Indian Mound Cemetery Explained

Indian Mound Cemetery
Map Type:USA West Virginia Romney#USA West Virginia
Map Size:250
Established:1859
Country:United States
Location:Romney, West Virginia
Coordinates:39.3426°N -78.7658°W
Type:Private
Owner:Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc.
Graves:>2,500
Findagraveid:79740
Politicalgeo:WV/HM-buried.html#cms00435

Indian Mound Cemetery is a cemetery located along the Northwestern Turnpike (U.S. Route 50) on a promontory of the "Yellow Banks" overlooking the South Branch Potomac River and Mill Creek Mountain in Romney, West Virginia, United States. The cemetery is centered on a Hopewellian mound, known as the Romney Indian Mound.[1] [2] Indian Mound Cemetery is also the site of Fort Pearsall, the Confederate Memorial, Parsons Bell Tower, and reinterments from Romney's Old Presbyterian Cemetery. The cemetery is currently owned and maintained by the Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc.[2]

Indian Mound Cemetery is the burial site of two governors of West Virginia, a United States House Representative, a United States Secretary of the Army, an owner of the Washington Redskins, and descendants of the family of George Washington.[3]

Days before the 150th anniversary of the Confederate Monument's dedication was to be observed, it was vandalized.[4] The vandalism read "reparations now", and was done using black spray paint. The damage to the monument has since been repaired.[5]

History

Romney Indian Mound

Physical description

The Romney Indian mound is a burial mound that measures 7feet in height and approximately 15feet in diameter, according to the site marker. Since this marker was erected, further research indicates the mound has been opened at some point in the past. It is the largest of the remaining mounds discovered in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle.[2] The Romney Indian Mound is representative of thousands of small Middle and Late Woodland burial mounds that occurred throughout much of eastern North America.[1] Throughout its history, the Romney Indian Mound has traditionally been covered in pine trees,[6] of which several remain as of 2010.[7]

Origins

The Romney Indian Mound was constructed at what was once the crossroads of the Shawnee Trail, running north and south, and the east-west Indian Road (later the Northwestern Turnpike and U.S. Route 50) leading to the Allegheny Mountains.[2] [8]

The original owner of the mound, David Gibson, gave the site to the city of Romney on the condition that the mound would not be disturbed.[2] For this reason, the city has never allowed the mound to be excavated.[2] The Smithsonian Institution suggests the Romney Indian Mound possibly dates from between 500 and 1000 CE given the ages of similar mounds it excavated in the Eastern Panhandle.[2] The mound was likely constructed by peoples of the Hopewell culture, who resided within West Virginia between 500 BC and 1,000 CE.[2]

The Romney Indian Mound is perhaps the only accessible mound east of the Allegheny Mountains that has been preserved.[8] This is mostly due in part to both its location high above the flood plain of the South Branch Potomac River and that it was never plowed over.[8]

Indian Mound Cemetery Company and Association

Several years prior to the onset of the American Civil War, Romney's Old Presbyterian Cemetery at Gravel Lane and High Street had become full and the city of Romney sought to procure a larger tract for a new spacious cemetery.[6]

Indian Mound Cemetery was incorporated by an act of the Virginia General Assembly around 1859. The land was conveyed to the Indian Mound Cemetery Company by David Gibson on May 31, 1860. The land conveyed by Gibson had previously been a tract of his nearby Sycamore Dale plantation. The cemetery's original design consisted of two plats: the higher plat around the Romney Indian Mound and the lower plat above Sulphur Spring Run reserved for the burials of African Americans. The latter separated from Indian Mound Cemetery and became known as the Mount Pisgah Benevolence Cemetery, which is currently maintained by the Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church.

On May 22, 1869, a meeting was held at the Hampshire County Courthouse to elect a board of directors of the Indian Mound Cemetery Company. The company operated the cemetery until it was incorporated by the state of West Virginia on August 25, 1925, as the Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc. The association has been administered by a self-perpetuating board of directors since 1925.

On October 6, 1925, an additional five acres to the north were purchased by the Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc. from Hiram C. and Katie Feidner Cooper.

American Civil War

Battle of Romney

Due to its strategic location on a bluff commanding views of the South Branch Potomac River, the Romney Covered Bridge, and the Northwestern Turnpike for half a mile, Indian Mound Cemetery was an important lookout position during the American Civil War.[6] On October 22, 1861, Union Army General Scott ordered General Benjamin Franklin Kelley to concentrate his forces at New Creek (now known as Keyser) and attack and capture Romney.[6] Kelley left New Creek early on the morning of October 27 and the Confederate States Army at Romney began preparations for his arrival.[6] The Confederates planted a twelve-pound rifle cannon and a mountain howitzer in Indian Mound Cemetery ready to fire at the lead of the Union Army column as it emerged from Mechanicsburg Gap in Mill Creek Mountain.[6] The Union forces drove in and advanced to Indian Mound Cemetery where the Confederate forces made a stand and opened fire on the Federals with the twelve-pound rifle cannon and the mountain howitzer. A severe cannonade took place between the artillery of both the Union and Confederate forces for an hour.

Burials

Also during the American Civil War, Indian Mound Cemetery was used as a burial ground by both Union and Confederate armies. The majority of soldiers killed in the vicinity of Romney were buried in blankets in the cemetery, many whose names are unknown. Captain Richard Ashby, the brother of Confederate General Turner Ashby, was interred with all the honors of war under a giant oak tree on July 4, 1861, in Indian Mound Cemetery shortly after his death at nearby Washington Bottom Farm on July 3 from wounds received in a skirmish on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.[3] [6] [9] Turner Ashby attended his brother's funeral at Indian Mound Cemetery where his behavior was described in Edward A. Pollard's Southern History of the War as touching:

Ashby's body was removed from the cemetery to Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia, in October 1862 where it was reinterred next to Ashby's brother General Turner Ashby.[3] [6] [9] Their grave is marked "The Brothers Ashby."[3] [9]

Confederate Memorial

See also: Confederate Memorial (Romney, West Virginia). The Confederate Memorial was erected by local ladies in honor of Hampshire County's Confederate dead and dedicated in Indian Mound Cemetery on September 26, 1867.[10] It is considered one of the oldest, if not the first, permanent memorials to Confederate dead in the United States.[8] [10]

Notable interments

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: McDonald, Jerry N.. McDonald & Woodward guide to the American landscape: Indian mounds of the Atlantic Coast: a guide to sites from Maine to Florida. Susan L. Woodward. 1987. McDonald & Woodward Pub. Co.. 0939923033. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20140103092254/http://books.google.com/books?id=pYgZAQAAIAAJ. January 3, 2014. mdy-all.
  2. Book: Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc. . A Brief History of Indian Mound Cemetery . Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc. . .
  3. Book: Wayland, John W. . The Washingtons and Their Homes . 1998 . Genealogical Publishing Com . 0806347759 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20110207055715/http://books.google.com/books?id=psCawzVzhAkC . February 7, 2011 . mdy-all .
  4. Review Staff, "Monument Vandalized at Indian Mound", Hampshire Review, September 18, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  5. WV Division Sons of Confederate Veterans, "Post", Facebook, September 24, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  6. Book: Maxwell, Hu . History of Hampshire County, West Virginia . Howard Llewellyn Swisher . Howard Llewellyn Swisher . 1897 . A. B. Boughner . . mdy-all .
  7. Web site: Indian Mound Cemetery. March 2, 2011. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20110522051718/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wvhampsh/mound.htm. May 22, 2011. mdy-all.
  8. Book: Morrison, Charles . Wappatomaka: A Survey of the History and Geography of the South Branch Valley . 1971 . . . 0-87012-107-3 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20140727115758/http://books.google.com/books?id=_aDNAAAACAAJ . July 27, 2014 . mdy-all .
  9. Web site: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Washington Bottom Farm . 2001 . 2010-03-13 . West Virginia Division of Culture and History, State Historic Preservation Office . Loretta Brinker . Katherine Jourdan . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20120927022328/http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/hampshire/01001328.pdf . September 27, 2012 . mdy-all .
  10. Book: Brannon . Selden W. . 1976 . Historic Hampshire: A Symposium of Hampshire County and Its People, Past and Present . . . 978-0870122361 . 3121468 .
  11. Web site: Indian Mound Cemetery, "A" through "C" . HistoricHampshire.org . HistoricHampshire.org, Charles C. Hall . September 30, 2023 . June 14, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230614150403/https://historichampshire.org/cems/IndMnd-A-C.htm . live .
  12. News: Barnes . Bart . Stephen Ailes Dies . . Washington, D.C. . July 6, 2001 . October 2, 2023 . August 27, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170827094216/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/07/06/stephen-ailes-dies/638d4308-de3a-40f4-b3d8-11b435f3b16b/ . live .
  13. News: Judge Armstrong Dead . . . September 7, 1893 . 5 . September 23, 2023 . Potomac State College of West Virginia University, Mary F. Shipper Library, West Virginia Newspapers . September 30, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230930201319/https://wvnewspapers.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?t=37742&i=t&by=1893&bdd=1890&bm=9&bd=7&d=09071893-09071893&fn=the_hampshire_review_usa_west_virginia_romney_18930907_english_5&df=1&dt=8 . live .
  14. Web site: Armstrong, William (1782–1865) . Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . . October 14, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200805112719/https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=A000284 . August 5, 2020.
  15. News: Prominent Citizen, John R. Blue, Dies Suddenly May 27 . . . June 2, 1965 . 1 . October 3, 2023 . Potomac State College of West Virginia University, Mary F. Shipper Library, West Virginia Newspapers . October 2, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231002152048/https://wvnewspapers.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?t=40140&i=t&by=1965&bdd=1960&bm=6&bd=2&d=06021965-06021965&fn=the_hampshire_review_and_the_south_branch_intelligencer_usa_west_virginia_romney_19650602_english_1&df=1&dt=10 . live .
  16. News: Memorial to Wm. C. Clayton: Adopted by the Mineral County Bar Association . Keyser Tribune . . April 30, 1915 . 1 . October 2, 2023 . Potomac State College of West Virginia University, Mary F. Shipper Library, West Virginia Newspapers . October 2, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231002152048/https://wvnewspapers.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?t=33550&i=t&by=1915&bdd=1910&bm=4&bd=30&d=04301915-04301915&fn=keyser_tribune_usa_west_virginia_keyser_19150430_english_1&df=1&dt=6 . live .
  17. News: Keyser's Grand Old Man Passes Away . . . March 11, 1915 . 1 . October 2, 2023 . Potomac State College of West Virginia University, Mary F. Shipper Library, West Virginia Newspapers . October 2, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231002152617/https://wvnewspapers.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?t=33549&i=t&by=1915&bdd=1910&bm=3&bd=11&d=03111915-03111915&fn=mineral_daily_news_usa_west_virginia_keyser_19150311_english_1&df=1&dt=4 . live .
  18. News: Mrs. John J. Cornwell Died Monday . . . December 3, 1958 . 1 . October 2, 2023 . Potomac State College of West Virginia University, Mary F. Shipper Library, West Virginia Newspapers . October 2, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231002152618/https://wvnewspapers.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?t=40140&i=t&by=1958&bdd=1950&bm=12&bd=3&d=12031958-12031958&fn=the_hampshire_review_and_the_south_branch_intelligencer_usa_west_virginia_romney_19581203_english_1&df=1&dt=10 . live .
  19. Web site: Indian Mound Cemetery, "D" through "J" . HistoricHampshire.org . HistoricHampshire.org, Charles C. Hall . October 2, 2023 . June 5, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230605104304/https://historichampshire.org/cems/IndMnd-D-J.htm . live .

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