To view
current "What's New" log entries,
Click Here
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 "What's New" log entries from 2003-2005,
Click Here
December 31, 2006:
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization, WVCPA receives all of its income to cover operating
expenses and be able to pass along gifts for selected cemetery rescue
efforts in the state of West Virginia from donations from faithful
donors and philanthropists across the United States. WVCPA makes
it a point to NOT charge for any of the services it provides on the
internet, in person, or via email, nor do we inundate our volunteers and
business contacts with spam email, soliciting donations throughout the
year. In fact, as a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization, we are greatly restricted by the Internal
Revenue Service in how we raise funds that are not given as freewill
gifts. So, once a year
around this time, we strive to remind our friends and visitors of the
opportunity that they have to further the work of WVCPA through their
financial gifts and potentially gain deductions on their own taxes in
the process. As such, here are a couple of announcements we'd like
to make as this year comes to a close:
WVCPA has been added as one of
the non-profit charities that benefits from people using the GoodSearch
search engine at www.goodsearch.com.
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. Now our supporters
can make a difference in the work of WVCPA, or any nonprofit charity
of their choice that is included among the registered organizations
on the GoodSearch site, simply by changing the way they search the
Internet!
Starting tomorrow, the 28th of December, 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. 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 how they
can contribute as well!
In only a few short days, 2006
will come to a close and 2007 will dawn with all of it's promise and
hopes for an exciting New Year. Remember that if you would
like to give a tax-deductible gift to
WVCPA, your letters must be postmarked no later than December 31,
2006 to be considered a donation in the 2006 tax year. On our Contribute
page, we also have links to PayPal if you prefer to send us a gift
using your major credit card.
Added a page for Old
Rehoboth Church Cemetery in Monroe County. Work is
still in progress with gathering
data for a full listing of known burials in this cemetery. If
you notice any names missing from this listing, please send us the
details (name, birth date, death date, etc.) by email.
December 27, 2006:
Added a page for Orlando
Cemetery in Braxton County, thanks to information provided
by WVCPA contributor, Kate Hofman, who will be sending us more
information and photos to add to the page in the near future.
December 18, 2006:
Added a page for Rader
Cemetery in Jackson County, thanks to information generously
provided by WVCPA contributor, Frank Hyre.
Added cemetery pages for Summers,
Webster
and Wetzel
counties - more research is underway for these counties to identify
additional cemeteries located in these counties.
Major additions to the Pendleton
County cemetery page - communication underway to begin work
with volunteers and community leaders in that county to help
preserve their historic cemeteries.
Amidst the hustle and bustle of
the season, working to catch up on old email that has sat far, far
too long, and that ominous "to do" pile that never seems
to get any smaller! Despite the stress that brings at times,
we wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China for all the friends
that it has brought us over the years that Joel and I have operated
WVCPA - you're all a wonderful blessing to us, as we hope we are in
some way to you. On the home page we say "A
Blessed and Joyous Christmas Season to You and Yours!",
and we mean it from our hearts. Our prayers are with you
all for a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Completed a page for St.
Patrick's Cemetery in Putnam County, thanks to the
photographs and reading/research submission by WVCPA contributor
Robin Kilgore
Photos being added to the Bethel
Church Cemetery page (Mason County), photos from a recent
WVCPA staff visit to the cemetery, from WVCPA contributor Connie
Hitchings, and from photos taken by Dale
Sines a few years ago, submitted by WVCPA contributor Dennis
Green.
November 12, 2006:
Added a page for Mt.
Olive Cemetery, located east of Ripley in Jackson County
Page established for Rader
Church, (research is still in progress on this one) located
in the same area of Jackson County, northwest of Gay.
October 29, 2006:
Added a page for the Belcher
Family Cemetery in Pocahontas County. Family researcher and
Belcher descendant, Judy Long, from Oregon generously provided the
information and photos for this page. This cemetery lies close to
the boundary of Watoga State Park on private land. From the
family visit in August of this year, it appears that there may be a
very real threat to the continued existence of this small family
cemetery, due to heavy construction going on nearby. Judy and her
family are working hard to do what they can to preserve this
cemetery. To that end, the cemetery was fenced and graves clearly
identified by the Belcher descendants. If you are able to help in
the preservation of this cemetery, particularly if you live near
Watoga State Park and are able to help with local research and
correspondence, contact WVCPA by email and we will forward your
message and contact information to Judy.
Close to 75 photos were added
last night to the Wyoma
Church Cemetery page (Mason County), and over 100 remain to
be added, thanks to the photographic work of WVCPA contributor Rex
Carlyle. Many of the photos he sent us were for burials not
previously recorded/published for this cemetery.
October 27, 2006:
Added a page for Dunlap
Cemetery in Kanawha County and Smith/Good
Cemetery in Jackson County - our apologies to the
contributor of the information for this cemetery, Russ Dean, for
the long time since he sent these to us. We found the
information in the email today, lost among the hundreds in our
archive, and realized that the page had not been completed as
yet. Russ has also sent us several photos and information
for other cemeteries, and we will be working to get these online as
soon as possible, along with the many other submissions that we've
received over the past months that have yet to be posted.
October 23, 2006:
Added several photos, and made
updates to the page for the Edward
Greenlee Cemetery in Mason County. Included are photos
from our clean-up project the first weekend in October 2006.
October 21, 2006:
Added a page for the Mt.
Vernon UMC Cemetery, and started a page for Coffman
Cemetery, both in Greenbrier County. Our thanks
to Bruce Chase for bringing it to our attention! We hope to see more
information about this cemetery - perhaps a current reading and some
photos - from Bruce in the near
future.
We've returned from our latest
"expedition" to West Virginia to gather cemetery
information, photos, etc. It was a very successful trip, thanks to
ideal weather conditions, among other things. We were able to
at least make a valiant effort at uncovering the Edward Greenlee
Cemetery, thanks to the hard work and fun we shared with June
and Connie, our stalwart volunteers on that project. A good
half of the cemetery was uncovered from eyeball-high weeds before we
all tuckered out. More work needs to be done there to maintain it,
and to clear a good path from the field below it on the hill.
Sadly, we were unable to attract any able volunteers on Oct. 14th
for the clean-up of the Lewis Greenlee Cemetery. After
close inspection of it the day before, we determined that one brush
hog weedeater, a pair of pruners and just Joel and I wouldn't even
be able to make a dent in the saplings and briars that have
overgrown this cemetery. We will revisit it in winter, weather
permitting, to see if we can at least get some of the more
aggressive saplings pruned back to stave them off at least.
Besides that, we gathered over
1000 photos of cemeteries and tombstones, this time mostly in
Jackson County. Cemeteries visited include the following: Longview
Church, David Sayre, Cherry Grove, Casto-Fisher,
Antioch Church, Hopewell Baptist Church, Fairview Church, and Foster Chapel.
In Putnam County we visited Barnett Chapel, and in Mason
County we visited Edward Greenlee, McDade, Mt.
Tabor, Bethel Chapel, Forest Hills, and Baden
Presbyterian.
The David
Sayre Cemetery page is now online for you to visit
(incidentally, WVCPA recently donated funds to the David Sayre
Cemetery fund to help towards the purchase of a new gate for the
fence line by the road - something we do on occasion when a specific
need comes to our attention and our funds allow, with the approval
of our advisory board).
A reminder that WVCPA will be
doing clean-ups of the Edward Greenlee cemetery in Leon,
Mason Co. this coming Saturday from 11:00-3:00 (or until we're
done!), and of the Lewis Greenlee cemetery located along
Thirteenmile Creek, north of Tribble Road in the Arbuckle area of
Mason Co. If you're interested in helping out, please contact
us by email as soon as possible, including a daytime and evening
phone number so we can get in touch with you. We will be
traveling the remainder of this week, attending a family funeral
(Joel's father - please keep us and our family in your prayers
during this time of grief), but will be checking email on Friday the
6th.
September 10, 2006:
Added a page for the Wyoma
Church Cemetery in Mason County - there is still background
research being done on this cemetery in archived obituaries for
burials of the past 20 years. Watch for changes and additions of
photos to the page over the coming months.
Added a page for the Pott's
Chapel Cemetery in Mason County. Background research
is still being done on this one as well, so the listing is not
totally up to date.
Added a page for the Edward
Greenlee Cemetery in Mason County, thanks to the photographs
and research provided by WVCPA contributor Connie Hitchings.
We're evaluating the possibility of doing a clean-up of this
cemetery, perhaps as early as this coming October. If you're
interested in helping out (and have the tools to work with), and are
available on the first Saturday's in October, let us know.
Nothing is certain yet, but we have strong hopes that we can work
this out in addition to the Greenlee Cemetery along Thirteenmile
Creek south of Leon.
22 July 2006:
Added a page for the Casto-Fisher
Cemetery near Goldtown in Jackson County - a little family
cemetery facing some very real threats from major construction
taking place around it.
Joel and Donna have returned
from their summer trip to WV - unfortunately, while in WV, Donna was
bitten on the leg by an unknown 'critter' of the insect-sort, and
the bite quickly developed into a staph infection which she is still
getting over. It gave her the opportunity to spend 2 nights
and 3 days with the very kind and capable staff of Jackson General
Hospital in Ripley, who we are happy to report are a top-notch team
if you ever find yourself in need of some emergency medicine when
you're in the area! The little adventure, however, seriously bit
into (pun intended?) the time that Joel and Donna had hoped to use
on cemetery research over the last week in the state. If all goes
well with the healing process, Donna will be fit as a fiddle come
early October when she and Joel will be making another trek to WV.
By the way, Donna did get a chance to take a peek at the conditions
at Greenlee Cemetery a few days before she was bitten, and it
did not look good. The cemetery lies barely 8 feet from the
roadbed, and it was so overgrown that, were it not for one large
headstone near the front fence line, plus knowing exactly where the
cemetery was, you wouldn't have known there was a cemetery there at
all. This one is definitely on the list for a 'makeover' in
October! If you would be interested in working with Joel and
Donna on this project in the Leon area of Mason County in
October (either Saturday of the Columbus Day weekend or the
one following), drop them an email at
before the end of September. They'll be needing a means to
either shred on site or haul away any brush that is cut down, plenty
of willing hands with long-handled pruners, and perhaps a weedeater
for good measure.
5 June 2006:
Several updates have been made
to a number of cemetery pages, in particular the Pleasant Hill
Cemetery page in Jackson County and New Antioch Cemetery
in Putnam County.
Many new pages are in progress
- check for new links for pages in progress or external links to
cemetery pages on the Jackson, Putnam and Mason
County cemetery list pages.
We're getting ready for our
upcoming summer trip to WV for research and photographing - most
work will be done in Jackson, Putnam and Mason County, though we
also have plans to visit Mercer County this trip and other areas
along the way from our place in Mason County to a family gathering
in Tennessee. We hope to also work on some preliminary rescue
work on the Greenlee
Cemetery in Union District of Mason County during our trip -
at least getting a start on clearing out some of the worst briar
'infestations'. More work on Greenlee Cemetery will likely be
done on this in early October when the weather is more moderate and
the 'critters' (ticks, chiggers, snakes, etc.!) are a bit more
docile. If you try and contact us by email during the remainder of
June and into early July, it may take us a while to reply, as we'll
be online infrequently.
4 June 2006:
Added a page for Casto
Cemetery in Fairplain, Jackson County, thanks to the
contribution of a reading by James "Cam" and Joan Crane.
Photos still needed for this cemetery - volunteer(s) needed! Contact
us at
if you can help.
Added a page for the Coleman-Lovejoy
Cemetery near Liberty in Putnam County - this page has some
great photos of the process for making an aluminum foil 'rubbing' of
a tombstone - one of the safest ways to do a rubbing of a stone, not
at all damaging like chalk, shaving cream, soap, and all the other
methods that may be recommended by those who don't realize how those
things can hasten the wearing away of the tombstone surface.
Even if you don't have family buried in this cemetery, have a look
at the bottom of the cemetery page and see how aluminum foil
rubbings are done!
8 April 2006:
Added a page for the Lewis Greenlee
Cemetery in Union District of Mason County - this cemetery
is a particularly dear one to Joel and Donna, as it holds the grave
of one of the founders of their home church in Leon, Wolfe Valley
Baptist Church. Lord willing, and many hands become available
to us to help, we'll see this cemetery rescued and beautiful once
more before this year is out. If you're interested in lending
a helping hand, get in touch with us at .
7 April 2006:
Added a page for the McLain
Cemetery in Mason County, thanks to photography and research from
long-time WVCPA contributor, Herman Gray - thanks a bunch, Herman!
2 April 2006:
For those of you with family
buried at Emma Chapel Cemetery in Putnam County: This
announcement was seen recently in a local newspaper that you may
find of interest - perhaps you will be able to attend:
Emma Chapel Cemetery
Holding Luminary
"Emma Chapel Cemetery
will be holding their annual luminary on Sunday, April 9,
between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Due to inclement weather
in December, it was suggested to have the luminary in the
spring. All families are invited to come and light
the candle on the gravesite of loved ones. The cemetery is located
on Rt. 34, near Liberty, WV"
25 March 2006:
Added a page for the Jacob
Snider Family Cemetery near Martinsburg in Berkeley County - thanks
to information and photograph from family researcher and new
contributor to WVCPA, Robert Longbottom.
23 March 2006:
It may seem like little has
been posted here lately, well that may be true. However, we're
busy behind the scenes right now working on pages for Concord
Baptist Church Cemetery in Mason County and Hickory
Grove Church Cemetery in Jackson County, thanks to the
generous volunteer efforts of WVCPA contributor Alice Proffitt.
We're also working on pages for Henderson Cemetery and Old
Town Board Baptist Church Cemetery in Mason County, thanks to
great photos and video sent to us by WVCPA contributor Veva Scott
(and her charming video star, Arlona!). There have been many updates
made to several of the Mason County cemeteries after much research
on obituaries from the past 20 years, adding many names that were
not included in previously published readings. We are also
working on final proofreading of pages and noting of additional
photographs (or retakes) needed for Craig and Craig/DouglasCemeteries in Mason County - we've been waiting there on dry,
non-snowy days when we're in WV to get out into those two
cemeteries. We're hoping on the first weekend in April, but
long-range forecasts don't look promising at this point. We might
have to wait on those until we're back in June. Dunn Cemetery
updates have kept us busy as well - several hundred additional names
have been added to the earlier-published reading, with many of those
being added the past month, thanks to all the hard work of Sally
Fish, the researcher scouring the pages of death records and the
like in the nearby counties to get as complete a listing as
possible. We continue to be awed and inspired by the work of
Dr. Hudson and the other members of the Dunn Cemetery Association
who are working so hard to preserve their beloved cemetery for their
loved ones who rest beneath its soil. Joel and I are proud to
help them in their efforts on behalf of WVCPA.
So, fear not, more new pages
will be added before too long! In the meantime, you might want
to take the time to visit your family cemeteries that we do have
online and check to see if there have been any updates made that will
help you in your research!
18 March 2006:
The folks of the Dunn Cemetery
Association (Dunn Cemetery in Cannelton, Kanawha Co., WV) are
planning a first annual memorial service at the cemetery - see our
"In The News" page for
more details!
13 March 2006:
Added page for Ridgway
Cemetery in Preston County, thanks to information provided
by WVCPA contributor Robert Rosier. We still need a current
reading and photos of the tombstones in this cemetery - any
volunteers?
5 February 2006:
Added page for Craig/Douglas
Cemetery in Mason County, along with photos and assistance
generously provided by WVCPA contributor Ron Craig
Added pages for Schowen
Cemetery in Putnam County, thanks to the volunteer research
efforts and photography of Mike Shaffer (note: unidentified graves
and their locations have yet to be added to the last page -
this work is still in progress)
Several additions have been
made to the Dunn Cemetery in Kanawha County, thanks to the ongoing
research and contributions of the Dunn Cemetery Preservation
Association
9 January 2006:
Added a significant number of
names and made corrections to the page for Craig
Cemetery at Grimms Landing in Mason County, thanks to the volunteer efforts of
Teresa Bonecutter, Barbara Mills, Carolyn Miller and Holly King
(Holly also provided a number of corrections and additional
information for Thornton family entries at Warner
Chapel Cemetery, also in Mason County). Our thanks to these
ladies for all their hard work and willingness to share the
information with those who visit out web site!
To view
current "What's New" log entries,
Click Here
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 "What's New" log entries from 2003-2005,
Click Here