Buckingham Burials
As most of you know, many Buckingham farms contain family graveyards with some burials going back to the early 19th century. There are many church-connected graveyards as well. Grave hunting has become one of my favorite pastimes. It is a great way to combine a walk in the woods and a picnic with cousins, tics and snakes aside.
If you aren’t already aware of the marvelous resource, Buckingham Burials, Vols 1 – 3, I highly recommend these volumes for anyone conducting research about Buckingham families. Volume 4 will be published in the near future. The books are available directly from Historic Buckingham. Just follow this link to learn more: http://www.historicbuckingham.org/
slate river ramblings . . . . 
Great post and so interesting.
Grave hunting – sounds so nice. We have sometimes visited cemeteries to search our ancestor’s graves. Sometimes with luck sometime with no luck.
Nowadays I am “hunting” in summer times our 107 poor-man statues and one poor-woman statue. It is hard task because they are spread on wide area and basically on countryside.
Few examples:
Poor-man statues.
Thank You for this inspiring post.
Have a great day!
Thanks for joining us! Grave hunting is a favorite pastime! Happy Poor-man hunting!
My gg-grandmother, Mrs. Vitula Monroe (Sandridge) Davidson, is supposed to be listed in Volume IV of the “Buckingham burials book.” She was the wife of my gg-grandfather Joseph Cornelius Davidson, and while he is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA, Vitula died some years later and was then buried in the front yard of the old Davidson family home in Buckingham that was/is known as “Cherry Hill” (which is next-door to the old Davidson home that was/is known as “Iron Rock”). There was also a “still-born” infant in the family, and that infant was also buried in the front yard of “Cherry Hill.” Unfortunately, the headstones have been damaged and moved over the years, and the last that I heard, the broken headstone that clearly shows Vitula’s name was resting under a big tree in the front yard.
Joseph Cornelius Davidson served in the Confederacy, and it was his descendants (via Joseph and Vitula’s son who was named Eli Banton Davidson) who owned and ran the well-known Davidson Orchard on Rt. 15 in Buckingham Co., VA for many years. Joseph Cornelius Davidson had lived over in Cumberland Co., VA until the late-1850s, when he came to Buckingham to be an overseer for one of the Moseley plantations.
Bill, Many thanks for providing more information about the Davidson family. I am familiar with the Davidson Orchard and look forward to hearing more from you about the family, “Cherry Hill,” etc.
After reading your book, by chance I received a copy of “African-American Marriages 1865-1910 of Staunton Va. In that book is this marriage: Henry Riddle 34 (widower) born Buckingham Co. and blacksmith. Son of Henry and Susan Riddle. He married Elizabeth Harris 35 divorced born in Augusta Co. (no parents named) on 3/16/1886. I think he is a brother of Carter Woodson’s mother. See page 86 of Yeck’s book “Carter Woodson’s grandparents were Henry and Susan Riddle of Buckingham
Thanks for this wonderful tidbit about Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s maternal line. I will investigate further. More about these families in future posts.
And for those who care, I have a photo of the headstone of his namesake great grandson Dr George Chambers Woodson, a Buckingham native, buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA.
Thanks for the offer! Dr. George Chambers Woodson is the first cousin, Minnie Harris Sanger. About the same time her branch of the family went to Iowa, the Woodson family moved to Richmond.
What is the story behind this stone? Or should I say under it?
George Chambers is my direct ancestor. Among other things, he oversaw the building of Buckingham County’s first poorhouse. More about that soon.
Several of us have spent a few years of walking around in circles to find him. My Chambers cousins located the grave and, last spring, they escorted me to the site. It is a fairly large family cemetery, on private property, near Slate River.