Cheryl and Wayne, >OK, this is beginning to sound as if there are *3* places in town known as >the "old" Fire Dept. Beginning in the 1950s, the Fire house was in the >middle of a block, behind Ebert's (that'd be South High), across from Town >Hall (currently I think, a Restaurant?). Beside Town Hall was a car >dealership (Chevvy maybe?). >Sometime between 1969 and 1980, a new Fire hall was built on the SWEST >corner of that intersection. >Jane AILES -- ask your mamma, please? -- I talked to my mother tonight. There were only two fire houses in Romney in her lifetime. The old fire house is across the street from Pancake Chevrolet (burned down 10 years ago or so) and the old Town Hall office (now a restaurant) on High Street in the first block south of the traffic light. The old fire house building still stands. Then sometime in the 1980's a new fire house was built up the hill where it is today (next block south) near where the ice house and the old Kinney Shoe factory used to be. Now my mother says she was always told that the graveyard was on the corner next to the old fire house (NE corner of intersection of High St. and Gravel Lane). This is the same intersection that the monument in the cemetery refers to. Pancake Chevrolet used this corner lot next to the fire house as a used car lot from at least sometime in the 1950's until Pancakes burned down at least 10 years ago. During the Civil War this lot was used for encampment. When Pancake's graded and leveled the lot in the late 1950's or early 1960's my father got one truck load of the top soil. My sister and I found at least one old bullet in that load of dirt. Recently I was reading Maxwell and Swisher and discovered that they have a section on old Town of Romney graveyards, including names of people who were buried in the various graveyards that are now gone. Sorry, I don't have a copy of the book so I can't help with a direct quote. Wayne, I'm fairly certain that the library in Capon Bridge has a copy of Maxwell and Swisher. Hope this helps, Jane At 09:18 AM 10/4/02, you wrote: >At 09:38 PM 10/03/2002 -0400, you wrote: > > > > >I went to the Old Presbyterian Church in Romney. I walked around the > >church to find the cemetery, but it wasn't there. In front of the church > >was the historical sign: "PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH WAS FIRST ORGANIZED IN > >ROMNEY IN 1878, AFTER SUPPLICATIONS DATING AS EARLY AS 1740. THE PRESENT > >CHURCH WAS ERECTED IN 1860. IT WAS USED AS A STABLE AND HOSPITAL DURING > >THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES". > >When I went to Vacation Bible School there, there were a few markers in the >lawn. Face the main entrance to the church, make about 10 steps to the >left and you're looking at the usual entrance to the Education building. >There was a largish square of lawn in there and at the back near the >building were not-more-than 5 stones. This was in the 1950s. > > > >Since there was no cemetery there, I was told in earlier emails that the > >cemetery sat next to the Volunteer Fire Department. So Linda and I headed > >to the VFD. Today there is the old one that is being remodelled inside, > >but the outside is original. And across the street is the new VFD that > >has been around for at least 15 years or so (what I was told, maybe someone > >OK, this is beginning to sound as if there are *3* places in town known as >the "old" Fire Dept. Beginning in the 1950s, the Fire house was in the >middle of a block, behind Ebert's (that'd be South High), across from Town >Hall (currently I think, a Restaurant?). Beside Town Hall was a car >dealership (Chevvy maybe?). >Sometime between 1969 and 1980, a new Fire hall was built on the SWEST >corner of that intersection. > > >knows different). In the previous emails it mentioned that the cemetery > >was covered over to be used as a parking lot. To find out if it was the > >old or the new VFW parking lot, I will either rely on someone out there in > >the email world to tell me, or go to the Shafer Funeral Home in Romney to > >find out which parking lot it is. > > > > > > >No matter which parking lot was home to the cemetery, it was 1 block over > >and 4 blocks down from the Old Presbyterian Church. Does anyone know why > >the cemetery was so far away. > >Jane AILES -- ask your mamma, please? -- I think my Romney segment of WV >History mentioned the name of the persons who were the prime movers to get >a Presbyterian "parish" in Romney, and if memory serves, it was the >Armstrongs, and the Armstrongs owned land in that corner of Romney. >Wouldn't be at all surprised if they were using a corner of their land for >a cemetery and extended the privilege to co-religionists. > > > > >Also in the previous email it was mentioned that the markers were moved to > >the Indian Mound Cemetery. So we drive to the Indian Mound Cemetery and > >talked with the grounds keeper. He pointed into the direction of the far > >side of the cemetery and we drove on over. There was 16 stones neatly > >lined up to two rolls in the back of the cemetery. In the middle of these > >stones was a large stone tilted on it's side with the following > >inscription: "Sacred to the memory of all those whose remains lie in the > >Old Presbyterian Cemetery situated on High St. and Gravel Lane. The > >markers of whose grave were removed to this plot, July 1941." This makes > >it sound as if everything was moved, graves and markers. So with the > >Ummmm, a body that's been in the ground without benefit of grave vaults for >a century, probably wasn't there to be moved. You might talk to Roy Giffin >about that for surety. > > > >address of High St. and Gravel Lane, we went to that address, and guess > >what parking lot it was??? Both of them are on the same corner. > > > >So if anyone knows which parking lot it is, let me know, or I will go to > >Shafers and find out. > > > >You might ask Don Cookman, too. > > >Cheryl >*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* >Cheryl Singhal ([email protected]) > >http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cpafug/ >http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvhampsh/ >http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/blyton/772/ (Bottony Cross DAR) >http://www.rootsweb.com/~cresap/ >http://members.fortunecity.com/csinghal1/ (Joanna Waddill UDC)