jmancini@newsandsentinel.com From left, Thomas Butcher and his mother and father, Janet and Tom Butcher of Michigan, pose at the gravestone of Payton Butcher at the Kincheloe-VanDiver-Butcher Cemetery within the Poor Farm Cemetery but pre-dating the Poor Farm Cemetery at West Virginia University at Parkersburg. The Butchers, researching their family ancestry, were in Wood County last month. (Photo Provided) The gravestone of John Barnett at the Barnett Cemetery near the 4-H grounds in Wood County. Barnett, an early settler of Wood County, died in 1852. May is Remember a Rural Cemetery Month in Wood County. (Photo Provided) Mary Mount Barnett, the second wife of John Barnett, died in 1861 and is buried at the Barnett Cemetery near the 4-H grounds. Hers and her husband’s stones are down and broken. (Photo Provided)
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The family grave plot of a Revolutionary War veteran. Unfortunately it is an example of what nature, and modern times, have allowed many rural cemeteries to become. Though this cemetery has been “cleared” several times, it is the lack of help with routine maintenance that allows Mother Nature to quickly reclaim what should be sacred grounds. The photo will be identified next week. (Photo Provided)
May is Remember a Rural Cemetery Month.
In 2013, in an effort to help the Wood County Rural Cemetery Alliance and the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society preserve and restore rural cemeteries, the Wood County Commission resolved that the month of May would be “Rural Cemetery Remembrance Month.” We will again use items in Look Back to draw attention to the scores of “forgotten” cemeteries that dot the countryside throughout Wood County, most of which are unkempt. Unfortunately, those interred in these neglected cemeteries, have, for the mo