So - I stole the name for this post from Zeppelin - it just fits.
This is actually the first of two posts and both of them deal with West Virginia history from the late 19th century through the early 20th century.
I had the unexpected pleasure of visiting Kayford Mountain today and some areas of historical significance scattered throughout the hollows at it’s base. If it gives you any indication - I took 133 photos today. Expect a post soon on the Stop MTR blog entitled Into The Headwaters. You won’t believe the photos I have to show you.
At any rate this post is about just another cemetery.
It is obvious a lot of the people buried here are immigrant miners. Some of the markers, I have never seen the likes of before. The area these graves are in is the same area as the mine wars in the early 1900’s. The proof of that is in the photos for tomorrows post.
Unfortunately my walk through the cemetery created a ton of questions and yielded few answers. For instance - the photo above shows about 3 to 4 graves surrounded by fences, one of those wrought iron. There are from 30 to 50 graves on this hillside so naturally I wonder why these 3 or 4 warrant the fences. Makes me think there is something extra significant with those few graves.
I was curious of a few markers - the two above being at the top of the list. Never have I seen markers such as these. They are made of a very heavy steel and appear to have been formed in molds. This I can tell you - they didn’t originate in the state of West Virginia and if I were a betting man - I’d bet they didn’t originate in this country. It was also significant to note these miners died on the same day in 1906.
Although I was brimming with curiosity my entire visit to this hillside a number of things made me more so than others and I strained to hear the story all of these stones were trying to tell. In the last two photos - those stones with the pointed tops were also intriguing. The one against the tree has the miners details and under that it has a tree carved into the sandrock. The last photo with the same shape has a few straight lines carved into the stone around the name almost as if to make the drawing resemble a house. Another thing, at the very bottom of the stone there is an engraving that states 18 Days. I would love to know what that represents.
The oldest legible marker was from 1866 - the most recent, 1977. The majority legible 1890 - 1930. This doesn’t give a real strong indication of the span of time covered because there were quite a few markers that were undecipherable or simply creek stones.
I can’t help but think about the sandstone headstones. I wonder if all those years ago the people were aware that sandstone deteriorates naturally over time. It is almost like they were guaranteeing their erasures from the pages of history by inscribing the names in sandstone. It is obvious why they did it because it is easy to carve into sandstone using handtools - but still…
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It is quite obvious I am still on a trip through history. All of the history on the hillside I visited today coincides with the same time in history as the Eccles mine disasters. I’m still in the early 1900’s - I’m just in a different part of the coalfields.
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I think someone could spend years studying the cemetery putting together the pages of a forgotten story. Do we really want to forget? Or worse yet - do we really want to destroy our history? Something I thought about today while in the cemetery - for most of the people buried there - the decision to forget them lies just as heavily with the countries they came here from - to mine coal. This particular cemetery tells of a story that lies just as much outside the state of West Virginia as it does in the coalfields. This was the end of their life. For most of them - life began far from here.
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Adding for detail full size photo cropped to the stone.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Wow, what an interesting thing to find. I’d be just like you wandering among the stones trying to figure out what they all meant. I hope you do document what you can find out about this cemetary and the people buried there. They deserve to be remembered.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Denny,
I may have a clue for you on the “18 days” stone, years ago many tombstones included your compelte age at death, for example, 33 years, 6 months, 18 days, perhaps this is what is on the stone, and all that remains legible is 18 days.
Also, here is an old genealogy tip for you to read worn stones, take a bag of flour with you to the cemetery, rub a handful of flour on the stone, and you will be amazed at what you will be able to see that wasn’t noticeable before. You can also do an etching on the stone with a piece of tissue paper and charcoal or dark colored chalk. I’ve used all of these techniques in the past in my searches. I have a family cemetery where the oldest known stone dates back to 1802, it is also sandstone and was worn flat, with hte flour trick i was able to make out initials, birth year and death year. after knowing the death year of 1802 and the initials, I was able to determine that the grave was my 6th-great grandfather’s grave. How cool is that!!
Also, please consider filling out the cemetery registration forms from the WV Division of Culture & History, they only take a minute to do but can save a cemetery from being destroyed since it will be documented. I wonder how many countless family cemeteries have been lost in southern WV due to MTR? I know of several which are now part of a valley fill, of course, nothing can/will be done to the companies since the cemeteries weren’t registered/documented. Regardless, I think it is reprehensible to allow coal companies to continue to do this regardless of the reasons.
Shirley and I went to Kayford last April, we got a couple hundred great pictures, I had read about and studied MTR for over 5 years and I was not prepared with the shear vastness of the devastation. You truely do have to see a MTR site up close to grasp the whole issue.
Matthew
March 7th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Kristine - I was so enthralled I didn’t want to leave. I could spend hours there without a problem.
Matthew - I’m going to be adding a bigger photo of the last stone showing the details on the front. There is an age “box” on this stone but I can’t make out any carving in that area and the 18 Days stands out pretty good on the line below.
I’m pretty sure this graveyard has been registered recently but since I’m going to be registering three in the Peachtree / Drews Creek area I will check to make sure the one in Cabin Creek is also registered.
I’ve actually been talking with a member of the Sierra Club about this very subject.
I will definitely try the flour trick. There was one in particular I thought about trying to transfer to paper but I was unprepared. I actually didn’t even expect to find this graveyard. I was here for another reason and until I write the next post - I’m not going to give that reason away.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
btw - I wonder the same thing about how many cemeteries have been lost to MTR and valley fills. That is my main motivation for posts like this one. And it is precisely why I will register any cemetery I come across in the mountains.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I might have relatives there.
I know that some members of my father’s family came here from Italy to make a living in America and wound up in the mines. I’m having difficulty researching much about them, though.
Have you tried using a crayon and doing a rubbing of some of the unreadable stones? Sometimes that helps.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Rebecca - I got the distinct impression - not sure why - that some of these miner’s came from Italy. But at the moment it is just theories with no basis in fact.
I wasn’t prepared for a cemetery visit. But no I haven’t tried a crayon either. I will have a couple good ideas when I go back though.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
No, there were quite a few miners from Italy. I really don’t know why. The only thing I can think of is that maybe since so much stonework is done in Italy that they know how to work with a chisel and a hammer. Or a pickaxe. If you come across any Recchias or Recchios (depending on how they misspelled it) let me know!
Get yourself a pack of those really fat crayons like you buy for kindergarteners and some thin-ish paper (like newsprint) to do rubbings with. You’ll be able to pick up a lot of detail you can’t see with the naked eye.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Denny,
I’m glad to hear that you are making sure the cemeteries are documented and registered with the state. We are very good friends with Regina Hendrix, one of the heads of the WV Sierra Club, she is a very sweet lady who lives here in Charleston. She has Shirley and I over for supper every once in awhile. I know Regina and Larry Gibson have been working alot of the Stover Cemetery on Kayford.