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Where oh where are the Cemeteries?

Submitted by billriski on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 10:31pm.

MPOA History Committee: "Remembering Our Past, Enriching Our Present"

This article has been accepted by the Montclairian Editor for publication in the November 2006 edition.

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Rumor has it that there are at least five cemeteries located within Montclair. Those of us on the history committee (and our friends and neighbors we've pestered) can account for only four of them. And that's part of what is motivating the Montclair History Committee, led by Bill Riski, to do research on the local cemeteries; we want to preserve their memories in some small way.

Our long-term goal is to do enough research that we could fill a pamphlet; but in any case we'll get the information onto the web. The gravesites we know of are Henderson (Dolphin Beach), Syncox-King (Sheffield Court), Baby Hollick (Tallowwood Dr.) and Alexander (Afton Court). Here are some highlights about each cemetery:

Alexander (Afton Court) - A Lieutenant in the Confederate States of America, Thomas R. Alexander (1825-1864) is buried off of Afton Court along with several family members. This old gravesite has a recent tombstone, so we suspect there must still be next-of-kin in the area.

Henderson (Dolphin Beach) - Certainly the most famous, accessible, and well-marked grave site in Montclair. The commemorative marker erected at Dolphin Beach in 1976 has a nice summary of Alexander (1738-1815) and Sarah (about 1752-1816).

Hollick (Tallowwood Dr) - rumor has it that there are actually many graves at this site. Unfortunately only one is marked with a headstone. This young child died in 1921.

Syncox-King (Sheffield Court) - we told you about this one in an earlier article. It contains the largest collection of marked gravesites in Montclair. The most prominent tombstone belongs to John T. Syncox (1855-1924).

And here's what we'd like from the community:
- Any information you might have or can point us to about each cemetery
- Current family points of contact for anyone buried in any of these cemeteries
- Old pictures of the cemeteries (pre-1970)
- And of course, the location of the mysterious fifth (or sixth or seventh) cemetery!


Please support your history committee and contact one of the following with any information you have about cemeteries here in Montclair, Virginia:

Bill Riski, bill@riski.biz Barbara Templeton, thetemps@comcast.net

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AHHH!
Submitted by TJ Southard on Wed, 10/04/2006 - 12:40pm.

Steve

You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you? You son of a bitch, you left the bodies and you only moved the head stones. You only moved the head stones. Why? Why?

Sorry, Had to do it.

Cheers - Tj

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Find-A-Grave
Submitted by Chris Casey on Wed, 10/04/2006 - 12:51pm.

Find-A-Grave is a great web site used by genealogists and cemetery hunters to find and share information about cemeteries. If they aren't already there, we should see that all of Montclair's cemeteries and burials are added. I would be glad to help. I recently fulfilled a photo request for a burial at Harden's Hill Cemetery which is across 234 in the Brittany sub-division.

Earlier this year I wrote in my blog about Find-A-Grave that those who like cemetery hunting might find interesting.

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County Cemetery Survey
Submitted by Chris Casey on Sat, 10/07/2006 - 6:25pm.

OK, so I succeeded at getting the 'Find-A-Grave' site to add 'Montclair' as a location in Prince William County, and with that I added the Syncox-King cemetery and one burial in it to their site. Thanks Bill for allowing me to post some of your photos.

I had a recollection of a newspaper article about PWC doing a survey of cemeteries in the county, and I found it in the Potomac News from last year:

Private cemeteries dot county
The Potomac News, 11/6/05

The article states that:

In 2001, the Prince William County Historical Commission funded efforts to document all of the county's cemeteries, county planner Bob Bainbridge said.

Before the 2001 project, local historian E.R. Conner III published "100 Old Cemeteries of Prince William County, Virginia" in 1981, outlining several smaller family cemeteries throughout the county.

Copies are available for checkout or non-circulating review at all county libraries.

Do we know if Montclair's cemeteries are included in either of these publications?

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Shephard Slave Cemetery
Submitted by Chris Casey on Sat, 10/07/2006 - 7:29pm.

Is this Cemetery #5??

from Prince William County Historic Sites, an Index

Shephard Slave Cemetery

Location: Montclair

Sources:
PWC Burial Index (2001)
PWCHC Cemetery Doc. Project (2001)

Turner Cemetery No.: 534

Lat/Long: N38o 36.687’, W77o 20.484’

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"100 Old Cemeteries of Prince William County, Virginia", 1981
Submitted by billriski on Mon, 10/09/2006 - 9:44pm.

Chris - don't know if 'our' cemeteries are in here. But I'll check it out when I get back to Virginia. Bill

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Visit to Syncox - King Cemetery
Submitted by Chris Casey on Mon, 10/09/2006 - 9:33pm.

Cemetery PathBetween football games on Sunday, I drove on down to the end of Sheffield Drive and visited the Syncox - King Cemetery. It's not hard to find. Entering the cul-de-sac, you can see a wood retaining wall in the back corner on the right hand side. The cemetery fence is visible from the street, and a few steps up an eroded dirt path gets you there.

Getting there is one thing, getting in is another (insert 'dying to get in' joke here). The gate is padlocked shut, and the fence of rusty spikes would deter a less determined or less foolish visitor. But I was determined and foolish both, and so managed a delicate high-step over and in.

There were probably about a dozen tombstones, and at least half of them laid flat on the ground. I counted three family names among them; Syncox, King and Milstead. About half of them were young children or infants. You can see my photos from the visit here.

I would be interested in helping with any effort to help catelogue and clean-up this and any of Montclair's cemeteries. I added nine of the burials I found to the virtual Syncox - King Cemetery that I added to Find-A-Grave. There is a fallen tree leaning just above the headstone of James Syncox that clearly needs to be removed. And with some research into how to do it right, many of the stones could use a cleaning. I will check and see if the County offers any guidence for cemetery preservation projects.

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Burying the Dead On-Line
Submitted by billriski on Mon, 10/09/2006 - 9:55pm.

All - as the MPOA History Committee researches and documents 'our' cemeteries, we plan to both publish something in hardcopy and to put the information up online.

Aside from Find-a-Grave (that Chris recommends), I'd be interested in other web sites that anyone feels we should post our info to. Recommendations?

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Internment.net
Submitted by Chris Casey on Mon, 10/09/2006 - 10:07pm.

Another online 'Cemetery Transcription Library' that I'm somewhat familiar with is internment.net. From their list of Prince William County cemeteries, it doesn't look like they have any of Montclair's.

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clean-up what?
Submitted by TJ Southard on Wed, 10/11/2006 - 1:33pm.

Maybe we can send the residents of those areas Letters from MPOA to clean it up themselves.

Seriously, I don't understand the obsession with grave sites that aren't part of your family. I understand that it's part of history. But why put your energy into cleaning up the graves, not looking for a thank you I hope. There's plenty of areas in Montclair that could use a landscaping renovation. For instance, the entrance sign... that thing is pathetic. And guess what... everyone sees it everyday.

I suppose grave history is a hobby that I just will never get.

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graves, history, & kindness
Submitted by Chris Casey on Wed, 10/11/2006 - 3:03pm.

I can offer a few reasons for you...

For me, genealogy is a consuming hobby and I very much enjoy tracking down and visiting grave sites of family members. But it is often the case that time and distance don't allow a personal visit, and on a number of occasions I've benefitted from the help of others who are closer to the grave site I wish to visit who have done me the favor of going to the site, taking a photo, and placing it online for me.

The Internet has also become an amazing tool for genealogists searching for family connections. By placing information about the individuals buried in Montclair's cemeteries online, we might end up helping one of their family members locate or learn more about them. This is the type of favor most genealogists gladly offer, because they either have or hope they will sometime experience the same benefit of an unexpected online breakthrough.

From a historical point of view, cemeteries and tombs are just cool. They take you back in time to meeting and think about an individual at their final resting place. The people buried here are our neighbors across time. They lived, farmed, and raised families here in the same area we share today (of course, before there was a lake, or an HOA :-) Getting to know them in some small way is interesting to me.

Cemeteries can be forgotten or fall into disrepair over time as the family members who cared for them move away or die out. At that point it's a simple act of kindness for anyone to spend some small effort in maintaining them. I'm not looking for any thanks from anyone, but glad to do it in memory of the individuals buried there, and the hope that I'll likewise be remembered the same way some day.

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Yeah! Take That!
Submitted by billriski on Wed, 10/11/2006 - 10:23pm.

What Chris said ... 8-)

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Memorial Held at Alexander Cemetery in Montclair
Submitted by Chris Casey on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 11:55am.

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Potomac News about a family memorial ceremony recently held at the Alexander Cemetery here in Montcair:

In honor of service
The Potomac News, 6/3/09

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