Locality:
Realty Map: 76.12-2-34 Cultural
Affiliation: Euro-American
USGS Map:
Grid Locus: K-2 Elevation: 1120 feet
UTM Easting: 587290 Aspect: Flat
UTM Northing: 4121690
Site Dimensions: 33
by 56.1 by 55.87 by 58.88 feet
Survey Description:
Site consists of a small family cemetery with about 12 graves. Five graves were marked with marble
headstones, six were marked with uninscribed fieldstone markers, and one
surface depression appears to represent an unmarked grave. Other graves may be
present. Due to previous damage to the
cemetery it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of graves in the
cemetery. This cemetery is covered with
mowed grass and historic plantings include a large oak tree, four cherry
trees, one yucca, periwinkle and English
ivy. Site was field inspected, photographed,
and grave marker inscriptions were transcribed and compared to previous
documentation. The south and east
borders of the cemetery are marked by a wood “stockade” fence, the west border
is lined with a chainlink fence and the north side is open. Site size was
derived from local realty maps.
Survey Date: 6/99
Field Notes: _x_Yes ___No
Photographs: _x_Yes ___No
References: Roanoke
Valley Historical Society
1986 Roanoke County Graveyards Through
1920. Privately printed, RVHS, Roanoke.
Additional Comments:
Assigned temporal period was based on the 1877 through 1911 range of
death dates inscribed on documented headstones.
However, the presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers and one unmarked
grave may reflect an earlier or later use of the site. The cemetery is not marked on the USGS Bent
Mountain map sheet but it is marked on local realty maps. It is located in the rear lot of 4335
Fontaine Drive. The cemetery was abandoned and overgrown then used as a
recreation area by neighborhood children.
Following damage to the cemetery its use as a recreation area was discontinued. Neighboring resident, William Duff, maintains
the cemetery. He has conducted extensive
documentary research with manuscript census schedules, as well as birth,
marriage, and death records. He has also
received information from Oakey’s Funeral Service, responsible for the last
burial service in the cemetery. Oakey’s
records refer to this cemetery as the “Trout Cemetery.”
The RVHS (1986: 24) initially surveyed the cemetery and
documented it as the “Wills-Walton Cemetery.”
Headstone inscriptions were used to record biographical information for
five interments in the cemetery.
The RVHS documented inscriptions from a marble die-on-base
monument that marked the graves for Argie and H.L.A. Trout. The heads of these graves are still marked
with uninscribed fieldstones that flank a marble base without a headstone. It is uncertain if the associated headstone
fell and was covered by grass or if it was removed from the cemetery. Six uninscribed fieldstone markers in the
northern part of the cemetery were interpreted as marking two graves with
headstones and footstones and two graves with only headstones. However, this interpretation may be
incorrect. The six uninscribed fieldstones
may mark six individual graves.
Wills-Walton
Cemetery (continued)
Marker Inscriptions:
James E. Wills Eliza Argie
Trout
Born Jan. 22. 1822. Daughter
of Born
Mary F. Wills Sept
28, 1876 H.L.A.
Trout
Born Feb. 26. 1825 Dec.
21, 1877. Born
Died Jan. 7. 1911 Died
Blessed Hope. (Headstone
recorded by
(manufacturer’s mark:
RVHS. Headstone not
By Conelly) One grave
observed
during 1999
marked with small marble survey but base
is present.)
stones at head and foot while
other grave marked with
fieldstones at head and foot.