.

 

Additional Comments:  Assigned temporal period was based on the 1948 death dates inscribed on the observed metal marker and on information documented by previous surveys of the cemetery.  However, the presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers and unmarked graves may reflect an earlier or later use of the site. Census and property deed research may provide social and temporal information regarding this site.  The cemetery is not marked on the USGS Bent Mountain map sheet or on local realty maps.

 

The RVHS surveyed this cemetery and recorded it as the “Martin-Simpson Cemetery.”  The cemetery was described as “overgrown and abandoned, with no inscriptions remaining.”  Oral histories indicated that individuals buried in the cemetery included Olivan Martin, Rabe Martin, Mrs. Tilden Martin and her child, Louisa Martin Simpson, and Newton Simpson (RVHS 1986: 158).

 

This cemetery is most likely the “Abraham Martin Cemetery” surveyed in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration of Virginia and recorded in Document #157 of the Historical Inventory of Roanoke County, Virginia.  The WPA file recorded the graves of two daughters of Abram and Margaret (Shortzer) Martin who died during the Civil War.  “One, Luticia, was born July 27, 1850.  Another, Louisa, was born February 28, 1853.  She, Luticia, was a twin sister to Louisa Simpson.”  (This may be the same Louisa Martin Simpson recorded by the RVHS as buried in the Martin-Simpson Cemetery.)  The WPA file described the location of the cemetery as “up Martin’s Creek, 1 mile from Bent Mountain Road, north side of creek.”  This places the cemetery in the location of the Martin-Simpson Cemetery and the Henry Webster Cemetery.

 

Marker Inscription observed during the 1998 survey:  

 

Lacy L. Simpson / 1881       1948  (broken metal marker)


 

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