County cemetery board and historical society

The Pendleton County Historical and Genealogical Society and the Pendleton County Cemetery Board are asking for the county’s help in identifying cemeteries.
    At this time, the historical society has over 130 cemeteries listed for the county. These have been identified and located. Some of these have only one grave, but they are important and have been documented by the society and also by John Steele’s PVA office by the work of Debbie Jones.
    The organizations are always on the lookout for other cemeteries that may be scattered among the hills and valleys of the county in order that they may be documented, cleaned, and restored.
    According to Suzan Taylor of the historical society and Daniel Davis of KYTC, documented cemeteries could possibly receive protections in case of road construction or other such projects, and, simply speaking, if the cemetery cannot be placed on the National Register of Historical Places and avoiding the cemetery for road construction would cause too many displacements of families, businesses, or schools, the cemetery can be relocated, according to Davis.
    The key is knowing where those cemeteries are located.
    According to Fran Carr of the Pendleton County Library, Suzan Taylor of the Pendleton County Historical Society, and Debbie Jones, retired from the PVA and one who documented cemeteries across the county, some hints that you may have a cemetery on your property are
    “field stones that are present and sticking up out of the ground,
    peonies or other flowers growing, clusters of trees,
    grass that is different, taller, thicker, etc.,
    sunken areas about the size of a grave.”
    (For more information, please see Pendleton County Library’s YouTube video “Who’s Buried Here from June 12, 2021.)
    If you have suspicions you have a cemetery on your property in Pendleton County, please contact either Carolyn Reid, Chair of the PC Cemetery Board at ckbreid@gmail.com or the Pendleton County Historical Society via their FaceBook page.
    Our goal is to restore the cemeteries and give them the dignity that the people deserve as well as hopefully connecting families to prior generations.