Sad news - on April 8, 2015, historic Warner Chapel in
Mason County burned to the ground. While the exact cause of the fire is
still unknown for sure, there was a severe thunderstorm that passed
through the area around the same time as when the fire would have started,
and lighting may have caused the fire. The Leon Fire Department responded
to the blaze, but unfortunately, the church was fully consumed by the time
they arrived. As can be seen in the photos below, there was only minor
damage done to the cemetery fence where the back wall of the church fell
on it, but the church building is a total loss.
January 2014:
Many more cemetery readings with
tombstone photos, obituaries, census records, etc. have been added
over the past year in Jackson, Mason, Kanawha, Putnam and Roane
counties, thanks to the work of WVCPA volunteer George Scott. The
database he has been working on for us has grown significantly, and the
number of tombstone photos and associated documents like obituaries,
marriage records, death records and more, totaling over 14,000
have been added to our website over the past 18 months! One of the
latest additions, that we're particularly excited about, is the
Fairplain (a.k.a. Shinn) Cemetery from Jackson County - the
pages for the cemetery include aerial photos and links to map markers
identifying the specific location of each grave in the cemetery...
visit the page and see what we mean. It's awesome! George put
several months work into this feature and other supporting research
documents on many of the people buried in this cemetery that he happens
to be related to.
Also recently added, updated, are the cemeteries
located at Pleasant View Church in Jackson County. At this location,
there are three distinct sections of burials, containing graves of
persons relocated here from the former
Clendenin-Fisher and
Carney Cemeteries, along with original burials old and new
identified as being at "Pleasant View Church". Complicating matters
further, there appear to be different caretakers for the different
sections that we have not been able to identify fully. Our apologies for
any confusion that may arise, as it was our initial intent to refer to
all three sections as "Pleasant
View Church Cemetery", but we have been encouraged by local
family researchers to identify the sections separately. If you have
family buried in the graves located by Pleasant View Church, we
encourage you to visit all three of these pages when conducting your
research and use your best discretion when identifying the name of the
cemetery in your documentation.
January 2013:
Dozens upon dozens of cemetery readings with
tombstone photos, obituaries, census records, etc. have been added
over the past few months - particularly in Jackson and Mason Counties,
but several others as well. All of these, thanks to the hard work and
dedication of WVCPA volunteer George Scott, who along with his son, took
several thousand tombstone photos. George has been designing and
building a database for us, along with a computer program that will help
us build and update web pages faster using the database. He's been
creating all of these new pages with the program as part of the process
of working out any and all 'kinks' for us. As part of the pages, he's
been gracious enough to also provide additional background research of
many of the people buried in the cemeteries he's worked on, including
the supporting documents noted above. We've been greatly blessed by his
generous work, and look forward to the many more pages that he'll be
providing for us over the coming months!
June 2012:
Added a link on our Resources page for
Obscurely Famous-
A series of television programs produced for West
Virginia Public Television by West Virginian Jack Crutchfield. In the
series, he documents 'obscurely famous' folks, like Mark Twain's
grandfather, Titanic survivor Eloise Hunt, and one of the Civil War's
youngest boy soldiers buried in West Virginia cemeteries. The Mason
County episode is being aired on June 24, 2012 at 7 and 11 pm on WV Public Television, for
those of you in the viewing area.
We've been working 'behind the scenes' with one
of our dedicated volunteers (who also happens to be an excellent
programmer) to get a program developed that will allow us to get
cemetery pages online and updated much faster than the tedious manual
method we've used up 'til now. We're hoping to start including several
additional exciting features to our pages that we'll keep you in
suspense about for now! As Joel & my lives have changed and the demands
on our time have given us much less time personally to dedicate to our
passion for cemetery preservation and getting these photos and readings
online over the past couple of years, we're very thankful that this
'angel in disguise' has stepped forward and offered to help us out in
getting the web site going much more as we'd envisioned it to be. The
first live trials will be starting later this summer, so do check back
regularly. When we've got the routine all worked out, we could be seeing
as many as 150 cemeteries being added to our online page
selections, with photos and more!
March 2012:
This month we added a page for
Webb Cemetery in Putnam County, thanks to faithful volunteer
Terry McCallister's photo survey of the cemetery in 2010.
February 2012:
This month we added pages for
Baptist Grove Cemetery in Jackson County,
Sunset Memorial Park in Kanawha County, and
Cross Creek Cemetery in Putnam County, thanks to volunteer George
Scott's most capable help. There have also been added several tombstone
photos and names to lists for cemeteries throughout Jackson, Mason,
Kanawha and Putnam counties. If you haven't checked on your family
cemeteries lately, you may want to check them again if they're in any of
these counties!
January 2012:
Added many, many photos to the Otterbein Cemetery pages in Jackson Co., WV, thanks to photos
and all of the html editing done by WVCPA volunteer George Scott. He also took photos of the cemetery,
and has done so for many cemeteries across the state and he'll be
working with us to add pages for those over the next months. George has
been a real blessing to us, as catching up and keeping up with
everything can be a challenge. He has stepped in and built pages for us
and made it super simple to transfer his photos and web pages directly
to our web server. A big round of applause to George, and watch for more
of his handiwork in the coming months.
Over the past couple of months, we've also been
receiving hundreds of photos from a few of our more proliferate
contributors for Kanawha, Jackson and Putnam counties, along with dozens
for Mason County. We will do our best, as always, to get these photos
online. In the meantime, if you see that a cemetery you're interested in
is listed as "In Progress" on our site but no photos or perhaps even a
web page have yet to be posted for the cemetery, do contact us, as we
may have photos available that just haven't made it online yet.
January 2, 2012:
If the WVCPA web site is of value
to you, and if you have never made a contribution or have not done so in
a long time, we ask for your help, however modest, in supporting the
site's existence. Readership has continued to expand dramatically, with nearly
3,000 visits, over 10,000 page views, and over 2,000 individual readers
on average in 2011. Donations
will be deeply appreciated.
Remember, too, as we begin 2012
to continue make use of the
GoodSearch
search engine at
www.goodsearch.com,
specifying "WVCPA" as your designated charity. GoodSearch
is a search engine with a unique social mission. It’s powered by
Yahoo, so you get the same great search results. GoodSearch donates
50% of their advertising revenue to the nonprofits and schools
selected by their users. For this past year, WVCPA will soon be receiving a check
for $143.96 from GoodSearch as a direct result of your use of the
search engine in 2011! Now you, our supporters, can make a
difference in the work of WVCPA simply by changing the way they search the
Internet! Anytime anyone uses the GoodSearch site to search on the Internet
and specifies WVCPA as their favorite charity, GoodSearch will set
aside a portion of their revenue to contribute WVCPA (an average of
$.013 per search the past three years). Over the years, many of you
have expressed the desire to donate to WVCPA, but have not had the
means - now you can without it costing you a penny! Check out
GoodSearch for details, and tell your friends and family so they can
help contribute as well!
Happy New Year!
As the old year passes and the New Year
opens up before us, Joel and I want to wish WVCPA's faithful viewers,
and especially our dedicated volunteers and contributors from across the
country, a very Blessed New Year. We look forward to continue working
with you in 2012 to rescue the precious old burial grounds of West
Virginia. Thank you for your loyalty to us and to the mission of the
West Virginia Cemetery Preservation Association!
September 2011:
Added several photos and status update to the
Long Hollow Baptist Church page in Jackson Co., WV, thanks to
photos that long time volunteers, Charlotte and Steve Iman sent us this
past year. They also took photos of the church cemetery, and we'll be
adding a page for those in the not too distant future.
Thank you for your patience as we continue
to catch up after our sabbatical in 2010 & 2011!
To view "What's New" log entries from 2010-11,
Click Here
To view "What's New" log entries from 2009,
Click Here
To view "What's New" log entries from 2008,
Click Here
To view "What's New" log entries from 2007, Click Here
To view 2006 "What's New" log entries,
Click Here
To view "What's New" log entries from 2003-2005,
Click Here