Guide to Historical Salem

A Guide to Historical Salem - Volume 9, Number 2 -- Fall 2003

Local Cemeteries Reveal Salem's History
Johnston: Early Settler Survived Indian Captivity
Two Area Houses Added to National Register of Historic Places
Salem's Largest Cemetery Was Home of Outdoor Drama
Cemetery Relocation Missed Some Graves

Local Cemeteries Reveal Salem’s History

By John and Candy Long

The cemeteries of any community are always among its most important cultural legacies. In the local family, church, and community cemeteries our history literally lies buried at our feet. Here we find our pioneer ancestors, our forefathers, and genealogical clues that tell us who we were and who we are.

In and around Salem, there are dozens of cemeteries. Some are obvious and well tended; far more are forgotten, vandalized, or even vanished. The listing below owes a tremendous debt to three prior studies. During the Depression, the WPA made survey of area cemeteries that was far from complete but supplied vital data. In the 1970s, the Roanoke Valley Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Western Virginia) began a project to locate, record, and describe all of the cemeteries in the Roanoke Valley. There efforts resulted in the 1986 book Roanoke County Graveyards through 1920. Finally, archaeologist Tom Klatka of the Roanoke Regional Preservation Office in 2000 authored a major academic study of area cemeteries entitled Cultural Expressions of Nature in Sacred Contexts: Documentation of Family and Community Cemeteries in Roanoke County, Virginia. At 607 pages, it can be considered as exhaustive a source as has ever or likely will ever exist. Most of the information below derives from these last two sources, and further detail about most cemeteries may be found in them.

We have concentrated on cemeteries in the current city limits, or ones nearby in the county or Roanoke City with families significant to Salem history. It should be noted that many of these cemeteries are hard to find, on private property, or vanished entirely. It would be advisable to keep this in mind before searching for some of the smaller ones. If you would like more precise directions to any graveyards on the list, please call the Salem Museum. Other graveyards were certainly missed. Anyone with information about local cemeteries not listed is also encouraged to call the Salem Museum.

Bratton: A small African American burial place with at least 27 graves; 13 marked by field stones and 14 or more unmarked. Off of Wildwood Road, this cemetery was described by Klatka as threatened with development.

Brooks-O’Neal: another African American cemetery, with approximately 17 graves. Only feet off of Goodwin Road, it is associated with the Brooks, O’Neal, Hill, and Gravely families. Overgrown and threatened.

Brown: This long vanished cemetery was on the grounds of the VA Hospital, approximately where the reservoir is today. It was probably associated with the family of George Brown and his wife Salome Cole, a sister of Susanna Cole, Salem’s first landowner.

Brubaker-Huffman: A large cemetery near Hanging Rock with over 100 graves, including members of the above named families as well as Hinchees, Franciscos, and other prominent names from the North County’s past. The oldest graves date to the 1840s.

Burwell: Located off of Rt. 419, this graveyard contained the remains of prominent landowner Nathaniel Burwell and his wife Lucy Carter, an aunt of Robert E. Lee, and two children. They were relocated to East Hill in 1984.

Butts: This large, active cemetery with hundreds of graves is located north of Richfield on Rt. 642. It contains many prominent residents of the area, including the grave of Rev. J. M. Humphries, founding pastor of both Locust Grove Methodist Church and Fort Lewis Christian.

Cain: This large African American cemetery is identified by a marker which reads “In memory of George Cain (1823-1918) and Sallie Houston Cain (1850-1938) for their donation of this cemetery to this community. Erected by the Cain Club, 1964.” George and Sallie Cain were former slaves who were well known in the community. Other families represented here include the Jacksons, Cannadys, Wingos, and others.

Church Hill: On Palmer Avenue, this well maintained cemetery is administered by South Salem Christian Church. It is one of the largest in town, containing hundreds of internments.

Denton-Neff: A small family cemetery dating to the 1840s, located off of 419 behind a VDOT storage area. Klatka reports that it was recently enclosed by a fence. Four graves are apparent today; there may be others.

Deyerle: The cemetery of this prominent Glenvar area family was moved to East Hill about 1902.

Dingledine: This prominent German family of early settlers owned the area around Lakeside and Conehurst. Some Stoutamires, a neighboring family, were buried there as well. Their graves were moved from there to East Hill.

Dooley-Blankenship: Off of Thompson Memorial near I-81. A recent marker gives the date of 1789 for the graveyard, but it is uncertain from where that date is derived since there are no markers. Oral tradition recorded by Klatka says that there are graves here of Dooley children who perished in a diphtheria epidemic.

Downtown Cemeteries: In the mid- to late- 19th Century, there were two graveyards in downtown Salem; one on Academy Street and one on Calhoun. Affiliated with the Presbyterian and the Methodist churches respectively, they were relocated to East Hill during the 1880-90s land boom when property values skyrocketed. Some of Salem’s earliest civic leaders were buried here. Tradition has always maintained that many graves were missed.

East Hill: The first burials here came during the Civil War, when an abandoned Baptist churchyard was employed to inter Confederate soldiers. In 1869, a group of investors established the cemetery, and it has continued to serve the Salem community ever since. Maintenance and management today is carried out by the city. Best known grave is that of General Andrew Lewis (see adjoining story).

East Hill Cemetery North: In 1868, this plot was purchased by Bernard Pitzer from the estate of Nathaniel Burwell to establish an African American burial ground. It soon became the most prominent black cemetery in town. It is still active but seldom used today. The city maintains it, but many gravestones are toppled or displaced. More than a hundred others are unmarked entirely.

Entsminger: Once located off of Lynchburg Turnpike, this old family cemetery had vanished even before the WPA took its survey in the late 30s.

Freeman: An African-American cemetery containing such family names as Freeman, Hackley, Leftwich, and others. Located north of I-81, there are at least 61 graves here dating from 1910-97.

Garst: The Garst family was (and is) one of the county’s most prominent. The first of the line in the valley was Frederick “Indian” Garst, who lies here off of Kessler Mill Rd. with his family. There are approximately 64 graves, including some unmarked. Descendants recently cleared, fenced, and are maintaining the once overgrown and vandalized burial ground.

Grubb: A small family cemetery off of Keagey Rd. with about 15 graves. The earliest visible is from 1902; the most recent from 1995.

Gum Springs: The Gum Springs section in West Salem/North County was once a thriving African American section. This cemetery has approximately 43 graves, but only one is marked with an inscribed marker: Obadiah Akers, 1905. The rest are marked with fieldstones.

Harris: A small family graveyard with about 19 burials, most marked with cement bricks (to replace lost headstones?). Located between 419 and Kessler Mill Rd.

Houtz: The family graveyard associated with the owners of the old Intervale farm. When the area became an industrial park, the cemetery with 11 graves was fenced and restored, but it is highly unlikely that the stones today mark the original graves, since most had been scattered beforehand.

Lewis: Behind a house on Carolina Ave, was the grave of Andrew Lewis and at least one son. They were moved into East Hill to honor the hero (see adjoining story).

Mercy House: Richfield Retirement Center began as an indigent care center in the Depression by the name Mercy House. Since those who died there often had no families and little money, a cemetery was established on the grounds about 1934. There are a minimum of 71 graves, almost all unmarked.

Parrish: Located off of North Mill Rd., this small cemetery contains graves of the well known Parrish family as well as the Harrisons, Kipps, and Gunters. There are approximately 26 graves variously marked or unmarked.

Romar Drive: Local realty maps show this cemetery; however no trace of it remains today. Any information would be appreciated.

Sherwood: By far Salem’s largest and most active cemetery. For its history, see adjoining story.

Trevay-Anderson-Harman: Located off of Dalewood near the Salem/County border, this graveyard has approximately 30 graves carrying the names listed above as well as the Reynolds and Paynes.

Trout-Miller: Although well out of Salem in the Cherry Hill area of Roanoke, this old family graveyard, surrounded by a crumbling wall of handmade bricks, is listed because it contains the (now unmarked) graves of George Trout, one of the earliest settlers to the area, and his brother-in-law Michael Miller, after whom Miller Hall at Roanoke College is named. It has been repeatedly vandalized and is very deteriorated. There are at least 43 graves.

Walton-Craig: A small cemetery associated with some very distinguished families, located off of Green Hill Drive on the grounds of one of the valley’s oldest houses. Buried here are members of the prominent Walton and Shanks families, and Congressman Robert Craig, after whom Craig County was named.

West Hill: Also called Tank Hill by many locals, this is one of Salem’s oldest cemeteries. Here lie William Bryan, William Bryan Jr., and his wife Margaret, who settled in the Lake Spring area about 1748 (their marker though is relatively new, dating from the 1920s). Other notable names include Johnston, Shanks, Griffin, Logan, Tinsley, and many more too numerous to list. The City now maintains this cemetery, and is worth the visit for the spectacular view if nothing else.

White: This cemetery at Fort Lewis was moved recently to East Hill—mostly. See adjoining story.

Wrenn: A small family graveyard with perhaps nine graves off of Locke Rd. Overgrown and neglected.

Zirkle: Once located in the Beverley Heights subdivision, which was the Zirkle family farm, this graveyard has now vanished.

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Johnston: Early Settler Survived Indian Captivity

By John Long

Charles Johnston, one of the Roanoke Valley’s most prominent merchants and hotel-keepers in the early 19th Century, lies today in East Hill Cemetery. But it is only by the narrowest of chances that he was not buried in an unknown grave along the Ohio River in the year 1790. For Johnston was the survivor of one of the frontier’s most celebrated Indian captivities, an experience that brought him into contact with George Washington and was the subject of a widely read book in the 1820s. Yet his great adventure is largely forgotten today.

Johnston was born in 1769 in Prince Edward County. As a young man he was employed as a clerk by a Mr. John May, to help him settle some land claims on the Kentucky frontier. This necessitated two voyages there to solicit depositions. For their second journey in 1790, they traveled by way of the Kanahwa River to Point Pleasant (now West Virginia) and chartered a boat up the Ohio River. Joining them in the boat were a merchant named Jacob Skyles, a frontiersman named William Flinn, and two sisters by the name of Fleming.

The party had not ventured very far when they saw on the northern shore two stranded white men, imploring them for help. The travelers had been warned not to heed such appeals, since the Shawnee Indians would often use white captives to decoy boats to shore and attack them. Nevertheless, the group, perceiving no danger, agreed to land and render assistance. As soon as they reached shore, they suddenly found their little boat under attack by concealed Shawnee. John May and one of the Fleming sisters were killed and scalped; Mr. Skyles was wounded; and the rest were captured unharmed. “No human being, who has not experienced a similar misfortune, is capable of conceiving the horror…upon finding myself a captive of these ruthless barbarians,” recalled Johnston later.

Surprisingly, though, Johnston found himself relatively well treated, for two reasons. First, the Shawnee soon attacked and plundered another passing boat, and found in it various supplies, including flour, sugar, and chocolate. Johnston was given the job of cooking some bread that night, and used the sweets to make a sort of “chocolate dumpling” out of the leftover dough. The Indians were so impressed by the concoction that they gave him the job of cook for the rest of their journey (north up the Scioto River to the Indian settlements there). His culinary abilities likely saved his life.

The second reason for Johnston’s humane treatment was the character of the Indian into whose custody he was placed. Messhawa, a Shawnee warrior, became Johnston’s master, and proved to be a “humane, generous, and noble” one. Skyles was allotted to a much more cruel captor and suffered greatly. Messhawa, said Johnston, “had qualities which would have done honour to human nature in a state of the most refined civilization; whilst [Skyles’] keeper possessed such as disgraced even the savage.” Johnston also received protection and kindness from another Indian with the unlikely name of Tom Lewis. Thus, his captivity, harrowing though it was, was thankfully mild.

Johnston recorded one amusing incident in a tongue-in-cheek air that, at the time, he found anything but comical. Several days into the captivity, a Mingo Indian joined the party. Previously, he had killed another Indian warrior, and so under the accepted customs was obliged to find a replacement to marry the dead man’s wife and raise his children. This Mingo was able to convince Johnston’s captors to release him for that purpose. “The prospect, indeed, was not very rapturous, of leading to the altar of Hymen an Indian squaw, already the mother of several children,” lamented the 20-year-old Virginian, suddenly and unwittingly engaged to an Indian woman he had never seen. Fortunately for him, after a few days Messhawa regretted the trade and took him back from the Mingo. Weeks later, Johnston chanced to see the woman he was to marry, “and I could not help chuckling at my escape. . . she was old, ugly and disgusting.”

By that time, Johnston and his captors had reached the Indian towns on the Upper Sandusky near Lake Erie. There he had the good fortune of meeting a French fur trader by the name of Francois Duchouquet. Johnston, who for weeks had entertained the notion of escape but had found no opportunity, now saw another means of release: ransom. He implored Duchouquet to intervene on his behalf, which the trader graciously did. The Indians at first refused, but when it became known that they intended to kill Johnston (since “the scalp of their captive might be transported with greater facility and safety than his person”), Duchouquet redoubled his efforts. Finally, the captors agreed to terms and accepted silver broaches worth about $100 in exchange for their prisoner. “This event, to me the most important of my life, by a singular coincidence occurred on the 28th day of April, in the year 1790, the day on which I attained the age of twenty-one years. It might be truly and literally denominated my second birth,” he later recalled.

Johnston remained in the employment of Monsieur Duchouquet for several weeks, until the trader was prepared to make a trip to Detroit. There the former captive was released with tremendous gratitude. Johnston later repaid Duchouquet for the ransom, and the two maintained a close friendship for years afterwards. Johnston even intervened with Congress to have his friend reimbursed for the ransom of other captives he had rescued through the years.

Not all of Johnston’s original party were as lucky. Jacob Skyles, after being separated from Johnston, was horribly treated by his cruel master, but was later able to escape and found his way back to civilization after many arduous adventures. Peggy Fleming, whose sister had been killed in the initial attack, was terribly abused, but was eventually rescued by a former acquaintance who claimed to be her brother and negotiated her release. William Flinn, however, was savagely tortured and eventually suffered death at the stake at the hands of his Indian abductors.

From Detroit, Johnston was able to find transportation to New York City, which was then the national capitol. When his story was told in that city, it caught the attention of no less a personage than President George Washington. Washington requested to meet with Johnston to discuss affairs on the western frontier, both relations with the Indians and the disposition of British forts which were still on American territory. On the latter point Johnston could offer little information, but his meeting with Washington would remain a high point of his life.

Eventually Johnston returned to Virginia, and in 1808 moved to the Lynchburg area and built a brick home he named Sandusky, after the Indian town where he was ransomed. In 1820, he moved to Botetourt County (now Roanoke) where he would live until his death in 1833. At the Botetourt Springs, site of today’s Hollins University, he opened a hotel and resort where an impressive mineral spring still flows. Although the site was beautiful and well-traveled, tradition records that Johnston was too generous a host to make much profit. He also owned a Hotel Salem at the modern intersection of Main Street and Thompson Memorial, and operated a gristmill, sawmill, and distillery on the Roanoke River near Salem.

Three years after his experience, while aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic, Johnston met a French nobleman named Le Rouchefoucauld, to whom he told the story of his capture. Le Rouchefoucauld later wrote an account that was woefully mistaken on several details. To correct the record, and to satisfy the requests of family and friends, Johnston wrote his own memoir in 1827 with the tortuous title A Narrative of the Incidents Attending the Capture, Detention, and Ransom of Charles Johnston of Botetourt County, Virginia. The book was well received and widely read, enough so that it was reprinted in 1905 by Edwin Sparks. Though rare today, the reprint is still available in some libraries for anyone interested in the complete account of one of the Roanoke Valley’s greatest adventurers.

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Two Area Houses Added to National Register of Historic Places

By Mike Pulice and Mark Bukowski

The Salem area is fortunate to maintain much of her architectural heritage from the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Two excellent examples of that heritage have recently recognized as architecturally and historically significant. Pleasant Grove in the West Salem area has been added to the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. The Inn at Burwell Place on Main Street has been added to the Virginia Register and addition to the National Register is pending but expected any day. These listings bring to 13 the number of structures or districts so recognized in Salem and the immediate vicinity.

Pleasant Grove
The Joseph Deyerle House, known as Pleasant Grove, was the heart of a mid-nineteenth-century plantation located a few miles west of Salem, on the Roanoke River. The site is on the north side of the Great Valley Road, known today as US Highway 11/460. Although the vast majority of Deyerle’s land is no longer part of Pleasant Grove, the house and its immediate environs survive in remarkable condition. The collection of buildings constitutes one of the finest and most intact examples of historic domestic architecture in the region.

Pleasant Grove consists of a large, brick, two-story, square Georgian plan edifice, designed in the Greek Revival style, and several contemporary dependencies. The house has a three-bay façade highlighted by an Ionic portico with fluted columns and an intricate iron balustrade. Near the northeast corner, at about eye level, are two bricks inscribed with “JS Deyerle” and “1853.” At the southwest corner is inscribed “Pleasant Grove 1853.”

The interior plan consists of wide, 12 x 41-foot central halls on the first and second floors, flanked by 20 x 20-foot rooms on each side. The ceiling height in each room is eleven feet.

Most of the woodwork in the house, including the front entrance and portico, was carved by prolific local carpenter Gustavus Sedon. Sedon worked seven months and twenty-four days for Deyerle in 1853, at a wage of $40 per month, and it was he who installed the iron balustrade in 1855.

The early-period brick kitchen behind the house retains much of its original form, with the hearth and chimney intact. Not far to the west of the kitchen stands an early-period springhouse, with an overhanging gable roof. Within the springhouse is a constant supply of gravity-fed spring water. To the southwest of the springhouse stands a brick garage built in the early twentieth century. Just east of the kitchen stands an early-period brick smokehouse, with each wall perforated by tall, narrow vents.

Beyond the other buildings is a one-and-one-half-story brick servant’s quarters, divided into two units, each with its own entrance and hearth.

Pleasant Grove is considered to be historically significant because of Joseph Deyerle’s success and prominence as a farmer and because of his and his son James Crawford Deyerle’s contributions to the fields of architecture and building in southwestern Virginia. Joseph (1799-1877) and James (1825-1897) built Pleasant Grove after fulfilling a contract for the brickwork of the Main Building at Roanoke College in Salem in 1847. The two buildings are among the finest mid-nineteenth-century survivals in the region. The property is also significant because of its high degree of integrity as an intact farmstead and the house’s importance and distinction as a mid-nineteenth-century landmark that exemplifies the vernacular Greek Revival style.

Joseph Deyerle’s main occupation was farming. He married Anna Crawford (1800-1871) in 1820, and began farming at Pleasant Grove by the 1840s. By 1850 he had acquired 1,150 acres of land. Within his household that year were James, 25; Susan, 22; Martha, 20; John S., 15; Lewis, 12; Madison, 10; Sarah, 7; and Ballard, 5. The eldest son, Charles Poage Deyerle (1820-1853) had already left home. He was among the first graduates of Virginia Military Institute in 1842. He studied at Jefferson Medical College to become a physician in 1846 and enlisted in the US Army, serving during the Mexican War. He was with General Scott’s army when it took Mexico City, ending the war. As a surgeon, he attained the rank of major and was sent to California in 1849, first to Benicia Barracks, and later to Fort Humboldt on the northern coast. During his tenure in California he sent many letters to his mother, brothers, and sisters and often enclosed hundreds of dollars specified for use in completing and furnishing the new family home and for educating his younger siblings. His last few letters indicated his failing health, which he blamed largely on the cold, damp west coast climate, and he died on October 30, 1853. Soon thereafter his younger brother James left home for northern California by sea, to retrieve his brother’s body. Major Deyerle was buried in the family cemetery near Dixie Caverns, which cemetery was later moved to East Hill.

James Crawford Deyerle, known as J. C., returned from California to resume a promising career as a builder who specialized in brickwork. He went on to build many more outstanding brick structures in the Roanoke Valley and surrounding counties.

By 1860 Pleasant Grove was valued at 43,000 dollars. At the time, Joseph Deyerle owned twenty male slaves ranging in age from 1 year to 55 years, and five female slaves ranging in age from 1 year to 20 years, living in five slave houses.

When the Civil War broke out, four Deyerle brothers entered the Confederate service. Madison Pitzer Deyerle (1839-1862), quit his law studies to lead Salem’s first unit, the Roanoke Grays. When the unit later became Company I, 28th Regiment, Captain Deyerle refused a promotion to colonel to stay with his men. Deyerle was cut down at the Battle of Williamsburg, the opening battle of McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign, on May 5, 1862. John Scott Deyerle (1835-1890), studied at the Mott School in New York to become a physician. After he graduated in 1861 he joined the war effort, rose to the rank of major, and commanded the Roanoke Guard of the 54th Virginia Infantry at the battle at Chicamauga, Tennessee. John’s younger brother, G. Lewis Deyerle (1838-1907) also joined the 54th regiment, but was assigned to the quartermaster corps because of physical disabilities. The youngest surviving son, Ballard P. Deyerle (1844-1872), joined his brothers in the 54th Infantry at the age of 16, and later enlisted in a cavalry unit.

The McVitty Home
The McVitty Home, now called The Inn at Burwell Place, was built in 1906 by Samuel H. McVitty; a prominent local businessman who made significant contributions to the local community. The private residence is located on the north side of Main Street and is part of a group of five large mansions that border historic Lake Spring Park and the Downtown Salem Historic District. The original property encompassed the residence and several other buildings. Today it consists only of the residence set on one-half acre of land. Architecturally, the style is eclectic Colonial Revival with Adam elements throughout. It has elaborate dormers, stunning fanlight windows and an attached sun/sleeping porch. The designer was believed to be Charles Barton Keen, a prominent architect who did other projects for the McVitty family in and around Philadelphia. The original structure was a classic two-story Georgian plan with weatherboard siding. In 1925, a substantial addition was added to the existing structure that changed the shape of the house to a rear-facing L shape.

A front door with overhead elliptical fanlight and ornate sidelights, front windows in three-ranked symmetry, semi-circular dormer lunettes, and intricate elliptical fanlight windows over single-sash ribbon windows are among the house’s more prominent stylistic details. The front exterior features a full-width, one-story, wrap-around porch with Tuscan columns and other classical details.

The house interior is pristine. There are twenty-seven rooms (8000 plus square feet), eight bathrooms (five with original fixtures), four entrances, six sets of French doors, two staircases, two fireplaces and hardwood floors throughout. Most of the main floor and the second floor hallway have recessed panel wainscotting. The ceilings on the first, second, and third floors are ten feet high.

The original McVitty property included the current property, the property now occupied by the Burwell Place condominiums and much of Tank Hill. The current owners have added substantial landscaping to enhance the property including Italian Columnar Leyland Cypress trees that surround three sides of the property, multiple raised perennial beds, climbing roses to cover the front rock wall, formal English gardens, formal rose gardens and multiple brick pathways.

The McVitty House is historically significant because of its high degree of integrity as an unusually refined example of Colonial Revival architecture with Adam English style elements. The elliptical fanlight windows and elaborate dormers are exquisite examples of this architectural synthesis not found anywhere else in the area. It is also historically significant because it was the first home of Samuel H. McVitty, a very prominent Salem citizen who built and lived in the house with his wife Lucy and son Edward from 1906 until 1915, and because of its association with the Leas and McVitty Tannery – a business that helped define Salem from the late 1800s to the mid 1970s. Finally, the home comprises the end of a group of five historic mansions bordering Lake Spring Park that were built after the demise of the Old Lake Spring Hotel.

Samuel H. McVitty was a Philadelphia native and a Princeton graduate who supervised the Salem branch of his family’s Philadelphia-based business, the Leas and McVitty Tannery, which was moved to Salem in 1889. The tannery was located in Salem in 1889 because of the regional availability of good chestnut bark and the proximity of a chestnut extract plant in Buena Vista. The extract produced from grinding chestnut tree bark was used as a tanning agent to turn steer hides to a deep, rich color. For 80 years the tannery was one of Salem’s largest industries. The quality of its products, including sole leather and rough leather for belting, was recognized worldwide. It was finally destroyed by fire in 1973.

McVitty arrived in 1902 from Philadelphia to run the family business – the fourth generation in his family to do so. Under his leadership, L&M became a leading supplier of leather. McVitty left an indelible mark on the Roanoke Valley with the establishment of Mercy House, a home for unwed mothers, the poor and the elderly in 1932, and through philanthropic gifts of money, rare books and fine art collections, which he donated to Roanoke and Hollins colleges.

In 1917 Lewis E. Dawson, a Salem native and tannery worker, purchased the house and three parcels of land for $4700.00. Mr. Dawson was the manager of the tannery and the home was said to be part of his employment contract. Dawson was the third generation in his family to work in the tanneries. His grandfather was the manager of the Buena Vista tannery and his father was superintendent in Salem. In 1927 Dawson added a substantial addition and five bathrooms to the existing structure.

After Dawson died, his wife raised her five children and supported them by operating the home as a boarding house. In the mid-sixties Mrs. Dawson was forced to sell the house due to declining health.

Through the seventies and eighties the home had several owner/occupants including the YWCA and a local architectural firm. The home sat vacant for five years before being purchased in the late eighties by a developer, JM Turner. Turner developed the adjacent land into condominiums and was preparing to bulldoze the home and build more condominiums. However, financial problems led to sale of the home in 1990, and it was opened as a bed and breakfast in 1991.

Mike Pulice is the architectural historian for the Roanoke Regional Preservation Office. He has conducted extensive research into the Deyerle family’s building activities. Mark Bukowski is co-owner of the Inn at Burwell Place, and author of the National Register nomination for that building, from which this text is adapted.

Sidebar: Below are listed the local structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the dates each was listed.
Williams-Brown House and Store (the Salem Museum) (11-23-71)
Evans-Webber House (5-19-72)
Roanoke College, Main Campus Complex (3-07-73)
Salem Presbyterian Church (10-15-74)
Academy Street School (10-01-81)
Old Roanoke County Courthouse (5-14-87)
Salem Presbyterian Parsonage (1-28-92)
Salem Post Office (9-24-92)
Southwest Virginia Holiness Association Camp Meeting (1-22-96)
Downtown Salem Historic District (6-05-96)
Monterey (3-05-99)
Pleasant Grove (5-22-03)
McVitty House (Pending)

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Salem's Largest Cemetery Was Home of Outdoor Drama

By John Long

Your surprising, and somewhat morbid, fact of the day: there are more people buried in Sherwood Memorial Park (approximately 25,700) than there are living in the entire city of Salem (about 24,600).

On second thought, maybe not so surprising. Sherwood is one of the largest cemeteries in the Roanoke Valley, and one of the most picturesque. It also can claim a unique distinction: one of few, if not the only, cemetery in America with an outdoor amphitheater.

Sherwood was founded in 1928 by a group of investors headed by Charles “Bruff” Strickler. The original 50 acre site was across the street from the old farm of the Burwell/Logan family, and their house, Sherwood, was the source of the name. Like many cemeteries of the day, Sherwood adopted the “park” concept—attractive exquisitely landscaped hills, tree-lined paths, stunning vistas, and mostly in-ground markers (one section bent this rule, allowing standing headstones to satisfy some families’ preferences). To reinforce this atmosphere, Sherwood was dubbed a “Burial Park” instead of a cemetery. The name was later revised to “Memorial Park,” but the older name may still be noticed on the stone columns at the entrances.

Sherwood also featured two family mausoleums and a third “receiving tomb” often mistaken for a mausoleum. In fact, it was used primarily as a temporary grave when a funeral would be delayed or a grave could not be prepared for a while. It also occasionally stored dynamite used at the stone quarry owned by Sherwood.

By far the most notable features of the cemetery are Sherwood Abbey and the Chapel Garden Mausoleum and Amphitheater (a third mausoleum, Belvedere Gardens, is currently under construction). The Sherwood Abbey is a chapel mausoleum inspired by a structure in Genoa, Italy, and contains 320 crypts. The Abbey was the first columbarium (a resting place for urns of ashes) in the area not attached to a church, and at one time the building also contained a crematory, thought to be the first in the state.

But it is the Amphitheater that really sets Sherwood apart. At one time, Sherwood claimed to be the only cemetery in the United States with an outdoor theater, a record which may still be true. The Amphitheater was the dream of James R. Goodwin, one of Sherwood’s founders and the man who guided the park for years. In the 1930s he came up with the idea of an outdoor venue at Sherwood that could be used for religious services or functions. But it was not until 1953—fifty years ago this past summer—that outdoor drama in a cemetery made its debut. “The Boy with a Cart” premiered in August, complete with a 50 voice choir and dancers. It couldn’t have been a comfortable production for the audience—the arena was not yet furnished with seats.

This first production notwithstanding, the drama that put Sherwood on the map came a few years later. “Thy Kingdom Come,” a symphonic play with a cast and choir of several dozen about the early church and the life of St. Paul, opened in June 1957. The play, underwritten by the Roanoke Valley Drama Association, was authored by Kermit Hunter, with music by Jack Kilpatrick. “Thy Kingdom Come” claimed to be—other than a few passion plays—America’s first outdoor religious drama.

The play was very well received in its first season. No less a personage than Arthur Godfrey plugged the show on his national radio program, and the New York Times ran a photo of the 1958 production. Local church leaders hailed the drama as stirring and inspirational; tickets were sold to individuals and groups from across the eastern seaboard and as far away as the Philippines. A second grade class in Roanoke even raised money to buy tickets for President and Mrs. Eisenhower to attend (Ike politely declined).

Many actors, singers, dancers, and local volunteers participated in “Thy Kingdom Come,” but certainly the best known was David Huddleston. As a young novice to the stage, Huddleston (a native of our area) portrayed Barnabas and Festus in 1957. He went on to a respected Hollywood career—remember St. Nick in the 1980’s epic “Santa Claus: The Movie?”

“Thy Kingdom Come” had a run of three seasons, but peaked in the first year. Rain troubled the second season, and financial difficulties doomed the last. By the third season, most locals who wanted to see the play had already done so, and fewer tourists were buying tickets. By late in the season, the actors were informed that their salaries would be reduced and prorated according to ticket sales. Many left, forcing those remaining to play multiple roles. After such disappointing attendance, no plans were made for a fourth season.

After this, the Amphitheater languished, hosting only occasional religious programs and the traditional Easter Sunrise Service. An exception came in 1969 and 70, when “Shakespeare at Sherwood” was organized and staged by Roanoke College students. The festival was named in honor of J. R. Goodwin. But the Amphitheater is still there in its majestic setting, awaiting the next renaissance of outdoor cemetery drama.
(research for this article was provided by Sara Ahalt)

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Cemetery Relocation Missed Some Graves

By Wes McCarty

As a child, I first became familiar with the Alexander White/Fort Lewis Cemetery by going there once or twice with my grandfather. Impatience overpowered me the whole time I was there. I thought of just one thing -- going to get a hot dog at Steve’s! My grandfather, Lewis N. Terrell, would pay for the upkeep of the cemetery the best he could, with help from other relatives, until his death in 1996. Little did I know that ten or fifteen years after those visits, I would be identifying forgotten graves. I succeeded by carefully studying family history and tracking down other paper trails that we all eventually leave behind. I accomplished this without setting foot inside the graveyard because it was moved to East Hill Cemetery in 1997 prior to my interest in the subject.

The relocation occurred through a friendly lawsuit involving my family and Thomas Brothers of Salem. Joe Thomas owned the land around the graveyard and, naturally, wanted to reach an agreement with the family so his property would be more salable. In exchange, we would relinquish title of the half acre and he would move the bodies to East Hill Cemetery. He retained a lawyer and our family did not. In retrospect, our family made a mistake in not hiring a lawyer.

First a look at early-known history of the cemetery is in order. My great-great-great-grandfather, Alexander White, who owned the massive Fort Lewis Estate for much of the 19th century, legally created the cemetery in 1889. Surveyor's records state that it was to be on the site of the present graveyard. Because of this language, we can conclude that bodies were buried there before 1889 and I can support this below.

Any admirer of history knows that spoken and written words can be factually inaccurate. I had a legitimate right to question my family’s claims about the validity of each body removed. Due to the lack of space, I have left out evidence that I found which confirmed my relative’s claims. The reader may wish to visit www.codeslam.com/fortlewisgraveyard/ for a more comprehensive examination.

There were eleven bodies removed from the cemetery in 1997. Ten of the bodies were identified correctly by my relatives, but the eleventh body was unknown. I will describe to you evidence of three additional bodies that were interred there at their times of death.

Before I began studying this subject in detail, I was simply recording genealogy that Grandfather had saved. I found an obituary in a family Bible of one of Alexander White’s daughters, Martha Epes Shanks, who died in 1919 and was one of the ten confirmed bodies. It mentioned Fannie Penn White and James O. White, two siblings of Martha. The obituary said that Miss White was living in Hickory, NC. I wrote to the Catawba Co. Historical Association in Hickory to see if they could help out on either person. Concerning James O. White, they wrote back with a death certificate date from the local courthouse of 3/18/1924 at 3:00 in the afternoon. Once I knew the death date for James, I could do a quick search for a burial certificate. One was located at John M. Oakey & Son in Salem which mentioned his burial in the Fort Lewis cemetery. Newspaper death notices support the burial certificate. (I have a lock of hair from James and other relatives that were interred in the cemetery.) Although the Catawba Co. Society did not find a certificate for Miss White, a death date several years after her brother did eventually pop up in some neglected family papers in my possession.

This oversight on my part underscores the importance of searching through every bit of information you have and looking for things you think you do not have. A family Bible may have only one or two pages of genealogy, but did you look through every page? I cannot tell you how many important obituaries I have come across while patiently page turning.

At any rate, once I found her death date, a burial certificate at Oakey’s Funeral Service & Crematory in Roanoke was found which cited her burial at the Fort Lewis Cemetery. Obituaries from this time corroborate this.

The deed which legally established the cemetery mentioned an Anna P. White as being involved in the process. My family genealogy listed her as another one of Alexander’s daughters. I had no clue as to what happened to her or where she was buried. I began a needle-in-a-haystack search for her name at the above funeral homes. Sure enough, a funeral record of Anna P. White was found which proved she was buried at the Fort Lewis Cemetery on May 16, 1928. Once again, newspaper articles back up the funeral home’s place of burial.

Martha Epes Shanks had a son named James Lewis Shanks Jr. An undated obituary on him was tucked away in a family Bible that said he was laid to rest at the same graveyard. The article said that he died at thirty-seven and was living in Lynchburg, VA. His age was consistent with family genealogy that said he was born in 1870 and died in November of 1906. No burial certificate showed up in Roanoke funeral homes, so I contacted a gentlemen at the main library in Lynchburg, VA to see what funeral records survived from that time. He wrote back with Lynchburg newspaper citations of Shanks’ death and burial at Fort Lewis. Funeral records at the library also revealed a casket being purchased for the late Mr. Shanks.

Other missing bodies must have been interred, but the evidence is less compelling. If we delve further into the genealogy, we see that Martha married James Lewis Shanks Sr. My genealogy claimed that he died on June 13, 1877. A newspaper from the time tells the graphic story of how Shanks Sr. died after being struck by a train. That article states that Alexander White took Shanks’ body back to Fort Lewis. It is highly likely that Mr. Shanks was buried at the Fort Lewis cemetery as his wife is laid to rest in the cemetery in 1919.

We now have four extra bodies which did not leave the cemetery in 1997. Remember, the eleventh body removed from the cemetery was unknown, so it could very well be James White, Anna, Fannie, James Shanks Jr. or Sr. But where are the others? Like so much of our local past, most likely lost forever in the sands of time.

Editor’s Note: Wes McCarty is an admirer of local history. He is a 1993 graduate of Christian Heritage Academy in Rocky Mount, VA and a 1998 alumus of Ferrum College. He is writing a comprehensive history about the Fort Lewis Estate and would appreciate any genealogy and history relating to it. Any information about the graveyard would also be helpful including the whereabouts of unknown burial records from 1866-1890 from the Oakey funeral homes in the area.

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