Muhlenberg County Kentucky

Old Muhlenberg Map

Cemetery Records

Old Cemeteries Hold Key To Muhlenberg History

This rock my name shall have
While I am dead and in my grave
and gredy worms my body eats
and all my bons are rotten.
her you may read my name complete
and say I am not forgoting.
CALV WHITMER
dc Aug. 19, 1824
age 19 yrs 21 ds.

This represents the exact spelling in the inscription on Calv Whitmer's tombstone in Gross Cemetery near Black Lake in northern Muhlenberg County.

Like an old history book, old cemeteries and their tombstones relate a history. In Muhlenberg County, there are between 275 and 300 known cemeteries, some of them abandoned and not in use. In these cemeteries are more than 23,000 marked graves, all of them with a story of some sort to tell.

Some are humorous, like the one above. Others are serious, such as the one in South Carrollton Cemetery, where the world is reminded each time someone views the grave of Wesley M. Little that he was “ waylaid and shot in the back by S.P. Love on Sabbath morning, August 16, 1857. Age 49 yrs 9 m's 13 dys.”

Most tombstones are not that colorful or informative and most cemeteries are not that historical, but even those which bear only names, or names and dates of birth and/or death provide valuable information for those seeking the past of either their family or their county.

Most Historic

Among the most historic cemeteries in the county are three in or near Greenville, where the center of early activity in Muhlenberg County was gathered. Two, sad to say, have all but disappeared.

The Caney Station Cemetery, the oldest known burial ground in the county has disappeared from its original location. Many of the stones of the cemetery have been moved numerous times until now they rest in a location several hundred yards from the spot laid out as a sacred burial ground by the first residents of the Greenville area in about 1795.

Gayle Carver, of Greenville, who takes such history seriously, is urging that a permanent monument be erected at the site of the original Caney Station and Caney Station Cemetery on the T.T. Kennedy farm one and a half miles northwest of Greenville on the Luzerne Road. Caney Station was abandoned as a community when Greenville became the county seat in 1799, and soon, the cemetery was also abandoned and fell into disrepair under a growth of vines and brush. From time to time the stones have been moved about by previous land owners until now they are far from the original sites of the graves. Many of the county's pioneer and civic leaders are buried in this cemetery, unmarked by any monuments at all. This includes the remains of two congressmen, who served in Washington, D.C., in the fledgling years of the county. They are Alney M. McLean and Edward Rumsey, whose positions in life should warrant them more respect than their current burial places now offer. A complete listing of the thirteen Caney Station and Greenville pioneers known to be buried in Caney Station will follow in a later section of this article.

Cherry Street Cemetery

Cherry Street in Greenville was once College Street, but was renamed because of a large cherry orchard which stood near the south end of today's Cherry Street. College Street, as it is known today, was so named later because of the schools, including old Greenville College, which were located on or near that thoroughfare.

On the east side of Cherry Street (old College Street) just north of West Main Cross, Greenville's first formal school was held in a two room brick structure, which was also used as a place of worship for many years. Across the street from the school stood the Cherry Street Cemetery.

Writing in the old Greenville Record in 1915, R.T. Martin captured the essence of the history of this cemetery which once was to be found on the west side of the street across from the school. The cemetery can no longer be found, and Martin said the front yard of a residence there at the time covered the graves which were once prominent.

“When some of the families of the first settlers died, they were buried a short distance north of this school house.

“We first noticed this burying ground about sixty years ago [circa 1855]. There was then, we think, six or seven graves, the mounds over these graves were plainly to be seen, with head and foot stones. We made inquiry about them and was told that these dead where of the families of Watkins, Pollard and Webb. But now [1915] there is not a vestige to be seen. The old and first graveyard of Greenville has been made the front yard of a dwelling house on Cherry Street.”

What Mr. Martin failed to note, because of an error of location, is that Ann Marshall Daviess Pollard, sister of the famed Supreme Court Chief Justice (1801-1835) John Marshall, is buried in this unmarked plot on Cherry Street also. Mr. Martin, in his writings, erroneously cited Judge Lucius P. Little as stating that Ann Marshall is buried in the Old Greenville Cemetery under a mark inscribed “Ann Marshall”, but Little's writings clearly state the sister of the famed jurist is buried in the now-abandoned burial grounds of Cherry Street.

While full details are lengthy, here briefly is Little's story of Ann Marshall and why she is buried in Greenville. Living in Kentucky, she married Colonel Joseph Hamilton Daviess, a soldier/jurist who died in battle in the Indian Wars with General William Henry Harrison at Tippecanoe in 1811. He and Ann were living at Yellow Banks in Ohio County (later Daviess, which was named for the colonel) at this time. Later she married a compulsive gambler, Colonel Joseph Pollard Jr., who after several years in Owensboro and after incurring many gambling debts, he felt his “social climate” would be better elsewhere. The Pollards moved (probably in the 1830s) to Greenville, then one of the social centers of west Kentucky. With them came his son (her stepson) Dr. Thomas Pollard, who opened a lucrative practice here and later built his home and office on North Main Street. That building later became the famed Greenville Hotel.

Judge Little wrote that Colonel Pollard died possibly around 1842 and Ann Marshall was once again widowed. In an indiscreet action on her part, she married a John Cox, who was, according to Little, unsuited to his new wife's lifestyle. Their difference soon led to a divorce, which went not through the local courts, but through an act of the Kentucky State Legislature.

Little could not date Ann Marshall's death, but felt it occurred “not long after A.D. 1850. She died in Greenville and her burial place has been described as the ‘old grave yard on Cherry Street’” he wrote.

If indeed she was still alive after 1850, no Muhlenberg County census record reveals it under any of her names, Marshall, Daviess, Pollard or Cox. Neither can any record be found of her reported marriage to John Cox in Muhlenberg County.

Little wrote also, “Her grave had been marked by a time-word stone on which was chiseled the name ‘Ann Pollard’ and nothing more.” Martin, in his 1915 Greenville Record article, stated that her stone read “Ann Marshall”.

Old Greenville Cemetery

Sallie R. McLean tombstone
Sallie R. McLean, a member of the pioneer Alney McLean family, is buried in the Old Greenville Cemetery near the Muhlenberg County Detention Center. An enclosed family lot is in the background.

Once also almost lost to the overgrowth and lack of care, the Old Greenville Cemetery located near the Muhlenberg County Detention Center in Greenville, is now one of the most beautiful and serene areas in the town. This cemetery came into being after the two earlier mentioned cemeteries ceased to be used.

R.T. Martin, continuing his story in the Record, noted that “in after years, the Presbyterians with the help of others, built a brick church house and a parsonage on the east side of town, and religious worship was conducted at this place for forty-five years. Near this house, and eastward, a parcel of land was selected for a burying ground, as the burying ground on North Cherry was not considered adequate and a suitable place. Hence, this newly selected ground was adopted as a burying place and so used for sixty-odd years, and until the available and suitable space was all used.”

It should be noted here that this is when the present Evergreen Cemetery, east of the Old Greenville Cemetery, came into being and is still in use today.

Also noted is that the brick structure Martin spoke of was near the present county jail facility and was in its time called the Old Brick Church. It was built in 1823 by the Presbyterians on land given to the church by the family of Greenville's founder, Colonel William Campbell. The church was later used as a meeting place for the Black congregation.

Condition Deplored

Mr. Martin in his 1915 essay spent several sentences writing of the deplorable condition of the cemetery. He wrote:

Not even a passing bird was want to stop and warble cheering notes to break the trance of melancholy sadness that shrouded the scene of this forsaken place. We saw no flower; shrubs that were nourished by the hands of loving hearts upon the mounds of mothers and daughters, placed there to bud and bloom in tokens of respect for those whose hearts once breathed with the warm emotions of love and sympathy for the living. We saw no smoothed up mounds covered with tender grass to smile over the graves of noble sires and sons, but instead of this we beheld nothing but wreck and waste; a thicket of bushes and briars and weeds and vines, a number of sunken graves and demolished tomb rocks, some half bent, some broken off, some fallen over in some dilapidated and wrecked enclosures.

Martin would have stood proud had he been with this writer a few weeks ago to visit this historic spot. History is intact. The cemetery glistens with care.

Birds once again sing. Grass over graves is neatly cropped. Flowering shrubs abound and most tombstones are erect and well-cared for.

In this spot sleeps the rich history of Greenville and the surrounding area. Efforts to place a new rock at the grave of Ephraim Brank is underway. Such other historic names spring to the forefront as one walks through the cemetery, names, such as, McLean, Campbell, Allison, Yost, Reno, Shaver, Rice, Metzker, Martin, Weir, Russell and others.

Then there is an unmarked grave of a young man who committed suicide while lodged in the county jail under the care of Jailer Joseph McIntyre. He was called “a stranger, moneyless and friendless,” yet laid to rest in Greenville's finest cemetery with no other eulogy.

And this is just page one of the documented history of Muhlenberg County - the pages written upon the tombstones in the Old Greenville cemetery.

Central City Cemeteries

Old Central City Cemetery
In Central City, an ancient abandoned cemetery is in the midst of downtown. Logie Anderson stands near the wrought iron enclosed area, just off North First Street, between Morehead and Reservoir Streets. All markers are gone, and there is no identification of those who were buried there when Central City (Morehead's Horse Mill) was just a stage coach stop.

Two small burial spots come to mind when historic cemeteries are recalled in the Central City area, which was Morehead's Horse Mill or perhaps Stroud City when these burial spots were used. One lies beside the Louisville and Nashville Railroad between Reservoir and Morehead Streets, the other was removed many years ago from its location at the intersection of North Second Street and the Everly Brothers Boulevard.

This latter one was known as the Stroud Cemetery and no doubt contained the family remains of John Stroud, the founder of modern Central City. The cemetery was removed in the early 1960s when North Second Street became the main route for US Highway 431, replacing the old crooked route which once followed North Second and Harrison to the “Y” in Central City. The graves were moved to Mt. Zion Cemetery, east of Central City. According to Margaret Vaught, historian of Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church, many of the monuments for the Stroud family could not be found in the old cemetery, so a collective monument was erected to the Daniel Stroud family, which marks the spot where the remains from the old cemetery were re-interred. Nearby is the marker for Lucinda Stroud dated June 19, 1813 to May 3, 1843. Also in the cemetery are the remains of John, Mary and several of their children, with burial dates as early as 1858. Mrs. Vaught said the Strouds were early members of this church and some were originally buried there, while others were buried in Central City and later removed to Mt. Zion.

The second cemetery, along the railroad, is enclosed in a wrought iron fence, and contains only a few graves. The property is now owned by John Williams and the Central City Lumber Company, but Williams said the last of the tombstones vanished many years ago, apparently taken by vandals. The names of those buried there were lost with the stones, but no doubt, because of the location, they were members of an early family who settled in the Morehead's Horse Mill community, before the railroad came and before it was known as Central City.

Other Historic Cemeteries

Several early and well-known residents of Muhlenberg County lie in remote burial places, their graves either unmarked or the cemetery so overgrown that the graves cannot be found. Two prime examples of this are the graves of Barnabas Wing and Mike Severs. Wing, the father of long-time court clerk Charles Fox Wing, migrated from Massachusetts to Muhlenberg County around the turn of the 19th century. He is buried in an abandoned and unnamed cemetery off Cave Springs Road near the intersection of Bilyeu Road in south Muhlenberg County. The rocks from several graves have been gathered in one place and reports say the new owner is making an effort to preserve the stones, albeit they have been moved long ago from their original places.

Mikes Severs Grave

Another such is the remains of Mike Severs, a hero in the War of 1812 who is buried in the old Dukes-Whitehouse graveyard in an unmarked grave in the midst of stripped land overlooking Pond Creek near Bevier.

Lesser known, but of no lesser significance are the two graves at Rosewood on the old Acock Farm where Merle Travis was born.

After hearing of this burial ground, the writer and his wife (Logie) investigated (but not thoroughly) and found at least one grave in a semi-enclosed area, large enough for two or three graves, a few feet northwest of where the house stood.

Acock Graves

Just a few feet northwest of the old Acock Place on the Greenville to Rosewood Road, where Merle Travis was born, one large stone was found by the writer and his wife. The hand-hewn sand stone, nearly six feet long, two-and-a-half to three feet wide and several inches thick, was hand-engraved in this manner:

Sacred to the memory
of my husband
AUSTIN FRACK
Born Feb. 7, 1814
Died May 26, 1870
Died 56 yrs. 5 mos. 17 days

The rock apparently was caused to be there be Mary Frank, widow of Austin Frank, who was living in the house when the 1870 census was taken. She was a widow, 59 years of age. The Fracks lived in the midst of early Rosewood settlers: the Skipworths, the Carvers and the Cisneys, but little else is known about this family.

There are many other early and historic cemeteries in the county and this list does not by any means touch all of them. However, here is a partial listing of those with early and significant dates:

Hazel Creek - Since Hazel Creek is the oldest established church in the county, it is only natural that its cemetery would yield some of the earlier marked graves. Earliest documented is that of Matthew Beard, born May 18, 1770, who died January 30, 1805. This coincides with the general time frame when Hazel Creek built its first building after organizing on the waters of Hazel Creek in 1797. Other early graves include Polly Willis in 1822 and James Welborn in 1826, although there are many unmarked older graves.

Rhoads - This cemetery, at Browder, is the burial ground for the Rhoads pioneers. The Godfather of Muhlenberg County, Henry Rhoads is buried there, but his marker reads only “H.R. 1739-1814.” The earliest known grave in this cemetery is marked only “ME-Y, 4-1804”. It is not known who this would be.

Kincheloe Bluff - Although this is one of the oldest areas in the county, the earliest marked grave in this cemetery is Sally Reno, 1779-1827.

Mt. Zion - Mrs. Vaught notes the two earliest graves are of the founding Glenn and Irvin families. Thomas Irvin, son of Justice of the Peace Thomas Irvin was buried there in 1817, and his father and mother in 1823 and 1830, respectively. Mrs. Andrew Glenn was buried at Mt. Zion in 1820.

Newman - This cemetery is near Rocky Creek in Penrod, but has long ceased to exist as land owners and vandals have destroyed or carried off all the stones and the cemetery no longer can be identified. It is the resting place of pioneer Isaac Newman, and dates to the very early 1800s.

Fleming - On the old farm of pioneer David Fleming, his first wife, Ann Kimmel is buried, with the earliest date for “CM” in 1809. The cemetery is near Knightsburg off Highway 70 east.

Hamm - This may be the oldest cemetery outside of the ones at Greenville. The Hamms were early German settlers in the Paradise-Green River area. The cemetery is located in the old Richmond community off Highway 62 east. J.S. Ham, 1809; M.A. Hamm, 1811; and David Hamm, 1818 are buried here.

Note: Many graves in this cemetery were moved in the early 1960s to make way for the new West Kentucky Parkway.

Nelson Creek - Nelson Creek is the second oldest church in the county, but the older graves were unmarked or have been destroyed. Historically, this should be one of the oldest, but the grave of Mary Yontz is the oldest recorded, that on September 6, 1825.

Note: Like the Hamm Cemetery, some of the graves in this cemetery were also moved to make way for the West Kentucky Parkway.

South Carrollton - A historic town, the oldest grave here is recorded as Laura Howard, a six-year-old child, in 1840.

Scott - At Bremen, this cemetery has recorded the deaths of Daniel Landes in 1826, preceded by his wife Catherine in 1824. Also in this cemetery, according to Gayle Carver, are the oldest known of the German Noffsinger family. One of the graves in this cemetery has a stone with the original spelling of the name, that over the grave of Susannah Noftsinger, Dec. 7, 1764-Dec. 15, 1836 (Some early spellings of the name show Noftzinger.)

Studebaker - The pioneer Studebaker (later Baker) family buried its first here on land now owned by Bennett McElwain at Penrod. The grave is marked for Peter S. Baker in 1816.

Old Hebron - Founded as a community in 1806, the Hunt settlement buried its lost in Hebron Cemetery. The first with a marker is a child, Emeline Hunt, in 1825. The founder, John Hunt, was buried here in 1834.

Bethel - Historically old, but no longer with an active church, Bethel has many old graves, but like others, the older ones are marked only by sand stones. The oldest marked graves at Bethel are for Nancy (Mrs. John) Jarvis in 1843, Mary Miller, 1843, and Michael Watkins, 1844.

McNary - On Pond River, near Graham, it is one of the oldest communities in the county. William McNary and Jane McNary, both of whom died in 1813, are the oldest marked graves.

Gish - The Gish Cemetery at Bremen shows early graves, including H. and Hannah Kittinger in 1819.

Drake - The Albrittian Drake Cemetery on Highway 171 south of Greenville is very old, but has no marked graves to indicate early burials.

Gross - Near Black Lake at Bremen, the oldest grave is that of Calv Whitmer, referred to at the start of this article, in 1824, but there are others indicating this was an early settlement with many burials prior to 1850.

Before 1850

Many cemeteries in the county date back prior to 1850, which makes some of them more then 150 years old. These would include Benjamin Hancock's grave in Hancock Cemetery in 1827; the Martin Cemetery near Nebo; the Utley/Rowe Cemetery south of Greenville; the Matthews family in the Reynolds Cemetery near Cave Springs; Gates south of Greenville; the Sullivan Cemetery, Slinker and the Kirtley-Kittinger Cemeteries near Moorman; the Short, Turner, Danner and Noffsinger Cemeteries near Bremen as well as the Shaver Cemetery in the same area.

Old Liberty

One of the most surprising finds - or lack of - was at Old Liberty, south of Greenville, where many of the pioneers congregated. Yet, the oldest grave marked in modern day was that of Mary Ann (Michael) Lovell, who was buried October 16, 1823. There are graves there which are as old or older than the county itself, but either have been lost to vandals, time and the weather, or are marked only by sand stone rocks.

This is the case of many of the older graves in Muhlenberg County. The lack of a market from which tombstomes could be purchased, and the lack of cash with which to purchase one, left only the alternative of placing sand stone rocks on graves, which if they could talk, could tell much of the history of the county through these pioneers who were laid to rest beneath them. Also many sand stones were etched with name and dates by early pioneers, but the weather, the lack of proper support and vandalism have rendered them unreadable.

Caney Station

Here is the listing of the thirteen known graves, including the two congressmen, in old Caney Station Cemetery, as compiled by Gayle Carver.

Citation: Anderson, Bobby. “Old Cemeteries Hold Key to Muhlenberg History.” The Leader-News [Greenville, KY], 19 Nov 1997.

Updated May 5, 2016