West Virginia Cemetery Preservation Association: Rock Castle Church Cemetery, Mason Co.

Cemetery Reading

Cemetery Name:	Rockcastle Church (a.k.a. Sayre)	Click image to enlarge
County:	Mason
USGS Quad:	Elmwood
Coordinates:	38.7417ºN -81.8155ºW
Maintained by:	unknown
Land owner:	unknown
Date added to WVCPA register:	24 January 2004
Condition of cemetery**:	Excellent (October 2004)
Accessibility:	Easily accessible in good weather. The gravel road heading in to the Rockcastle Church and cemetery area can be pretty wet and muddy at times of high water, and the last stretch of road going up the hill to the cemetery is pretty narrow in places with not much between you and the bottom of the deep gully below, so drive carefully! The cemetery itself is located on the crest of a hill north of the old Rockcastle Church.
Condition of cemetery as observed on the given date - may not be representative of care at other times of the year Scale: Excellent - Good - Fair - Poor - Abandoned**

Last Name:	First Name:	Born:	Died:	Inscription:	Photo:	Plot Map Ref#:	Source:
Woodall	Terence R.	1911		[husband & wife - shared stone]		1
Woodall	Elva Morrison	1912	1982	[husband & wife - shared stone]		1
Hill	Joel	1871	1953	[husband & wife - shared stone]		2
Hill	Mary E.	1876	1947	[husband & wife - shared stone]		2
Morrison	Oscar C. "Mike"	21 May 1924	13 February 1979	"S2 US Navy World War II" "In Loving Memory" [husband & wife - shared stone]		4 3
Morrison	Bonnie Chaney	17 June 1935				4 3
Morrison	George P. "Carter"	15 November 1877	21 November 1961	[husband & wife - shared stone]		5
Morrison	Mary Cain	25 August 1886	24 January 1963	[husband & wife - shared stone]		5
Morrison	Clayton Denver	23 January 1948	27 May 1948			6
Morrison	Ray Wesley	1919	1977	"PFC US Army World War II" [husband & wife - shared stone]		8 7
Morrison	Bernice W.	1921	2000	"PFC US Army World War II" [husband & wife - shared stone]		8 7
Hill	J. Henry	1878	1944	"Gone, But Not Forgotten"		9
Hill	Minnie E.	1887	1969	"Gone, But Not Forgotten"		9
Hill	Reba	11 June 1923	28 December 1925	"Daughter of H. & M. Hill"		10
Morrison	Doyle Lee	9 May 1959	10 May 1959			11
Morrison	Dencil Royall	1949	1949			12
Morrison	Bert	1879	1970	"Father" [on foot stone]		13
Morrison	Maggie	1884	1954	"Father" [on foot stone]		13
Morrison	George M.	1852	1914	[husband & wife - shared stone]		14
Morrison	Sarah E.	1854	1934	[husband & wife - shared stone]		14
Hill	Ulysses E.	5 June 1883	23 January 1966			15
Morrison	Leroy S.	12 September 1825	9 June 1871	[husband & wife - shared stone]		16
Morrison	Analiza	18 January 1830	4 April 1902	[husband & wife - shared stone]		16
Sayre	Nora J.	abt 1840	21 June 1906	"Wife of J.W. Sayre" "Aged 66 Ys."		17
Sayre	John W.	24 November 1843	14 February 1903			18
Sayre	Jessie P.	7 May 1879	28 August 1879	"Aged 3 mo., 21 da."		19
				[illegible - located in front of Enoch Sayre's tombstone]		20
Sayre	Enoch	18 August 1814	23 January, 1853	"In Memory of Enoch Sayre, son of Daniel & Sarah Sayre" "Was born August the 18th 1814 and departed this life January 23, 1853 Age 38 years, 5 months, 5 days"		21
Sayre	Elizabeth Shinn	13 April 1822		[front of tombstone illegible - according to "Mason County, W.Va. Cemetery Inscriptions, Vol. III": "Elizabeth is the daughter of George & Lucinda Stone, wife of Enoch, married 2nd to George W. Shinn" Elizabeth is actually buried at Fairplain Cemetery in Jackson Co. alongside her first husband George]		22
Furgeson	John A.	22 December 1884	23 December 1900	"Aged 16 yr., 1 da"		23

Comments:

Click on the cemetery plot image to the left of this text to open full size in a new window. In the full image, click on the letter and arrow near the mini cameras to see a photo overview of the cemetery from that particular angle.

WVCPA wishes to thank Rockcastle Cemetery historian, Tracy Cain, for all his hard work in making a current reading of this cemetery (as of October 2003), taking all the great tombstone photos, and for providing the cemetery plot diagram you see here. He has also provided photos of the nearby abandoned Rockcastle Church. As soon as we have completed a web page relating the history and photos of Rockcastle Church, we will provide a link here and on WVCPA's Historic Churches page.

Work completed under auspices of WVCPA:

Update: In October 2004, WVCPA staff and local Sayre family historian Hope Sayre Absten and her husband Cecil visited this cemetery, Rockcastle Church and the Stone Cemetery in the vicinity. We found both of the cemeteries well cared-for and the roads in pretty good shape, despite the high water that must have washed through there following the after-effects of the season's hurricanes that sent their torrents of rain up along the Ohio River Valley. The Rockcastle Church, though vandalized by considerable graffiti on the inside walls, windows knocked out, and some of the siding torn off (with appearances that it had been used for campfires nearby - so sad!), was still in quite a solid state. The floor was quite sturdy, and the roof showed no obvious signs of leakage. Of all the old, unused church buildings we have visited, this one was - by appearances - the one that would take the least amount of work to restore to at least a glimmer of its former self. Perhaps someone will, Lord willing...

We took a number of photos of the church and will be adding them to those taken by Tracy Cain and others during the course of this winter.

Updated: 07 September 2012