WestVirginiaCemeteryPreservationAssociation

Cemetery Reading

Cemetery Name:

Smith

Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken part of the way through the clean-up  Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken part of the way through the clean-up

Click on images above to enlarge

County: Putnam
USGS Quad: Hamlin    
Coordinates: 38.3363ºN  -82.0383ºW   Map
Maintained by: M.F. Conley & Family (per 4/2007)
Land owner: Mrs. Orpha (Smith) Billups
Date added to WVCPA register: April 2007
Condition of cemetery**: Good (April 2007)
Accessibility: The cemetery is located on Sycamore Road south of Hurricane off Rt. 34 (see map coordinates above for exact location). The cemetery is easily accessible.

** 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:

Source:

Brown Mack 13 September 1870 10 January 1842     Source: WVCPA contributor and cemetery researcher Melissa Fizer Conley
Collins Abigail Warner ca. 1809 April 1876 [Wife of John Collins - see addition source information below]   Source: WVCPA contributor and cemetery researcher Melissa Fizer Conley
  Excerpt from a 1948 Fizer family history c ompilation by Sylvia Rice Sowards: 

"...Well, later on she was visiting relatives in Ceredo, W. Va. And was stricken with heart attack while she and a little girl were watching boats sail up and down the Ohio River, so Uncle Ben Griffith tells me. This is in the month of April, 1876 while Uncle Ben and his mother were living at the old Buck Thompson place now owned by Uncle Lum Fizer, and Grandfather Mose was then living at the Charley Burdette farm then owned by the Kirtley's. He got Cal Thompson, (Frank's father) a minister to meet the train at Hurricane and bring the corpse out to Sycamore for burial at the old cemetery above Nye or below the Mattie Smith place.
     Grandfather Mose was following the wagon. Uncle Peter Fizer was riding on the wagon with Mr. Thompson, Uncle Ben's mother, Mrs. Griffith inquires of grandfather, "Who is the corpse?" He advised her that it was his grandmother, Mrs. Abigail Collins. They proceeded on their way to the cemetery, stopping for a short time at her son's home, Peter Fizer, then living at the Clay Mitchell place. That will be 71 years ago this April. Her body was laid to rest with no mark or trace of her grave established."
Neil Evaline (Smith) 17 December 1862 12 November 1941 "Aged 79 Yrs 10 Mos 25 Ds"
[Wife of Charley Neil, dau. of James & Anna Lakeman Smith]
Click for photo of tombstone Source: WVCPA contributor and cemetery researcher Melissa Fizer Conley
Pratt Mary Melvina 29 November 1849 11 November 1882 "Wife of Joseph A. Pratt"
"Aged 32Ys. 11Ms. 13ds"
"Meet Me In Heaven"
"How ____ the___" [rest is illegible in photo]
Click for photo of tombstone Source: WVCPA contributor and researcher Melissa Fizer Conley
Smith Almeda   10 August 1929 [Dau. of James and Anna Lakeman Smith - 82 (83?) years of age (not legible)]   Source: WVCPA contributor and cemetery researcher Melissa Fizer Conley
Smith Oat   31 October 1925 [ca. 46 years of age]   Source: WVCPA contributor and cemetery researcher Melissa Fizer Conley
Along with several unmarked graves, and graves marked with fieldstones.

Source: Putnam County Cemetery Inscriptions - Upper Vandalia Historical Society, Poca, WV 1990, and WVCPA contributor M. Conley

 

Comments: Dates in Red are not inscribed on the tombstone and have either been calculated based on death date or are as a result of research on the individual. 

WVCPA thanks our contributor and cemetery clean-up volunteer, Melissa Fizer Conley and her family for their photos of this cemetery and dedicated interest in its care. We look forward to more information and photos for this cemetery as they become available. Thank you, Melissa!

April 2009 update from Melissa:
"
We found the headstone for Mary Melvina Pratt, wife of Joseph, and we have cleaned the stone & reset it. Smith looks like a more proper cemetery now! Unfortunately, we continue to clean trash (of ALL kinds) from the site.  I hope that the tombstone will register with folks, I know the small sign I had placed didn't seem to do the trick."


Photo Gallery of the Rescue of this Cemetery
(click on images below to view in larger format)

Smith Cemetery in Putnam County, as seen from Sycamore Road - Rt. 34 S. runs parallel at the bottom of the hill - 
        this photo taken before clean-up

<< The cemetery, as seen from Sycamore Road - Rt. 34 S. 
     runs parallel at the bottom of the hill - the photo on the left
     was taken before the Conley family started the clean-up
     efforts. 

The same area after much of the clean-up work was done >>

Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken part of the way through the clean-up
Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken before clean-up

<< Again, before the clean-up...

...and afterwards: what a phenomenal improvement!     
 Well-done, Conley and Fizer families! >>

Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken part of the way through the clean-up
Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken before clean-up


<< Another "before" photo

Brandy Bird Fizer, hard at work with the trash >> 

Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken during the clean-up
Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken during the clean-up

<< Brandy's husband Dana, manning the chain saw


The Conley family on their way home for a well-deserved     
 break after all their hard work >>

Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken during the clean-up
Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken during the clean-up   << Smith Cemetery hasn't looked this good in a very, very 
     long time!

Melissa putting some elbow grease into the winter's pile
of leaves and brush covering the cemetery -
great job, Melissa! >>

Smith Cemetery in Putnam County - this photo taken during the clean-up

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 Updated: 07 September 2012