This is my great-grandparents' tombstone--Annie Swain & Archibald D. Van Pelt.  Kate Van Pelt is one of their daughters.  This is also in Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.  And below is the entry for this plot in the office's books.

This shows that Annie Lettie Swain Van Pelt purchased the plots in 1902 when her daughter Kate died.  The other entries are their daughter, Louise Anderson, & her husband; daughter Grace's first husband, Samuel Moorman Royall; and Annie & Archibald.

This is how I spent a large chunk of my day today.  I drove to Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, to clean up my Barnett grandparents' grave site. The top picture shows you what it was like when I arrived and the bottom picture shows what it looked like when I left.  At first, I couldn't actually tell there was a tree in there. 

In the bottom picture, you can see the top of a neighboring tombstone in the midst of the bushes that wasn't visible initially.  I didn't get to excavate it, because I had my hands full with my family's plot.  I did remove the grapevine from the bush on the far right, which should help keep it away from all of these. But more probably needs to be done.  I would like to remove the tree, but it was too big for my clippers to handle.  I'll have to see how it turns out.  I'm not sure what kind of tree it is.

The picture below shows all of the debris that I cut away...more than I bargained for! I bagged up two bags of vines and smaller branches & was trying to figure out what to do with the big pieces when a cemetery employee drove up with a small backhoe and a shovel on the front.  We loaded the rest of the debris in the shovel & he disposed of it.  Thank goodness!

Afterward, I stopped in the cemetery office and asked if I could see any records they had on the plot.  The woman in the office was terrific!  She looked up the plat & I took the picture below. It shows that my grandfather, John Graham Barnett, purchased the plot on 9 December 1918, a day after his sister was buried there.  Eventually, he & his wife, his mother, and another one of his sisters were buried there, as well as his step-daughter's mother-in-law (Maggie Hawkes).

The woman in the office noted that he paid 30 cents a square foot.  She said the rate now is about $24 a square foot. She also gave me maps of the cemetery sections that an individual had prepared for them. Thank you, Mike Bordonie! And thanks to my friend, Maria, for suggesting that I blog about this.

Ben Salem Presbyterian Church.  I discovered this one recently.  It is located in Rockbridge County outside Lexington off Rt. 60. It was founded in 1832.

In my Archibald Alexander descendants transcript, there was a reference to Ben-Salem Church.  Specifically, a couple of the Paxtons lived on a farm near Ben-Salem Church.  I asked my cousin if he knew where it was, and he didn't.  So I did a little research and found it. It's a very small church but really cute.  I didn't see a cemetery nearby and I don't know if any of my relatives attended this church.

Bethel Presbyterian Church is in Augusta County near Staunton.  I'm not sure when this one was founded.  But it's another large beautiful church...at least from the outside.  I haven't been inside.

I looked for this church or, rather, its cemetery, because I read online that some of my Tate ancestors were buried there.  They were & I found them as well as many other names in my family tree, including Wallaces, McClungs, and McCluers.

Hebron Presbyterian Church is located in Augusta County near Staunton.  It was founded in 1746.  I actually have been inside this one.  I visited it with my sister and my Crawford cousins.  I met these cousins online through our genealogy research and we decided to meet one weekend.

We visited the cemetery to the right of the church, as well as the one across the street.  I have Wilson, Bell, Crawford, and other relatives buried here.

The most interesting cemetery I've visited was a couple of miles from here.  It was located in the woods on a farm and the tombstones date in the 1780s.

Mt. Carmel Presbyterian Church is also located on Rt. 11 in Rockbridge County.  It's address is Steeles Tavern, although I would say it's in Raphine.  It was established in 1837.

I don't remember ever being inside this church, but I can tell that it's big. It has a large cemetery behind it where many of my Fultz relatives are buried. Some of Archibald Alexander's descendants married into families in this church, so there are probably others buried there.

Earlier today, I was sitting in the car at a stop light & looked down.  As I often do in the summer, I noticed this scar on my leg.  Can you see it? It's a couple of inches long, almost horizontal in the picture.  I started thinking about how I got this scar & I realized that every scar has a story behind it.  

I got this scar around 1961-1962.  I was about 9 years old and we were living in Buena Vista, Virginia.  We lived in a house that we rented from a Mr. Paxton.  It used to be Mountain View Elementary School at some time in its past; consequently, many of the rooms were spacious. 

The house was set back off of what is now called Borden Grant Trail, I believe.  It had a huge flat yard in the back, probably used as a sports field in the school days.  It also had a narrow sidewalk that ran along the front of the house.  And it had a sort of circular drive and, along one section, there was a stone wall about 3 feet high in the front yard. 

We had moved there in the summer after 3rd grade (1960-1961) for me and stayed until after 4th grade (1961-1962), so that's how I know the time frame.  Anyhow, one day I was playing outside, and so was my brother, Graham (who is a year and a half younger than I am).  He was walking along the stone wall and as I got closer, he looked at me, yelled "Geronimo!", jumped off the wall, and started chasing me.  Well, this was in the day of Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger.  So, I was sure that if he caught me, he was going to scalp me.  I started running toward the fort...I mean, the house (and Mom & Dad) for sanctuary.  The only problem was that I fell on the sidewalk & cut a big gash in my leg.

My parents cleaned the wound & decided that it wasn't severe enough to require stitches.  They taped it closed.  I even remember them commenting that it wouldn't show except in the summer when I was wearing a bathing suit or shorts.  Ha!  They couldn't predict the popularity of miniskirts about 10 years later.

So that's the story of this scar.  

I have a few other scars.  Like the one on my chin that I got before we moved to Beuna Vista (so I was probably 8 or 9, maybe a little younger).  My sister, Cathie, and I were playing cowgirls.  (I told you, this was the age of Roy Rogers, including Dale Evans, of course!) She captured me, tied my hands behind me, pulled me off a chair, and I landed on my chin.  Lots of blood.  

I remember being taken to Dr. Fox in Fairfield.  He placed a cloth with a hole in it over my chin so that the hole isolated the gash.  Then he came at me with something like Novocain in a needle that was a foot long and 3 inches in diameter!  OK, I'm pretty sure it wasn't really that big, but it looked that big to me at that age.  I got stitches.  I still have the scar, but I'm not posting a picture because it looked really weird.  I couldn't get an angle that didn't show the insides of my nostrils.

So at this point, I guess I should thank my sister, Sally, for not participating in an activity that involved my getting a scar...yet!

Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church in located in Augusta County on Rt 11 in Fort Defiance.  It was founded in 1740. I visited this church with my sister and the cousins that I met online.  It is a large, old, very pretty church.

The church has an old cemetery across the road through a cow field and another cemetery to the side of the church.  I have Crawford, Bell, McCue, and Allen relatives buried here.

Timber Ridge Presbyterian Church. This is one of the first churches I remember.  It was just down the road on Rt 11 from Fairfield Presbyterian.   My Lipscomb cousins went to this church.  It's a beautiful grey stone structure & is bigger than Fairfield's church. It also is much older--built in 1756, 19 years after the first settlement in Rockbridge County, according to the historical marker out front.

It has an adjacent cemetery where many of my ancestors are buried.  Not my grandparents, but great grandparents and older.

I have attended weddings & funerals at this church, as well as Sterrett-Willson family reunions.

Fairfield Presbyterian Church.  This is the first church I remember attending.  My Dad's family went to this one for years...generations.  It was established in 1840 and is located on North Lee Highway (Rt. 11) in Fairfield.

Every Sunday I would see my aunts, uncles, & cousins at church. And many friends from school.  My third grade teacher, Mrs. Borthwick, was also a member of the church.  I think all of my cousins had her as a teacher.  I remember once she embarrassed me in school by telling everyone she was ashamed of me because I had talked to my friend during church services.  So not fair!  But just about everyone has some similar story about her.  When she was older (like in her 80s), she was much nicer to everyone.