KINCHELOE GRAVEYARD Were man but dust, well might we weep If what's immortal, the grave could keep. Only the tenantless form is earth's share That in his image built is not there. (R. H.) The old Kincheloe graveyard lies on the hill, on the old Daniel Kincheloe farm. It is on a gentle slope, facing westward, some distance south of the Staunton Pike, and across the road nearly opposite the old Kincheloe house (now the County Infirmary). The road leads from the river, at Nicollette, to the Staunton Pike. The posts were standing in 1918 where a fence had once been, but the wires were gone. The graveyard was about five rods square, and seems to have been a private burying ground. The marble or sandstone headstones were standing or lying around, among the trees of a pine grove, the trees growing thick over the surface. One day it was a grown up jungle, but the trees have been cut for poles and thinned out, until it is now a fine grove of vigorous pine saplings, the wind whispering through their branches in the white autumn sunshine. On one stump, I counted twelve large rings, with seventeen more of finer growth, making it about thirty years old. Another registered sixteen large and twenty-two small, or thirty-eight years in all. Most of the slabs are lying on the ground, or, if still standing, leaning at all kinds of angles, and the graves are overgrown with grasses, weeds and burrs. An old worm fence crossed near, and at the east side of the plot was a wild cherry tree that would measure nine feet in girth. It stood in the old fence row. One of the largest pines stood on the foot of a grave, the head- stone of which was gone, but the footstone bore the letters J. W. K. Nearby, is another crumbled footstone with letters A. E. K. In a plot enclosed with iron railing are three graves - Samuel Butcher, died May 3rd, 1847, in the ninety-second year of his age. (born about 1756) By his grave, on the right, lies Hannah Butcher, died in 1844, in her eighty-third year. She was a daughter of Thomas Drake. On his left the headstone reads Deborah, wife of Hiram Pribble, died April 20th, 1853, aged forty-nine years, two months. She was a daughter of Samuel Butcher, and married Pribble in 1828. Butcher was a soldier in the Revolution. Another grave in the lot is Elizabeth, wife of P. Butcher, May 4th, 1850, aged sixty years. On a broken slab is the inscription, Payton Butcher, died January 25th, 1853, aged sixty-six years, six months. In the lower row of graves, next the western fence, is a wide tall marble headstone, leaning at an angle of fifty degrees, and bearing the inscription - "In Memory of Daniel Kincheloe, who departed this life August 4th, 1834, aged eighty-four years". So he was born in 1750. There are three other graves in this row, their broken slabs leaning against a pine tree. On one, probably that of Daniel Kincheloe's wife, the inscription is crumbled and gone. Another is Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Vandiver, died March 30th, 1824, aged thirty years. (Born 1794) The third, J. W., the son of Daniel Kincheloe, died May 11th, 1822. (I fail to find such name in the family record.) Other graves in the same row are those of - Hannah M., daughter of Daniel Kincheloe, Jr., and Virginia M., died May 24th, 1845, at age of six years. Nearby, a slab marked W. W. K. is leaning against a pine tree, and a grave is marked William, the son of Daniel and Harriet Kincheloe, March, 1837. Another grave is that of Susan Leonard, daughter of David Vandiver, died June 19th, 18-8, aged twenty-five, and Archibald Vandiver, died 1827, a child. --------------------------------------------------------- JESSE KINCHELOE CEMETERY The Old Jesse Kincheloe cemetery is on an "Island" of bottom land, which is surrounded on one side by the creek, and on the other three by a low swale, apparently once the channel of the stream. It is about half way between the creek and road, at foot of hill, near the lower line of the old Kincheloe farm. It has been a private burying ground, and seems to be filled, though many graves have no markers. The lot is about four rods square, and is fenced with plank, and grown up with trees, brush and weeds, which were cut off about 1923, and when I visited the premises, October, 1924, the graveyard was a tangle of weeks, burrs and brush four or five feet high, and sassafras and wild cherry trees five to fifteen feet high. There were five headstones with inscriptions. Some graves had plain flagstone markers, others nothing. I noted: Jesse Kincheloe, died July 3rd, 1856, aged fifty-four years, three months. (March 22nd, 1772) Elizabeth, wife of H. M. Prince, died March 29th, 1874, aged sixty years, eight months. Albert H. Johnson, June 18th, 1870, aged twenty-nine years, two months. Martha Virginia (wife) date not copied, aged twenty-six years, one month. A son of L. B. and G. V. Prince, August 3rd, 1870, aged one years, six months. These were all the headstones, excepting several old flagstone markers without names or dates. The burying ground was on the Jesse Kincheloe farm, contigious to the lower line. Apparently no church house close the spot. The graveyard was superceded by the Mount Moriah Cemetery. The place has since (1935) lost its old plank fence, and all, or most, of markers and been cleaned up as a part of the field. ---------------------------------------------------------- LEACH GRAVEYARD The Leach graveyard, when I visited it the fall of 1923, had, that I noted, no dates older than 1847, though the section was settled twenty-five or thirty years earlier. Abraham Hickman, 1848-1889. Nancy Hickman, 1850 - 1903. Elizabeth, wife of John Leach, died 1849. James, son of John and Elizabeth Leach. Drusilla, wife of Thomas B. Leach, May 27th, 1824, March 4th, 1847. He was the son of Willis and Mary Margaret Leach, she a Maddox. Lucy J., daughter of William and Mary Leach. Judah, wife of James Leach, died 1860. Lewis Leach, died 1872, aged forty-six years, five months. Catherine A., 1828 - 1914. Benjamin Brooker, October, 1875, aged thirty-four. Christa A. Brooker, September, 1918, aged sixty-nine. Jacob Cornell, June 11th, 1816 - January 9th, 1871. Susan Nicholas, August 3rd, 1846 - May 26th, 1868. J. B. Mullen, 1821 - 1888. Rhoda Mullen, April 22nd, 1828 - March 23rd, 1809. Waterman P., child Thomas and Mary, was drowned April 6th, 1868. C. W. Lemon, 1843 - 1886. John Baker, 1858. Sarah Baker, 1858 - 1907. Jonathan Deem, November 1st, 1825 - December 28th, 1903, seventy-eight years. Jemima, his wife, October 19th, 1890, aged fifty-eight. The only Buckner tombstone is a child of R. C. and Dora Buckner, April 30th, 1878. The graveyard is on a "hogback", back from the river, about one hundred yards from, and a little below, the Leachtown Lock. The oldest graves are in the eastern and where some trees were left growing, more land had been added to the graveyard (originally only about forty feet wide) farther up the point in the old field. A Jonathan Dee lived at the old Willis Leach place. Leach sold his farm and removed to Ohio, where he died. The house had on the west side a big cedar tree, on the east an enormous beech. --------------------------------------------------------- OLD LEWIS OR NEALE GRAVEYARD There is another pioneer graveyard lying well back from the Ohio River, and about a mile farther down than the old Lewis home. It is up on a little point by the side of a small hollow, which cuts down from the table lands of the second bottom to the lower grounds below. It lies on Francis Keene's (east) side of the line dividing the lands of Keene and George Neale, and back of an old tenant house - once the schoolhouse of that district. The graveyard is now out in a pasture field, and no care is taken of the graves. There has been a large locust tree growing among the graves, but it was broken down in the storms of last summer. I noted these names: William F. Adams, A. M., killed on the steamboat Motto, on the 9th of August, A. D., 1856, in the twentieth year of his age. *Adams marked out and Davisson penciled in. Sacred to the Memory of Elizabeth, consort of David Creel, died April 15th, 1833, aged thirty years. (She was a daughter of George Neale, a granddaughter of George Lewis, and a sister to Sarah Neale, wife of Alex H. Creel.) A sand- stone slab graven with a long verse covers the top of the grave. George Neale, born January 10th, 1772 - died July 24th, 1853, aged eighty-one years, six months. Sarah (Lewis) wife of George Neale, born April 29th, 1771 - died April 5th, 1863. (Either the date has been 1857, or she has been over ninety years old.) Elizabeth S. Neale, wife of George Neale, born September 6th, 1803 - died March 11, 1836. He was George Neale, Jr., son of George, she, a daughter of Jonah Lewis, his uncle. Lucy, daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth Neale, died May 17th, 1821, aged thirteen (age probably incorrect). Another child died in 1823. (Lewis Neale married Elizabeth Kincheloe in 1815.) Charles D., son of D. S. and E. Laughlin, November 11th, 1830 - December 21st, 1861. (His mother was a daughter of Sandy Creel.) ---------------------------------------------------------- Permission by Virginia Ludwick In Memory of John Ludwick ----------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent.