Thanks to Marc and Grant for responding to my question. On more piece of the puzzle is now in place. From the map Ken sent this cemetery is located north of Smock Road with T540 on the back side of it. I looked again at the 1872 map and it shows the church on the south side of the road and the graveyard on the north side. There was no town shown in 1872 but there is a J. Rittenhouse and J. Frasher(Frazer?) living in the area so that would match with surnames in the original church members list shown in Ellis. Too bad about the wrought iron fence. Maybe some day a section could be reinstalled just to show the craftsmanship from times gone by. Thanks so much for all your help. Mike Miller On Friday 16 January 2004 06:47, Whetsel wrote: > | I now wonder which Baptist church is the Big Redstone Baptist Church > | mentioned in Ellis pg 559? The one in Smock in LaFayette District or the > > one > > | further East in Buena Vista District? This latter one would be closer to > | where the Yeagley lived on the Dunbar/Franklin Twp line but who know? If > > you > > | do, I would love to hear from you. > > Mike, > > Perhaps I can offer a little information. The Baptist Church and Cemetery > in Smock are, indeed, the one referred to by Ellis, p 559. My ancestors are > among the members noted by Ellis and many are buried in the old cemetery. > > The church was disbanded or abandoned by the Baptists well before 1900, > long before the community of Smock formed. The building still stands, but > is now a private residence and a road seperates the building from the > cemetery. A pre-1900 photo that I saw leads me to believe that this road > did not exist at the time the church and cemetery were originally formed. > Perhaps the road was built to connect the town of Smock to Hwy 51. At that > time, the land would have been an abandoned, overgrown cemetery. I can't > help but question if there are graves under the road. > > I have talked with a lot of the locals, whose families have been in the > area for generations, regarding the issue of stones having been removed and > used as a floor. Everyone I spoke with, denies the story, however, it > seemed to be an uncomfortable topic for some of these folks. I still > wonder! > > There was a magnificent wrought iron fence surrounding the cemetery, that > was cut down sometime in the 60's for the convenience of the lawn mowers. > This was before the invention on the weed wacker/edger. The fence still > exists and is used to surround Platt's Junkyard located on the Bute Oliver > Rd. The concrete foundations for the fence posts and part of the gate posts > still surround the cemetery. > > The descendents of one of the families buried there, the name escapes me at > the moment, established a perpetual care fund at a bank in Greensburg many > years ago. The principal amount was $10,000.00 and whatever interest > accumulates is used to pay for cutting the grass. > > Hopes this helps, > > Marc >