20 Apr 2001 - My GtGtGt Grandparents William and Drucilla (Kemp) Mills who married in Franklin County in 1815, were last noted in the 1860 Pulaski County, VA Census, he at age 77, a laborer, born in Virginia, with wife Drucilla, living next door to their youngest son, Thomas Richard Mills and wife Sarah (Nunnally) Mills. Neither were noted in the 1870 Census. Montgomery County death records reflect Drucilla's death on Jun 12, 1867. No death record or will has been located for William and research in the VA State Library reveals that death records for the years 1865, 1868, 1869, and 1870 were missing. William and Drucilla were the parents of 9 children (7 sons and 2 daughters). Two sons, including my GtGt Grandfather Robert Wiley Mills and William Breckenridge Mills, were kia during the Civil War; two others, Sparrell Mills and Thomas Richard Mills were POWs. Sparrell is assumed to have died in Montgomery County between 1890 - 1900; Thomas Richard died in Montgomery County April 5, 1915. Following numerous trips to VA and combing of old long abandoned cemeteries, none was ever found to be the family plot for these Mills ancestors. However, several years ago, an elderly surviving cousin advised me they were all in the old Pepper Cemetery... which initiated another lengthy research effort. This past week, another of my Mills cousins from Richmond finally managed to locate this old burial ground... long ago forgotten. Although it appears we again did not locate my ancestors, perhaps there are those on this list who may recognize a connection to their ancestry... "We talked about the "Pepper Cemetery" located on the Pulaski County side of the Pulaski County/Montgomery County line. After I finally got into and walked around this cemetery I am pretty well convinced that our relatives would have been buried on the Montgomery side of the "New River". There were very few headstones (or even piled up rocks) in this cemetery. The headstones I could read are listed below: Eliza Ratcliffe, b. May 20, 1844, d. Oct. 24, 1917 Andrew Ratcliffe, b. ?, d. Dec. 26, 1881 John Cofer, b. Oct. 29, 1812, d. Jan. 7, 1888 Frances Pepper, b. ?, d. Nov 22, 1841 Of course, the snowing all day and the very cold temperatures were not conducive to me lingering just to meander around. " Edward E. Mills