Nancy Gray Pipes Grave Stone Picture

At last we have a picture of the grave stone of Nancy Gray Pipes. Nancy was the youngest daughter of John Gray and Lucinda Jones. John Gray I believe was a Revolutionary War Soldier and came to Mercer Co. very early from Prince Edward Co., Virginia. His daughter Nancy married William Pipes, who is buried in Old Union and was the youngest son of John Pipes Jr.

William died in 1855 at age 52 and after that many of William and Nancy's 12 children (born between 1822 and 1851) migrated to Pike Co., Indiana. I think the only child who remained in Boyle Co. was George Washington Pipes (GW is also in Old Union with his wife Mariah Edwards)

Nancy Gray Pipes and William owned the property just east of the cemetery and may have had a home where the house now stands that belonged to George Washington. That house is now owned by the Shepersons. Nancy sold a piece of the property to the L & N railroad and I have a copy of the deed here in my files. George Washington raised his family there and I have pictures of the as well.

Nancy moved to Pike Co., Indiana when her age caused her to be more dependent and probably to be closer to her daughters. She died there in 1886 and is buried in Flat Creek Cemetery.
I am not sure who did it, but her stone is obviously not the original and has been replaced. She has many, many descendants from those twelve children.
Many Thanks to Marcia Curtis an dher daugher Karen Fulk for the picture. They are taking several more of the Pipes stones in that are for my web site.

A Message from the Brinton Family Line

I received this email message from Sally Brinton yesterday (7/03/09)
Her email is: sbrinton08 at gmail dot com if you would like to exchange info with her.
Hi Bob,
I certainly enjoy your blog, and was so excited to find a picture of the grave of Mary Brinton, wife of James Brinton(1781-1870), and so far unidentified Sarah Brinton. Thank you for this wonderful work. I have been trying to establish the ancestry of James for sometime, but haven't been successful so far. There were many Brintons in the area. Carolyn Crabtree did tell me that the Brintons were known as one of the earliest settlers of the area along with the Harbeson's. Sam Brinton, son of James was the civil war era owner of the Brinton House in downtown Perryville, and Hardin Brinton also son of James, was married to Elizabeth Montgomery (dau of Isaac).
You invited us to send on names of other founding families of the area, so I add the Brintons. Maybe someone out there can add some new info and help solve the mystery. In the meantime, I will keep enjoying your blog.
Thanks, Sally

A Tribute to Ashel

Who is Ashel? He is Ashel Eber Pipes, born in 1858 to James Pipes and Mary Denton, probably within ear shot of Union Cemetery. His parents along with almost all of the Children of William Pipes and Nancy Gray Pipes moved to Pike County, Indiana between 1855 and 1860. The one child of William and Nancy who stayed in Boyle Co. was George Washington Pipes and his wife Mariah Edwards.
Ashel was probably a hard scrabble Farmer in Pike County and at the age of 34 he enlisted in the Army. He was a member of several units and re enlisted several times and finally in 1899 was assigned to Company "M" of the 3rd US Infantry and was shipped to the Phillipines. On mAy 23rd 1899 he was Killed in Action at a place called Maasin on Leyete Island. In the early 1900s his body was removed and reinterred in the National Military Cemetery at the Presidio in San Francisco. My sons, who live near there, discovered his grave marker a few years ago and we visit there when ever we have the chance. The view from just above his burial site is one of the most beautiful places on this earth. It looks out over San Francisco Bay and Angel Island and the scene there is very serene. My son Taylor took the photos in the short movie below and I used Picasa to make the movie. Copy the http link below and paste it into your browser. Then be sure to select "View in HQ" on the upper right side of the screen when it appears or else it will be pixelated. The movie is about 1 min 30 seconds long with music.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bobpipes/TributeToAshel#5350275569078583874

Update on my home Improvement Project

As many of you know, I have been working on remodeling the space in the basement of my new home to have a place to work and relax and a place for all my books and computers. Well I am nearing completion and have been taking photos along the way. All that remains is some carpet for the floors and this phase will be done. You can see the project in a slideshow at the left called Knollwood project.

Interesting Robert Gray Article

Thanks to Peggy Edgington for sending this Today.

From the Danville Advocate Messenger:
Monday April 6, 2009
Looking Back: Markers of time -- Discovery of graveyard leads to lesson in history
By BRENDA S. EDWARDS Contributing Writer
The grave of Private Robert Gray, a Revolutionary War veteran, who served with George Washington at Valley Forge, went unnoticed for many years after he was laid to rest in a small family graveyard off Ky. 1856 between Perryville and Mitchellsburg.
He was buried in the family plot after his death in 1825 but no marker was visible at the site. If there was ever a stone at the grave, it had been destroyed or buried.
However, after many hours of research and hard work, Private Gray now has a white military marker near his grave. It was erected in 2008.
Joann Wilkerson, who grew up on Sugar Bush Farm, never knew the cemetery was on the adjoining farm until 1970 after a windstorm damaged a large clump of trees and the crumbled tombstones were exposed.
She and her mother, the late Lucille Bruce, checked the graveyard and learned most of the marked graves were from the Gray family. The last person buried there was Jane Gray, who died in 1861.
The land where the graveyard is located was purchased by Mrs. Bruce and added to Sugar Bush Farm, now owned by Joann and her husband, Conley Wilkerson.
After checking with many Gray families in the area, who were not aware of the cemetery and did not know anything about Robert Gray, the search was put aside until 2005, when a descendant, Dennis Gray of Indiana, stopped by the farm to check out the cemetery.
The Wilkersons did research on Robert Gray and learned of his service in the Revolutionary War. He served three years in the Virginia Continental Line and lived for about a year aboard a British prison ship off Charleston, S.C.
Records show Gray served in the 4th, 8th and 12th Virginia Continental Line Regiments, which apparently went through several reformations to adjust to the loss of men through military action, illness and desertions.
Gray is not listed on a marker with other Revolutionary War veterans on the lawn of the Boyle County Courthouse, but research shows that he was a veteran who came to Kentucky after the war. He apparently lived out his life in the Perryville area.
Military records show Gray was a private in the 12th Virginia Regiment and enlisted Aug. 30, 1777, for a three-year term. He was with the unit when it marched from Lancaster, Pa. The payroll in January 1778, shows he was paid in shillings. Two months later, his muster roll is dated, Valley Forge, March 1778.
Records cover Gray's service from his enlistment on Aug. 30, 1777, through 1779.
Gray came to Kentucky with other families
Robert married Sarah Pearce on Jan. 11, 1786, in Prince Edward County, Va., and they most likely came through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. His brother, John and wife, Lucinda, may have been among a group that settled near the Chaplin River in Mercer County (now Boyle).
Sarah's name appears on legal documents, but is referred to only as Robert's wife and his children's mother.
A copy of a Mercer County deed dated March 24, 1795, shows that William McBrayer conveyed to Robert Gray 250 acres on the Chaplin Fork of Salt River, being a part of McBrayer's pre-emption of 1,000 acres. The cost was 75 pounds. The Gray family cemetery is on a portion of that land.
Gray's will states he wanted to be buried beside his wife, and shows that he left his estate to be divided equally between his three sons, John, Charles and Robert Jr.
Robert Jr. was to inherit the homestead where he, his father and two sisters lived and much of the tools, livestock and farm supplies. His daughter, Elizabeth, inherited linens and part of the money from the sale of the stock.
Daughters, Jane and Sally, got two cows, 12 sheep, furniture and money. Charles and Robert were to pay Jane and Sally $20 annually as long as they remained single. Robert Sr.'s personal property amounted to about $300.
The will mentioned the two acres that were to be laid off for a family burial ground. John and Robert Jr. were appointed executors of the estate.
Robert Jr. and his sister, Jane, who never married, lived on the farm until their deaths. Robert Jr. was born Oct. 28, 1795, and died May 11, 1845.
Robert Jr.'s will also mentioned the cemetery and instructed Jane to erect tombstones on his grave as well as his parents, Robert and Sarah.
After Jane's death in 1861, her will, dated Sept. 14, 1858, said: "Purchase four tombstones of marble, one for my mother and father, one for my brother Robert and one for myself." She also asked that other brothers and sisters and a nephew, John Gray, be buried at the cemetery, and that the cemetery be enclosed with a stone wall with iron railing on the top of the wall. She also left money with the interest to be used to educate four children of parents unable to school them.
There is little evidence that tombstones were put on the other family graves, but Jane's grave is marked with a tall monument. The partial stones found with names are of Nancy Burton, who may have been the wife of John Burton; and John, probably a nephew of Jane.
Jane was the last surviving descendant of Robert Gray Sr. to live on the Gray farm.
After discovering the Gray graveyard, the Wilkersons have cleared off the site, planted some flowering bushes and plan to replace the fence.
Conley and Joann Wilkerson are not related to the Gray family, and have found it interesting on the amount of information they have accumulated about the pioneer Kentucky family.
"We've had a lot of fun looking around," said Conley. "It's amazing what you can dig up."

Copyright:The Advocate-Messenger 2009

New Burial in Cemetery - Jay Webb

Jay Webb 1965-2009
PERRYVILLE - Jay Allen Webb, 43, of Perryville died Wednesday in Marion County.
Born July 23, 1965, in Boyle County, he was a son of Glynn and Sherry Wilson Webb of Perryville. Jay was an employee of Pittman's Lumber, a farmer, a member of Beech Fork Baptist Church and a 1983 graduate of Boyle County High School.
Additional survivors include a niece, Laura Webb; and a nephew, Bryan Webb, both of Perryville.
Jay was preceded in death by his brother, Jeff Webb.
Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Sunday at Wilder Funeral Home by Rev. Lee Arnold. Burial will be in Old Union Cemetery.
Active pallbearers will be Robert Atwood, Jerry Boswell, Roger Webb, Adam Tungate, Bryan Webb, Greg Anderson, Mike Crowe and Mickey Morgenson.
Visiting hours will be 11 a.m. today until time of service at the funeral home.

Alma Ray Ison Death

Dear Friends,

For those of you who have been doing genealogy research for some time, you may have been assisted by Alma Ray Ison at the Harrodsburg Historical Society. Mrs. Ison died this past Sunday(12/23/08). She had been a volunteer at the Harrodsburg Historical Society for 30 years. She compiled many records over the years including marriage bonds and Bible records. Her knowledge and expertise will be greatly missed at the Historical Society as she had been a valuable resource. Attached is Mrs. Ison's obituary which was copies from merceronline.
Best wishes for a blessed New Year to all.

Peggy

Alma Ray Ison Obituary (copied from www.merceron-line/obits.htm)

Alma Ray Ison, 95, of Harrodsburg, died Sunday, Dec. 21, 2008 at the Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville.
Born Oct. 22, 1913 in Harrodsburg, she was the daughter of the late Nelson Lee and Nannie Lee Royalty Sanders and was the widow of Louis Francis Ison.
She was a former teacher but specialized in genealogical research. She was a member of the Harrodsburg Baptist Church where she taught Primary Sunday School for 50 Years, National Society of DAR, Kentucky State Historical Society, and Harrodsburg Historical Society where she volunteered for 30 Years.
She compiled and published books containing historical records, the most recent being: Bible Records and Vital Statics published in 2008. She was named Pioneer Woman of Harrodsburg on her 85th Birthday and was recognized in June 1998 for her significant contribution toward historic preservation in Mercer County.
Survivors include: one daughter, Nancy Ellen Reahm of Grand Rapids, MI; one son, Louis "Charles" (Robin) Ison of Harrodsburg; five grandchildren; four great–grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.
The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at the Ransdell Funeral Chapel with Dr. Robert DeFoor officiating. Burial will be in the Spring Hill Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Nelson Cleo Sanders, Tom Horton, C.L. Horton, Lee Miller Dean, Jonathan Jenkins, Stewart Ison and Zach Ison.
Honorary pallbearers will be Larry Cannada Jr., Douglas Brown and David Cannada
Visitation will be from 4 – 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 29 and prior to the service on Tuesday at Ransdell Funeral Chapel.
Memorial contributions may be made to Louis F. Ison Scholarship Fund c/o KY Farm Bureau Education Foundation, 9201 Bunsen Pkwy, Louisville, KY 40250-0700; Harrodsburg Baptist Church or the Harrodsburg Historical Society,
Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.ransdellfuneralchapel.com.
(HH Thu Dec 25, 2008)

Happy New Year!!

2009 already. For an old guy like me ( I turn 66 this year) it sure seems strange sometimes to be so far from my childhood. Where have the years all gone? Some people can recount everything they have ever done or said, and some spend no effort in restraining themselves from doing so. I find it very difficult to remember my past in great detail. I have snapshots of certain events in my life stored away in some nebulous album in my mind. No amount of pondering seems to tell me why certain things remain and others are gone. Maybe it leaves more room for new memories from the future.
Here is my wish that each of you has a Happy and Prosperous New Year and that 2009 brings more good things into our lives.
If you are a person who makes new year resolutions, this year add a line that says "I will visit the cemetery this year at least once and make a contribution to help keep it in our memory."
A second line might say " I will make an effort to teach my children or grandchildren about who is in the cemetery and maybe leave an image of our heritage in the album in their mind."

My posting on this Blog has been slow lately as I try to finish the office/library area to put all my books and papers in our new place. I will get back to working on the cemetery and a new web site for the family association as soon as I get this done.

Merry Christmas

My Son Jason is a member of the California State Military Reserve. He was invited to participate with other SMR members at the State Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on December 9th this year in Sacramento. That's SPC Jason Pipes on the right end of the first row.

Your Opinion Please

I have been working on the family of Elias Hardin Pipes who lived in the Gravel Switch area. He was a son of Morris Pipes and Sallie Montgomery. I have two pictures that are supposedly of him and his wife and one of the pictures also include his children. That is the one in the picture in the last post. The first one has him with another person and I am not convinced they are the same person (i.e. Victoria Hourigan). So, do you know who this person is or do you think they are the same person? Please let me know what you think. They were obviously taken at different times but they sure look different to me.

Elias Hardin Pipes Family

Judy Miller has shared some pictures and info on her family from the Gravel Switch area. Elias Hardin Pipes was the son of Morris Pipes and Sallie Montgomery. He had a home in the Gravel Switch area after the war and raised 9 children there. The home was located on Ward's Branch Road about half way between Ky243 and Aliceton Road. John Sheperson made a map of the area and it shows the house on the south side of the road. I am told the present day J. B. Cooley house is built where the old house stood. This picture of Elias, His wife Victoria and their children was taken about 1900. Elias and Victoria are both in the Cemetery as well as their son Clarence and one young son named Augustus who died in 1867 at age 7.

The children and their spouses:

• John Rufus(J.R.) m. Addie Johnson


• Nancy Winnifred ( Winnie) m. Tom Lane then Paul Hourigan


• Henry Taylor m. Jeanette Corman


• Ann Eliza(Annie) m. John Sinkhorn


• James Thomas(J.T.) m. Maggie Lee Robertson( Roberson)


• Clarence Newton m. Nonnie Owens


• Martha Jane m. William R. May


• Edward Appolos m. Ida Bland


• Grace Elizabeth m. James Coyle

This family was probably the last Pipes Family to call this area "home". In the 1930 Census only a couple of the children above were still living in the area.

Follow This Blog

At the very bottom of this page you can now sign in as a follower of the Blog. Then others can see who else is reading here. Something New!
I don't hear from many of you, I know you are there because I can see the visit counter going up. Let me know you are interested.

Mapping Database Update

Today I changed Cemetery location Old LH 40 which was marked as Unreadable to reflect the evidence that this is the stone for Roan D. Gartin b. 1839 who was the wife of William Crowdus b. 1830. They are in the 1860 Census as husband and wife with a child named Sally. I cannot find them again in the census. So I am assuming that she died during the 1860s and it appears that William may have moved on to Texas as I can find a person who I believe is him in later years in Texas. If you have further info on Roan or William or Sally please let me know.
If anyone lives close to the cemetery and would like to volunteer to honor Roan's memory, it would be very nice to find the other small missing pieces of her stone so we can add her dates of birth and death to our records. They must be there and hopefully still readable. The picture of her stone is in a posting below.

Interesting and Fun Too!

Alan Pipes from Bristol, England sent me the link to this really great web site. It shows where any surname has population anywhere in the world. You can type in your last name or any other and see where the population reflects that name all the way down to the county level.

http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/

Montgomery family ties

I find it interesting that there are a few "founding" families in old Mercer County, at least in the southern part that became Boyle County and Marion County, and in the area around the Old Union Cemetery, that intermarried at a time in the late 1790s and early 1800s and created the families that spawned most of us reading this. Certainly James Gray, Michael Harmon and John Pipes were among them but as I study the history of the area I find several other names, like Hourigan, Crowdus, Brumfield, Copeland and Montgomery.

I know there are several others, please dont think I am not mentioning someone on purpose. Maybe we should start a list of original or founding families, that would be fun to do. email me if you have names that should be on the list.

My post in the article below about Allen S. Montgomery caused me to look at the Montgomery Family and this is what I found:
Robert Montgomery came here from Ireland and died in 1789 in Lincoln Co. after living in Augusta Co., Virginia. His son Robert(2) was born in Virginia and died in 1793 in Garrard Co, Kentucky. Robert(2)'s son Isaac Newton Montgomery B. 1781 in Lincoln Co. d. 1840 in Mercer Co. married Nancy Stone in 1803. ( I believe Isaac and Nancy are both buried in Union Cemetery). She was known as Nancy and as Sally. (Sally may have been her middle name.)

Isaac and Nancy had 4 children, here is a list of them and the persons they married:
Sally Montgomery b. 1804 married Morris Pipes ( both in Old Union)
Elias Montgomery b. 1808 married Catherine Harmon
Allen S Montgomery b. 1818 married Martha Pipes
Catherine J. Montgomery b. 1824 married John Bradford Harmon. (Both in Old Union)
These 4 marriages produced 30 children named Pipes, Harmon and Montgomery

An aerial view of the Cemetery

A very nice picture taken in 1999. It is a satellite view of the area around the cemetery. The cemetery is the ameoba shaped area on the left. You can actually see the knobs that are just east of the cemetery road.
I found this on TerraServer-USA: just copy and paste the link below into your browser
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&X=1692&Y=10408&Z=16&W=3

Seeking info on Allen S. Montgomery

I have been working on filling in blanks on my Pipes Family Database and wonder if any of our readers know any more about Allen S. Montgomery who married Martha Pipes. She was a daughter of Nathaniel Pipes and Margaret Harmon born about 1822 in Mercer co. I am not sure of Allen's background at this point but he was born about 1817. They married about 1849, had several children and appear in Haysville in the 1850 & 1860 census. Then they disapppear. I cant find them again and can not determine where they are buried either. They had children (from Mrs. Ellsberry's book) William b. 1850, Elias b. 1855, Margaret b. 1856, Levi, Isaac, Nancy b.1859, Elizabeth b. early 1860s and Lillian b. early 1860s?)
I even know who some of them married. Isaac and Levi died very young.
If you know anything about this family after 1860 or who Allen's parents were, please email me and let me know.
Children married:
William - Addie Karrick
Elias - Lillie McElroy
Margaret - Wallace McElroy
Nancy - Dr. John Boyd
Elizabeth - Byron Cardwell (Caldwell?)
Lillian - Thomas Cleland Jackson
[Update] I now know that Allen was a son of Isaac Montgomery and Nancy Stone.

New Entries at Pipesfamily.com

If you are interested in the history of the Pipes Family, I have made some new entries on the Pipes Family web site. I have a little extra time from now to the end of the year so I am getting caught up on all of my 'inbox' stuff.
www.pipesfamily.com

Help Me Identify This Person

Click to enlarge the picture.
This stone was marked as unreadable in my inventory but after looking at it more closely there are some clues. Can you help me identify this person?
Her first name was 'Roan' and her middle name started with the letter 'D.' She was the wife of: W. Crane possibly, although his last name may be something else, but it sure looks like 'Cran' on the stone. He may have a middle initial there but it is hard to read. The stone is laying flat and is directly west of the cemetery monument way back almost to the fence.
I looked at the unusual first name in the census records and find that the name 'Roan' was not so unusual in the 1800s. Several ladies had that first name in Marion and Boyle counties. She does not appear on any of the previous lists of persons buried in the cemetery.
There was a Roan Crane in the census records from 1870 to 1880 but that was her maiden name. She was the daughter of Nelson Crane. This may be the same person, but I need to find out who she married.
Quite a mystery.
[Update 1] The husband's name on the stone may be Wm Crowdus.
[Update 2] There is an 1860 census family entry in Haysville for William Crowdus b. 1830 and his wife Roan, b. 1839. They have a daughter, Sallie, age 1. So they would have been married in possibly 1858/59. Her stone is of the design popular in the 1860 era. This family does not appear again in the census records. I did find a William Crowdus born in Kentucky and of the same age in 1880 in Ellis Co., Texas. He has a new family.
[Update 3] I believe this may be Roan Gartin, daughter of Widow Sally Gartin of Haysville. (Note that Roan's 1 year old daughter is named Sallie.)I have found no further info on her after the 1860 Census. I am also convinced the name on the stone is W. Crowdus.

A Page to show the sections of the Cemetery

When I started mapping the cemetery I set up three sections so it would be easier to deal with. If you see the section names in the mapping database and wonder what they mean, this drawing will help. I broke it down to the OLD section (that area around the old church building) and then the NEW section, which is North of the old section and along the fence line. Just for reference and for those of you who may not have been in the cemetery, like all older cemeteries, the stones in here have the face of the stones on the East side and the back of the stones are on the West side, so if you are standing in front of the stone reading the name on it, North is to your right and south is to the left and East is behind you. As always, click to enlarge.

Panorama Picture From 1984 Trip

My family made its first trip to Kentucky in 1984 and we took these pictures. I used the autostitch program to put two of them together. It is an interesting contrast to how the cemetery looks today. Click on the image to enlarge.

An email from a Pipes descendant.

Judy Miller (jmiller5@bellsouth.net) is a descendant of Elias Hardin Pipes and Victoria Hourigan, They lived in the Aliceton/Gravel Switch area longer than any of the rest of the Pipes Clan. Her father is living in Louisville and is J.T. Pipes Jr. (James Thomas). He worked for the L& N railroad and is now 96 Years old.
She sent me this email today and said it was OK to post it here for all of you to read. [Update] Oops, it was her grandfather, JT Pipes Sr. who worked for the L& N, Judy is looking for a picture of him to show you.

"I continue to be amazed at all the mapping and restorative work you and your family have done at the cemetery. Thank you so much. I wanted to come from Georgia to Perryville the week you all were there but my father J.T. Pipes Jr. was in the hospital in Louisville with an intestinal blockage that had to have surgery and my brother and sister and I were taking care of him. This weekend (August 31st) we will celebrate his 96th birthday (his father lived to be 90 and his mother to 103, his sisters were in their nineties when they died). He is doing well. Living at home with daily help. When I see him this weekend I will ask him for a donation for you-he wants to do this but doesn't know how - I do! I am particularly interested in the condition of the gravestones for my direct ancestors John Jr. and Mary Pipes, Morris and Sallie Pipes and Elias and Victoria Pipes but I'm so glad the whole cemetery is being mapped and kept. I have visited the cemetery several times and taken pictures-mostly in the 1980's. There is a cemetery near Gravel Switch - don't know the name but it has Boards and Robertsons graves in it - we called that area down the hill from Gravel Switch, Aliceton. The house my great grandparents Boyle (yes he was named for the county and had a brother named Mercer) and Georgia Board Robertson lived in has crumbled to the ground - bought by someone for the tobacco base years ago. I stole a piece of fence from it one time. Wish I'd done more but couldn't find out who owned it. Anyway, the cemetery is just past the house. My parents took our family there many times in the 40's and 50's to see them. Their daughter Maggie Lee Robertson married J.T. Pipes Sr., who was an L & N railroad conductor - the tracks used to run right past the house at Aliceton. I have a table that was in the E.H. Pipes House in Gravel Switch. My grandfather J.T. Pipes Sr. told the story that all the children raced home after church each Sunday and pried open the locked drawer in the table to get at a card game they wanted to play. The table was supposedly brought from Ireland by David Hourigan who was the father of E.H. Pipes' wife, Victoria Hourigan. I'm stumped at that because David Hourigan's father Patrick was a Revolutionary War soldier so David wasn't an immigrant-he must have gone to Ireland to visit and brought it back - wish I could get on Antiques Roadshow to see what they could tell me about the table. Well I've gone on and on. I have a question. Why are there two graves for Sallie Montgomery Pipes? Keep up the good work - I hope to be sending you money from my Dad very soon-I have to explain all this to him again. Judy Miller

A new List of Additional persons buried at Old Union

I have been working on this new list for some time now. I wanted to list all of the persons who have been identified over the years as being buried in Old Union even if they no longer have a marker there. After finishing the physical inventory of the cemetery this year and taking the photos, I was able to sit down with the other lists I have from vaious sources and compare them to my Inventory list.
Look down the left side to see "Links to Important Articles". There is a link there called "Union Cemetery Additional List". It is a pdf file of all the persons who have been listed as being in the cemetery but no longer have a marker. Or maybe they never had a marker to begin with.

Panorama Picture

I found a program on the web called autostitch that connects a group of pictures together to make a single panoramic picture. I used it to make a panorama of the pictures in Cemetery Tour # 1 below. Yes the perspective is slightly warped, similar to a fish eye lens, but it does make an interesting picture.
I used some photoshop type techniques to finish the picture. Mostly in the sky and grass and trees in the upper left part of the picture. Just click on the picture above. Then scroll over to see it all.

Cemetery Tour

This morning I added a set of special photos taken in early June of 2008. Petra Esterle is Wife/Partner with my son Jason. She is a very special and talented member of our family. When she completed the photographing of all the stones in the Cemetery, she volunteered to climb up on the family monument and take a series of panoramic photos of the cemetery. I have set them in order in a slide show that starts looking straight south at the first row of the Old Left Hand Section (The Doss stones are in this row). Then each shot rotates slightly to the right until the last shot is looking East North East. It is really neat to see the entire grounds from a higher perspective. It was VERY Hot and muggy that day but everything turned out looking lush and green.
You should be able to click on the pictures and get to a place that will allow you to view the pictures as a slide show. I have two more of these albums to place here and will do so in the next day or so.

Mapping Database is Installed with Pictures

The mapping database now has grave stone pictures attached to each name. Look down the left side of the page under 'Links to Web Sites' and find the link that says "Mapping Database". When it opens you can scroll to the right side of the page and see the small tombstone images. click on those to see the image.
I still have other pictures to add and also some obituaries and notes about each person. The other pictures are ones that I took in previous years and some that other folks have sent me from time to time.
So please enjoy and feel free to let me know if there are mistakes or problems and also please send any additional info you may have on the cemetery.

NEW feature added

Down the left side there is a new box that has 2008 Reunion Photos presented in a slide show format. It takes a few minutes to load but then you can stop it, click on it and view the pics in larger format, download them, and all kinds of stuff. It is presented by Google and their program called Picasa Album. I am still not sure of eveything it can do. So have fun and let me know: comments, problems, ideas etc.
I do like to hear from all of you.

Harmon-Pipes-Gray Family Reunion

This email and information about the August Family Reunion in Perryville just in. The newspaper item is at the end of the email and I will add photos in a seperate entry.

Dear Family Members,

Attached is an article along with group a picture from yesterday's family reunion in Perryville which I have submitted to the Scrapbook section of the Danville Advocate-Messenger.

We apologize and regret the inconvenience caused family members due to the change in date of this year's reunion. Next year's reunion will be the second Sunday of August. All future reunions are planned for the second Sunday of August. We hope to see you there.

Officers were elected for the Family Association for the coming year: They are Robert Mayes, President; Edna Lankford, Vice President; Marian Gibson, Secretary and Treasurer.

If you have any family members that you would like added to the Harmon, Gray & Pipes Family Association group emailing list, please forward their names and email addresses to me.

I spoke with Carolyn Crabtree, President, of the Boyle County Genealogical Society last night. There are still some Boyle County, Kentucky, Cemetery Records, 1792-1992 Second Printing 2008, books available for purchase. You may contact Carolyn at the Danville Boyle County Convention & Visitors Bureau at (859) 236-7794 or at info@danvillekentucky.com

I purchased a book from www.abebooks.com a couple of months ago titled HARMAN-HARMON Genealogy and Biography BY John William Harman. The book is with historical notes 19 B. C. to 1928 A. D. It was printed in Parsons, West Virginia in 1928. I have found this book to be of interest and good reading. Included in the book is information with genealogy on Lloyd V. Harmon D.D., of Missouri along with pictures of he and his wife, Icel Anna Harmon. Lloyd was one of the compilers of the Gray Pipes Harmon books which was compiled in 1960.

Best regards,

Peggy (HARMON) Edgington

Here is the article item sent to the Newspaper:
GRAY, HARMON, PIPES HOLD FAMILY REUNION

About 35 people attended the annual Gray, Harmon, Pipes reunion August 17 at Perryville Christian Church. Attendees included: Mary S. Guerrant, Edna Lankford, Peggy Edgington, Ken and June Harmon, Richard S. and Mary Lou Mayes, Gavin Whitehouse, Stephen Mayes, Geneva Glasscock, Marian Gibson, Tom and Joyce Cox, Bryan, Jennifer, Avery and Austin Bodner, James W. Cox, Jr., Audrey Lanham-Smothers, Lori Stipe, Clay Russell, Carolyn Gray Stipe, Verna Newton, Johnna, Nick and Dominic Mansuetto, Robert Mayes, Janet C. Reynolds, Judy Underwood, Tim Lanham, Rita Satterly, Monty J. Bryant, Monty J. Bryant III, Sue B. Evans and Libby Mayes . The Pipes, Harmon, Gray Association cares for the property at the Old Union Cemetery near Perryville and Gravel Switch. The graves of many of these and other families are in Old Union Cemetery. Next year’s reunion will be held on the second Sunday in August in Perryville.

2008 Reunion Photos

Pictures from the 2008 Family Reunion in Perryville on August 17, 2008. Click on image for larger view.




1st Row L to R: Verna Newton (green blouse), Marian Harmon Gibson, Edna Harmon Lankford, Judy Underwood, Carolyn Gray Stipe, James W. Cox, Jr.

2nd Row L to R: Mary Lou Mayes (black blouse), June Hutchens Harmon, Libby Mayes (green blouse), Joyce Cox (glasses/blue&white blouse), Lori Stipe
(purple dress & glasses), Peggy Harmon Edgington (face partially hidden)

3rd Row L to R Richard Mayes (bald head behind Mary Lou), Ken Harmon, Sue B. Evans (white blouse), Robert Mayes (behind sister Libby), Tom Cox (blue
shirt), Tim Lanham, Clay Russell (to right behind Lori Stipe)

4th Row L to R Rita Reynolds Satterly (shoulder length hair/under #205), Audrey Lanham-Smothers (grey hair, glasses), Mary S. Guerrant (white hair/glasses)



L to R: Monty J. Bryant III, Monty J. Bryant, Verna Newton

Back in Wisconsin

We finished up the photographing and completed a mapping process for all but the new section of the cemetery on Thursday. Then we stopped in Gravel Switch and spent some time talking with John Sheperson. Then we drove down to Tebbs Bend and toured the battle field there by the Green River Bridge. Friday was a long hot drive back across Indiana.
I have updated the database with some new names and some corrections, so if you have a copy downloaded for yourself, be sure to refresh it.
Next week sometime I will start loading photos of the stones and connecting them to the database.
Our next project will be to set up a new web site for the cemetery on another server and move all of the info over there. I am continuing to collect pictures of those persons buried there, so if you have any or know of someone who does, please let me know.
More later.....

Kentucky Trip update...

Tuesday was a rain day. All Day long with rain, clouds, wind etc. So we did some sight seeing. Tasted Kentucky Bourbon at a Distillery Tour and learned how its made. Tried to visit Gen John Hunt Morgan's gravesite in Lexington and arrived there after the cemetery closed.
Today we arrived at the cemetery early and finished photographing about 150 stones. So that leaves about 50 to do tomorrow. We spent a few hours this afternoon at the Perryville Battle Field. Took a long walk thru part of the park and it was very nice. We visited with the park Historian on Tuesday who connected us with a local man who has studied the Battle of Perryville for many years. His name is Darrell Young and his grandmother is buried in Old Union and he lives a stones throw from there. He may have some pictures of the old church for us and gave us some input on out effort to understand the movement of troops thru the cemetery area and along the Lebanon road.
More later.....

Back in Kentucky

We left Milwaukee this morning and arrived at the Cemetery late Monday afternoon. Tomorrow we plan to photograph and measure the stones. I must admit to being schocked at some of the continued deterioration of the stones in the cemetery.
More later.

Financial Support...

I am currently planning my next trip to Kentucky to work on the cemetery mapping. The next step in the process will be to photograph the stones and measure out the locations of each stone in relation to the boundaries. All of this will be added to the database. You can see the database here on the left. Its called "Mapping database". The intent is also to add photos of the person and obits when we can find them.
The current plan is for 3 of my children (2 sons and a wife)from California to fly to Wisconsin, rent a vehicle, load our gear and drive to Perryville. We plan to be there the week of June 1st to the 8th. One of my sons is graduating from UC Berkeley's Journalism Grad school in May. IF he can find Video equipment he will be doing some filming of the cemetery and the area as well.

If you can make it there that week we would love to meet you. We can say hello, talk, work on the cemetery grounds and just have a good time. We can always use an extra hand and there are always things to do there.
Send an email and let us know if you can make it.

I will try to re install the two stones for Nathaniel Pipes and Margaret Harmon Pipes there too, that week.

If you can help with financial support, a donation to help us pay for Gas, vehicle, food etc would be very much appreciated. Use Paypal or send to 1062 S. Knollwood Dr. Saukville, Wisconsin 53080

A Recent Letter.....

I recently obtained permission from the Pipes Harmon Gray family assoication to mail a letter to each member requesting their help in a project to gather information on all the persons and families in the Old Union Cemetery. You can read a copy of the letter here. Pipes Harmon Gray Family Association Letter.

Anothe Member Passes Away...

Dear Harmon Pipes Gray Family Members,

It is with sadness (the 2nd time in a couple of weeks) that I advise the death of a family member. Joe O. Tucker died Friday, February 8, 2008. Attached is a copy of obituary that appeared in today's Danville Advocate-Messenger. I copied and pasted
from amnews.com. Attached is a picture of Joe which I took at the family reunion in August, 2004.

Joe and his family have been long time supporters of the Pipes Gray Harmon Family Association. Joe's mother was the late Elizabeth Harmon Tucker. Elizabeth passed away not long ago (August 21, 2007). She was the daughter of the late Levi Allen and Etta Mae Crain Harmon.

It is my understanding that Joe had been ill for quite a while. He was not well enough to attend our last Harmon Pipes Gray family reunion held in August, 2007.

The only family address that I have for condolences is that of Joe's daughter Peggy Tudor at 21 Trail Lane, Lancaster, KY 40444.
I have had this address for a few years, and to my knowledge is still current.
Regards,

Peggy Edgington

amnews.com
Monday February 11, 2008
Obituaries for February 11
FUNERALS
Joe O. Tucker
1932-2008
Joe Owsley Tucker, 75, a local civic leader and descendant of one of Perryville's original settlers, died Friday in Danville. He was the husband of Mary Jane Ragland Tucker.
Born May 1, 1932, in Perryville, he was the son of the late George O. and Elizabeth Harmon Tucker. He was a project manager for Harbour Construction Co., specializing in building churches, completing 86 in all. He was the former co-owner of George O. Tucker Construction Co. and a founder of Elmwood Inn.
He was a lifelong member of Perryville Presbyterian Church, serving as trustee, elder and former Sunday School teacher, superintendent and treasurer. He also was active in the Presbytery of Transylvania and the Synod of the Living Waters. He was a member of the Civil War Roundtable and was instrumental in the initial development of Perryville Battlefield. He was a former president of Perryville Lions Club and a founding member of Frontier Whirlers Square Dance Club, a Girl Scout leader, and served on the Wilderness Road Girl Scout Council.
Additional survivors include seven daughters, Peggy (Ron) Tudor of Lancaster, Nancy Campbell of Lexington, Dian (Garry) Tucker-Baker of Perryville, Stephanie R. Bradley, Suzanne (Wayne) Madsen, Sheryl Bradley and Sandra T. Miller, all of the Atlanta area; 21 grandchildren; and 14.9 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Sharon Smith, and his sister, Betty Tucker Ellis.
Services will be 2 p.m. Tuesday at Wilder Funeral Home by the Rev. D. Patrick Chamberlain. Burial will be in Hillcrest Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be grandsons, Taylor and Daniel Smith, Ben Roller, Justin Campbell, Clay, Adam and Levi Stocker, Casey Hamilton and Rick Turner.
Visitation is 5-8 p.m. today at the funeral home.
Memorials, in lieu of flowers, may go to Bellewood Children's Home and Gideon's International.

Helen Underwood Passes

Mrs Helen Crain Underwood of Perryville passed away yesterday the 29th of January, 2008. She was 93 years old and a long time member of the Harmon Pipes Gray family association. Helen served as treasurer of the association for several years. I first met her in 1984 on my family's first journey to Kentucky to find ancestors. She was very gracious and helpful and we corresponded for several years.
When I find the obit I will post it here.
I ordered flowers from Wilder's Flower basket in Perryville at 1-859-332-9063.

Helen C. Underwood
1914-2008
PERRYVILLE - Helen Crain Underwood, 93, of Perryville died Tuesday in Danville. She was the widow of Eugene Underwood.

Born Oct. 5, 1914, in Boyle County, she was a daughter of the late Ray and Martha Harmon Crain. She was a retired teacher for the Boyle County Board of Education, teaching in both the Parksville and Perryville schools. She also was co-owner of Kentucky Food Store in Perryville, a member of the Perryville Baptist Church, Perryville Homemakers, Kentucky Retired Teachers Association and Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center Auxiliary.

She was preceded in death by a brother, James Crain; and a sister, Virginia Crain.
Survivors include two daughters, Judy Underwood of Perryville and Betty Melloan of Lawrenceburg; a son, Stuart (Sheila) Underwood of Stanford; two grandchildren, Jon Melloan of Lawrenceburg and Amy (Jeff) Sandefur of Berea; two great-grandchildren, Justin and Jordan Sandefur, both of Berea; and a niece, Janet Reynolds of Perryville.

Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Friday at Wilder Funeral Home by the Rev. Doug Davis. Burial will be in Hillcrest Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Darrell Davis, Johnny Harmon, Bob Blandford, Melvin Bottom, Warren Jones and James Dunsmore.

Visiting hours will be 4-8 p.m. Thursday at Wilder Funeral Home.

Expressions of sympathy are suggested to Perryville Baptist Church Building Fund and the American Cancer Society.

Hourigan Cemetery in Haysville

The Hourigan family in Boyle and Marion Counties were married into the Pipes Harmon and Gray families several times over the years.
This site is all about the Hourigan Cemetery. It is part of and located behind the BeechFork Baptist Church just a few miles from Old Union.
Morris Pipes and Sally Montgomery (buried in Old Union) had several children. Two of them married Hourigans. Elias Hardin married Victoria and Nancy Jane married Rufus Hourigan Sr.. Victoria and Rufus were siblings and children of David Hourigan and Ann Lawrence. David Hourigan was a son of Patrick Hourigan who was a Revolutionary War Soldier with an amazing history.
I beleive this site is maintained by Karen Fowler Caldwell.
www.geocities.com/hourigancemetery

New Cemetery Book

Just received word that the Boyle County Historical Society (Carolyn Crabtree) is going to publish a new updated version of the Boyle Co. Cemetery Book. 55.00 plus tax plus 7.00 shipping if pre-ordered now. Will be published in "early spring". Will be 65.00 if purchased after April 1st. No word on what new info will be in there, or if they used any new info on Union Cemetery or not.
Email info@danvillekentucky for more information or send check to Greg Crabtree, 2410 Chestnut Grove Road, Parksville, Ky 40464.

Tell them you heard about it here.

Email problems resolved.....

If you have been reading this blog you know that I have had problems with AT & T, Bellsouth and also Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
They have labeled me a spam sender because I have sent out emails to a list of people who have contacted me over the years about genealogy and Pipes Family History.
They have blocked my emails so I cant send to you if you have their email service. You can still send to me, I just can't answer you.
My way to get around this is to open a new email account. It is at bobpipes@gmail.com
You can contact me there if you wish.
My old regular email account still is my main account at pipesb@pipefamily.com
If I reply to you and you have one of the addresses above, it wiil be through the new account.

Joining The Pipes Harmon Gray Family Association

If you would like to have your name on the Family Association Mailing List, Just send a note (with your name and address) to Old Union Cemetery, PO BOx 124, Perryville, Ky. 40468.
They send out one annual mailing with news, interest and items about the family reunion. Maybe one other mailing as needed.

Supporters and Friends of Old Union cemetery

I have been quietly accumulating a list of people who have a more than casual interest in the Old Union Cemetery and also in the Pipes Harmon Gray family association and the history of the area where these families lived in the 18th and 19th Centuries. All of the members of this list think we should possibly start a new web site about the subjects above (Old Union, the Family association and the history of the area) and have agreed to participate at some level in sending information, pictures, history or articles that could be published there for everyone to read and enjoy. We have also talked about putting together a booklet of some kind that has pictures, obits and short biographies of the people and families who rest in the cemetery. That booklet could then be used as a fund raiser for the cemetery.

You can see some of these bio pages on the left here, under "those resting in old union".

If this sounds like something in which you have an interest or if you would like to participate, contact me at: pipesb@pipesfamily.com

And again, even of you do not want to participate, if you have info of any kind or know someone who might have info on the cemetery, the church, the area or these families, PLEASE take a few moments of your time and let me know about it.

Fund Raising Update

Money continues to flow into the memorial fund. We have now raised a little over $1600.00 and have 107% of the goal. Any new funds that do arrive will go to restoring and repairing stones in the cemetery.
If you would like to have your name added to the growing list of donors for the memorial stone just make a contribution and we will include your name. Or, if you like, we can make the name in memoriam of someone from your family. My brother and I made a contribution like that in the name of our late Mother and Father and one other contributor did that for their parents as well.
I am trying to find a suitable and affordable method of placing a sign or plaque in the cemetery with the names of donors on it.
I will keep you posted on that.

Winter in Wisconsin?

Where is the Global Warming when you really need it? Its not too cold here but we sure have a lot of snow. About 6 more inches here in Ozaukee County Today. With some pictures to enjoy. Taken looking out my front door.

And my Tiger just slept right thru it all.

What A Beautiful Sight......

Mike Wilder sent me an email today with pictures to let me know that the memorial stone was installed on Friday the 21st of December.

I have added the pictures here and you can click on them to see bigger versions. If you want higher resolution pictures; let me know and I will gladly try to send them to you.

Thanks again to all who helped in this effort. It is truly a special thing that we have done, because that stone will be there for hundreds of years now.

Merry Christmas to All.....

Wishing each of you a Joyous Holiday Season. I hope that every one will spend at least a few minutes thinking of our rich heritage and all of those who have gone before us.

The stone that we worked for is finally installed and more about that later. (with pictures)

In the mean time.. Have a Merry Christmas!

Bob

No, I have not gone into Hibernation!

But I wish I could. I usually enjoy winter in Wisconsin, bu the older I get the harder it is to take. Here it is, the 15th of December and we have had 20 inches of snow and the temperature has been below freezing for much of that time. And guess what it is doing outside as I write this? Tha's right... Its snowing!! Something called Lake Effect snow. Big fluffly flakes that drift down with lots of moisture. It happens when the wind comes around from the east and picks up moisture from Lake Michigan. And then dumps it all over us for about 5 miles inland from the lake. I live about 2 1/2 miles inland so here it comes.

I know it sounds like whining, but I have also had the worst chest cold ever for the last two weeks and just today it is finally letting go.

So I will try to get some more entries made and I am working on the cemetery map.

Hope you are all doing better than I am.

Pouring the Foundation Today

I just received word from Robby Mayes in Kentucky that the foundation for the memorial stone is being poured today.

Memories of Dr. Pipes

I received this wonderful email from Mary Lou Frye last week. I cannot respond to her ( see my entry about AT&T email below) so I thought you all might enjoy reading it and maybe she will see it here too. Read the rest of the story at the bottom.

"I read your article in the Danville paper online as I live in Florida. I am curious to know if you are related to the Dr. Pipes who practiced in Moreland, whose wife was named Betty and they had a son, James? This was many years ago and they were good friends of my maternal grandparents, George Pruitt and Mary Jane "Mame" King Pruitt. People always laughed that the town doctor and the owner of the funeral home were close friends. I have many childhood memories of Dr. Pipes and Miss Betty as they were a part of my daily life as a child (I am now 73). They were frequent guests for meals and when I recall the dining table and the people around it, they are always present. I think in today’s world I would have been labeled hyperactive, however, times were very different and the adults in your life worked around it. Dr. Pipes would allow me to come to his little two-room office building at the side of his house each morning to watch him mix medications with a mortar and pestle if I sat still and did not talk. I was fascinated and I knew he meant what he said. He was much loved by the citizens of Moreland and Lincoln County and delivered just about all the babies around there. His standard fee was a dollar but I think a lot of his fees were paid in food and services. Every morning you would see baskets of fruit, vegetables and other wares of the citizens of this rural community. Miss Betty and my grandparents predeceased him and the town and my family worried about him because he was so lonely for them. He would go by to see my uncle, who now had my grandfather’s funeral home, and express how much he missed him. Quite tragically, Dr. Pipes was driving across the railroad tracks on his way to a house call and did not hear the train coming and I remember crying along with everyone else at this terrible loss. I remember the funeral - everyone attended, but I do not recall the burial so he may or may not be your relative, but he was truly a hero. "
Sincerely - Mary Lou Frye

Dr. Mastin Lee Pipes was a son of George Washington Pipes and Mariah Edwards Pipes who are buried in Old Union. They lived in the farm house just east of the cemetery and raised a large family there. Here is a picture of Dr. Pipes when he was in Medical School I think. Here is a picture of his parents and family. If you know Boyle County, you will recognize the names of his siblings.
Dr Pipes died in a tragic accident with a train and did indeed leave a son named James Lee Pipes. James Lee was also a Doctor and an officer in WWII. He had a son also named James Lee Pipes who was the only Pipes killed in Viet Nam during combat. His name is engraved on the Viet Nam memorial wall in Washington D.C.

Giving Thanks Today

I wish for each of you to have a happy, peaceful, relaxing and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.
We had our first snow of the winter season last night and it looks very clean and white outside. Makes you feel much more like its the holiday season. Only 2 or 3 inches deep and the sidewalks were warm enough to melt it off right away so... Hooray, No Shoveling! All the benefits of snow with no work involved. Something to be very thankful for.

Especially at this time of year, I like to think about what it must have been like to live in the period from the mid 1700s to the late 1800s, when most of my Kentucky Ancestors were moving from Massachusetts to New Jersey, to North Carolina and then to Kentucky. I read about those times and what a struggle daily life was and it makes me Very Thankful that I had ancestors who were self reliant, industrious and resourceful. I am sure they did not look at their lives as anything but doing what had to be done every day. But when I look back at what they went through, I am in awe. And also very sure that I am so soft and pampered in my daily life, that there is no comparison between my life and theirs. Makes me feel that I have no room to complain about anything, just be grateful that I have what I have.

Makes you think about the past and the future doesn't it?

Happy Thanksgiving
Bob

AT & T and me... Bah Humbug

I have never had a good relationship with AT & T. They are too big and cumbersome and also impossible to work with. Thankfully, they disappeared from my life when the telephone revolution occured in the 1990s. But now they have re-appeared in the form of Cell phone and internet access companies as they buy their way back into our lives. My Cingular cell phone now suddenly belongs to AT & T. Wonderful!

If you have Bellsouth.net or att.net as your email provider please note that I cannot respond to your emails. AT & T has decided that I am not worthy of communicating with their customers so have rejected all my emails. Why? Who knows? Try talking to them? forgetaboutit.

So don't think I am being snooty or unresponsive, just banned to AT & Ts unworthy list.

Thought You Might Enjoy This

Robert Mitchell who lives in New Jersey and is a descendant of the Robert Mitchell who is buried in Old Union sent me this picture of the Mitchell farm in (where else?) Mitchellsburg. He was not certain of the date but his grandfather, Robert Mitchell, is the man in the dark hat in the picture. The other two are his sons.

Click on the picture to see a larger image.

Contract Signed Today

I received the contract for the memorial stone today. I signed it and sent it back to Mike Wilder in Perryville. We will pay him half the cost up front and he told me he plans to have the foundation put in next week, weather permitting. So it looks good for us to have the stone in place before new years. I will try to get someone to take some pictures to post here.

Mapping Database is published

The mapping database is ready to view. It still needs work to add notes, obituaries, the photos etc. But... You can see it here Mapping Database. There is also a link along the left side of the page.
The view you can see is sorted by last name. I cannot get it to sort by Section, Row, Lot # and Space like I want, so I will have to export it to a spreadsheet and then a different document so you can see it. I will start on that next week.

I also will draw a map of the cemetery so you can link the names to a physical location.

Remember that this list is of everyone who has a stone or marker in the cemetery as of October 2007. I will also put together a list soon of everyone who we believe is buried there and no longer has a marker.

Another Newspaper Article About The Project

Yet another Newspaper article. Thanks to our friend at the Local Newspaper the Danville Advocate Messenger www.amnews.com Brenda Edwards, We were in the paper again this last weekend. Hopefully we will raise a little more money and get a few more people involved to help the cemetery.
Here is a link to the article: http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=36028&format=print

The picture was taken October 20th when I was down there to map the cemetery and retrieve the stones.

Fund Raising Goal Update

We are now over 100% of the goal we set back in July. We estimated that the cost of the stone, the engraving and the installation in the cemetery would cost between 1400 and 1500 dollars.
The final price will be $1490.00. I spent a little more on engraving and made the stone and the base as thick as possible for that price range. Several people have asked if they could still donate and the answer is yes. Every penny that is not spent on this stone will be spent on finding a Revolutionary War Soldiers medallion to mount on the stone (unless I can convince the Local DAR to donate another one.) OR to repair other broken stones in the cemetery. Some of the broken stones will be repaired by my family. But there are many others that need repair. Including the original stones of John and Mary. They are settling and tipping at an angle and that causes them to break when water gets into the cracks and then freezes and thaws.

If you donate, your name will be added to the list of persons who donated to support the memorial stone for John and Mary.

I am trying to figure out a proper way to honor those who have donated and have not reached a conclusion yet on the best way to do that. We may place a list of names of donors in the cemetery but there is currently no way to do that. I have not asked permission of those who donated, some may not want their name listed, I don't know that yet.
I will find a way to do that.... Any suggestions?

Here is the image sent to me by Mike Wilder of the Memorial stone. You can click on it to see a larger copy of the image. If you would like a full size copy, send me an email, just remember its BIG. If you have dial up you wont like it.

I am very pleased with it. The layout is very well balanced and I was concerned about that. The drawing makes the thickness appear to be bigger than it really is (its 6 inches thick) but the drawing is to scale.

If you have comments, I would love to hear from you.

Something Interesting

I noticed while mapping the cemetery that an unusually high number of people died in 1889. Digging thru a large stack of items gleaned from local newspapers by John Shepperson ( Thanks John !) I came across a short item that told of the high number of deaths that year in the Harmon family from Typhoid-Malarial Fever. Here is the article: : "September 6, 1889; Charlie Harmon, son of the late Peter Harmon, died of Typhoid Malarial fever at his mother's residence in Washington County, August 30th. He was interred at Union this county. A crowd of relatives and friends followed him to the grave. His father, Peter Harmon died of the same fever just three weeks ago. There are three more of the family sick. They have the sympathy of the entire community."

The other three also passed away and are buried in Union on the same marker.

I always thought that Typhus and Malaria were two different diseases. So I start searching around on the internet and find this description:

"Typhoid-malarial Fever is a common term from the American Civil War. It was proposed by an Army surgeon, Joseph Janvier Woodward, to describe the many cases of camp fever that combined elements from typhoid fever, malarial remittent fever, and scurvy to varying degrees. He felt that Typhoid-malarial Fever was the most common of the camp fevers, which included all of the continued fevers suffered by the men in the army. The term was adopted by the army board to describe these fevers with combined symptoms. "

Many children and older adults passed away that year from this affliction. Many families losing several children.

Bronze Medallions for Veterans

I have found a place that will sell us the bronze gravesite markers that you see so often in cemeteries. The company is called Disabled Vets but NOT the same as the Disabled American Veterans. They are sending a catalog and the man on the phone said they sell medallions for every conflict and also one that just says "Veteran". The ones that have a metal rod to sink into the ground and made to hold a flag is called a grave marker. They sell another kind that has a smooth back edge and allows you to afix it directly to the stone. I will keep you up to date when I receive the catalog.

Update On The Memorial Stone

The fund raising goal has been met. Actually, it is $1485.00 but thats close enough. I have been in discussions with Mike Wilder of Wilder Monument Company in Perryville about the design, engraving, size and placement of the stone. I had to make a tough decision about the wording on the stone because for the amount of money we have and the size of the stone there was a conflict. Too many words and not enough room. So I reformatted the wording on the front and moved some of the inscription to the back of the stone. I will post a jpg of the wording as soon as I have it.
The stone will be Gray with a matte finish ( not that shiny polished finish) the edges will be rough cut ( to make it look older like it belongs in the cemetery) the stone will be 6 inches thick. The base will be 54L" x 12W" x 6H". the stone will be 42L" x 6T" x 22H". The stone will sit at the foot of the current grave site and as you stand looking west at the current stones, this stone will be at your feet facing you. It will be low enough that it will not obscure the old stones. The old stones by the way are fading faster than I had thought. John Pipes' stone is not readable any more and the center face is weather checked and deteriorating .

Grave stones for Nathaniel and Margaret Pipes

As I mentioned in an entry below, I rescued these two stones from old Union and brought them back to Wisconsin with me. I have been looking for someone who would take on the task of cleaning and repairing the stones. Well, this week I found someone who works at a local monument company and has the experience. He is going to repair and clean the stones this winter and also we talked about making a couple of marble bases to stand them in. He says the cost will be 200 to 300 for both and that is good news for me. I told him I did not want the stones restored to look like new but rather to just clean them up and repair them so they look as old as they really are. As I have mentioned to my brother and a few others, I have felt so guilty over the last few years about these broken stones laying in the cemetery. It just seemed to be very disrespectful to Nathaniel and Margaret. I am feeling much better about it now and will feel really great next year when I can see them back where they belong. And if this guy does a good job, I may bring a few more back to get them done as well.

Cemetery History

Again I am asking for help in gathering history information of the cemetery.
Several persons have donated wonderful information and that realy helps, but I need more! Family info, pictures, newspaper articles, history. Anything, even small things help to build a bigger picture, and that is important.

A NEW Project Discussion....

I have had conversations with several people in the last month or so about setting up a web site for the Pipes-Harmon-Gray family association. It is still in the "Should we do it?" phase, so if you have an opinion or would like to participate, please let me know. I have agreed to set up the site, maintain it and pay for the domain name registration for it. BUT... the agreement on my part is good only if others donate content for the site. In other words, Pictures, articles, news, lists etc, that would be of interest to others in the family association. I can format it, lay it out, place it on the site etc. but we need people who will write it , gather it, send it etc.
Please let me know what you think about doing this.

The Mapping Continues....

I am spending as much time as possible getting the information entered into the database. It is a slow process. Dennis Gray and John Sheperson have both volunteered information about the old cemetery and the stones and its history. It is very helpful to the process. I have figured out how to get the information out of the database as well, which is very important.

Union Cemetery Mapping

While in Perryville last weekend, we started the process of mapping the graves there and identifying who is buried where.
A preliminary count indicates that there are 200 grave stones there, either standing, broken but readable or laying flat somewhere near their original site. Many of these have multiple names on them, many are small stones for infants, and some are not readable.
Here are the numbers:
Stones: old section 140, new section 60
People identified: Old section 136, new section 83
Unreadable stones: old section 24, new section 2

I have found a free database program that is made especially for cemetery mapping and will start putting data into it this week. I also intend to draw a map. Then in the spring we will go down there again and refine the data and take pictures of each stone. The pictures of the stones can then be linked to the persons name in the database and we can put it all on the web for viewing.

I could use some help in locating obituaries for people buried in Union. I have some sent to me by Karen Fowler Caldwell over the years but really need more. These too can be linked to the persons name. Send them to me. Either scan them in as a picture or type them in as text.
For an example of this type of database, here is a link to a cemetery page in Indiana where you can see examples of the information that we will display.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inhowar2/

Saturday Night Update on my trip....

Thursday...
Just a touch over 500 miles from my house to the west side of Danville. Took a little over 9 hours, but other than miserable traffic and construction delays around chicago, it was a nice trip. I will try to post a picture or two and also the results of my conversation with Mike Wilder.
A local resident who is also a Harmon - Pipes descendant named Mary Rall and her mother Mary Stuart Guerrant called me this afternoon and plan to meet me at the cemetery to talk about the cemetery and genealogy.

Friday...
Robert Mayes met with me and Mike Wilder today and we discussed the stone and the placement. This is not as easy as I first thought it would be. We need to have a stone that looks like it belongs in this old cemetery, is big enough to fit all of the wording we want on it and fits our budget. Mike assures us that we can do it and the stone will probably be a gray, flat finish, rough edge stone, about 6 inches thick and 48 inches wide by 24 to 30 inches high. Placement will be at the 'foot' of the grave site. One side will have the names, dates etc and the other side will have the memorial inscription.

On the way to the cemetery, Robert and I stopped at the home of Randy Glasscock and his wife Sue. They own the land that was the original land purchased by John Pipes Jr. in 1796. The home that is there now is not built over the original house but is most surely on or very near the spot where the original house must have been. Randy's father purchased the property from a Pipes family member named John F. Pipes in 1943.

Mary Rall and her mother Mary met with Robert and I at the cemetery and we talked history and genealogy for quite a while. They are descendants of John Pipes jr and Michael Harmon (Like me!) They made a generous donation to the fund and that means we are now at 99.9% of our goal. (see the side bar for the graph.)

I found the two broken and buried stones for Nathaniel Pipes and his wife Margaret Harmon and plan to take them home with me, get them restored and then reinstall them in the spring.

I spent the rest of the day mapping the graves in the first part of the cemetery. Tomorrow is more mapping for the rest of the old part of the cemetery.

Saturday...

I spent most of the day completing the mapping of the other two sections of the cemetery. Mary Rall stopped by to help and between us we spent about 7 hours getting it all on paper. We totaled 160 burial sites with markers of some kind and many of those have multiple names on them. I am estimating we have about 200 names. The various lists I have total between 200 and 230 names, so there may not be as many missing markers as we thought. Many of the markers are broken like the ones in the picture above. It breaks your heart to see it, but there is hope that we can repair some of them and possibly make some kind of a plate marker for the ones that are missing. Several of the above ground crypts are collapsed and probably can not be repaired. We also uncovered about 15 markers that had been overgrown.

The cemetery grounds look very good. Probably the best that I have seen in 25 years of visiting there. Edwina Morgeson and Robert Mayes have both done a wonderful job. Edwina owns the farm land that surrounds most of the cemetery and she has a son buried there. She has spent many hours there and her own money to clean weeds and fence lines, pull trees and brush out of the fences and make the place look good. Robert has hired a new person to mow and done work on stones and some wrought iron fencing. We talked about new ways to try and raise funds to get more stones repaired and cleaned and to repair some of the fencing.

This has to be one of the most satisfying and enjoyable trips I have made to Kentucky. Many nice people, good things are happening for the cemetery and the weather and scenery were gorgous.

More later.....

My Trip to Kentucky

I am planning on leaving tomorrow (Thursday) for a 4 day trip to Perryville and Danville. I wish it could be 4 weeks instead of 4 days, but if wishes were fishes....
Anyway, I plan to visit with Mike Wilder and make some decisions about the memorial stone on Friday Morning. Then I will spend some time at the cemetery and see if I can find the broken stones for my GG grandfather Nathaniel Pipes and his wife Margaret. If I can find them, I will bring them back to Wisconsin and see if I can get them repaired/restored this winter. I will take some pictures and post them when I get back and should have some cost estimates for the stone to tell you about. My cell phone number (for the 18th to the 20th) is 414-791-9775 for anyone who would like to meet with me (or just talk) while I am there.

Cemetery Pictures

Please help us by copying picture you may have of the cemetery and the stones there and sending them via email or regular mail. We are trying to reconstruct the burial plots and these pictures may be the easiest way to do that. The earlier the pictures are, the better.

Update

About time for an update. I have been working on trying to set up a trip to Kentucky for the last two weeks and now it looks like it will be next weekend, the 19th and 20th. I plan to meet with Mike Wilder and talk about the stone and also see if I can recover some broken stones from the cemetery.
Donations have been nil for the last two weeks, so we are still at $1400.00. I have great faith in our family and I am sure we will find the rest.
John Sheperson has sent me a package of information about the early days of the Cemetery and he led me to a book about the life of Rev. Thomas Cleland, who was not the original leader of the Presbyterian group that started the church but he did take leadership from Rev. Samuel Robinson very early in the history of this church. I am working on a paper to detail as much as possible about the early days and the founding of the church. While reading through this material, I discovered that it had another name at one point. It was called Bethel Union for a time. (Update Note: John Sheperson points out that the previous sentence is my mistake. Bethel was a different church. I read the account wrong.) It also appears there is a difference of a couple of years regarding the start date of the church.
More later.

Fund Raising Update 92% of Goal.

We are now just under $1400.00. That's 92% of our $1500.00 goal. Hurry and get your donations in before we reach 100%. Just for the record, any funds left over will go to repair existing stones in the cemetery or possibly preserve the old stones.
Thanks to every one who has donated so far.

Replace the Head Stones?

No one should worry or be concerned. We are not planning to replace the headstones. The headline on the newspaper article below says that. But we are adding a memorial stone, not replacing the old stones.

Local Newspaper Article About Our Project

Brenda Edwards, who is a writer for the Danville Advocate-Messenger newspaper and a loyal supporter of Boyle County history, has published an article about our efforts in the cemetery.
You can read it here: http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=34986&format=html

An Email from a Contributor

I received an email this week from Mary Louise Pipes ( her maiden name) who is a descendant of Windsor Pipes of Mississippi. (Windsor Pipes was John Pipes Jr.'s brother). Mary is a decendant of Isaac Pipes who was a Civil War soldier (CSA) and was at the siege and fall of Vicksburg in 1863. She visits our pipesfamily web site often.

Bob,
Thank you for the reminder . . . once again, I've spent
hours at your website (printing out pages and trying to put some
of the pieces together about our illustrative ancestors).
As promised, I'm putting a $100 "check-in-the-mail" TODAY . . .
wishing it could be more. (a few more months down the line, it may be)
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful pics, articles, links, etc.
I've found it fascinating how you all have tracked our "Yankee" family
as they journeyed south to eventually become "Rebels"!!
Best of luck in this labor of love in the cemetery restoration.
Sincerely,
Mary Louise Pipes (Bills - Adams)
P.S. for anyone who's interested or has more info, I'm from
John Jr.'s brother Windsor's line . . . when that line of David Pipes
finally migrated to Mississippi and Louisiana, my great grandfather
Issac Thomas Pipes (and his wife Louisiana Stone) had 9 children,
of which my grandfather Louis Ballard Pipes was born 1869 on the
Beechgrove Plantation in Clinton, LA. The family came to Texas in
1876.

Fund Raising Update

We are now at $985.00 in donations. Thats 66% of our $1500.00 goal. If you have been thinking about donating, please consider doing it now. We need one last final push to have enough to complete this project. I will be talking with the Monument Company next week to try and firm up the amount we need for the stone, the engraving and the installation.
Remember that small donations are just as important as big ones.

An Interesting Offer...

Mr Pipes,
Was browsing the web, came across your web site. Great stuff. You are to be lauded for your efforts. As webmaster of the Ky Genealogical Society, I just added a link to your web site... http://www.kygs.org/linkskgs.htm

We get about 100 visitors a day, so hopefully some will find their way to your site and pitch in.

I have an idea and a request. On my own web site, I'm scanning school yearbooks. If you or someone you know has some Ky yearbooks and would be willing to scan them and email me the scanned images for posting on my web site, I would be willing to make a donation to your cause. I do this for fun, make no money from it. I hope to get all of our local yearbooks online, but I'll have to retire to get it done, I guess.... hopefully soon, retire, I mean.

If anyone is interested, let me tell them how I need the pages scanned. If they have not yet purchased a scanner, I suggest the Canon LIDE scanners, small, light, and no power brick, just a USB cable, and best of all, well under $100. I've used the heck out of mine.
Sincerely,
Brian Harney,
Frankfort, Ky
7th generation Kentuckian
http://brianharney.net

Newspaper Article Coming Soon.....

Brenda Edwards is a reporter for the Danville Advocate-Messenger. She has worked there for many years and has always written about local history and has been active in uncovering interesting aspects of central Kentucky lore. My Family made our first pilgrimage to Mercer, Boyle and Marion Counties in the mid 1980s and Brenda wrote a great article about our genealogy connections and out search for Pipes family ancestors.

Brenda has agreed to write an article for the paper about our efforts in Union Cemetery. Hopefully that will bring us some more attention and shine the spotlight on the need for more efforts and more involvement.

Forms Arrived Today

I received several copies of Federal Form 86 today from the National Archives. This is the form to request copies of Pension applications for Civil War Soldiers. I plan to send requests for at least three of the soldiers mentioned in a post below. Then we sit and wait for them to arrive, 4 to 8 weeks is typical. Sometimes less or sometimes more. But they will help document that we have the right soldiers in Union Cemetery.

Fund Raising Stalled For Now.

Fund Raising Seems to have reached a plateau. Only one $25.00 donation received in the last 10 days or so. We have several promises of donations so I am confident we can continue to move on. We have moved from 0 to 850 in about 6 weeks.
Robert Mayes is talking with a local Monument supplier and they are looking for a suitable stone. We should have enough now to purchase the stone and then have the engraving done when we accumulate a little more $cash.

Marker Returned to Local Cemetery

A story today in the Danville Advocate-Messenger newspaper tells of a grave stone returned to a local cemetery after 30 years. The Peytons are connected via marriage to the Pipes-Russell family in Kentucky.
http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=34192&format=html

Still More Civil War Vets in Union

The Kentucky Adjutant General's report and the listing of those buried in Old Union ( the one from the local genealogical Society) Identifies more possible Civil War Veterans Buried in the Cemetery. They Are:
Charles Burchell (1829-1889) Co. "G", 21st Kentucky Vol Inf.
Ansel Lee Bandy (1838-1906) Co. "H" 3rd. Reg Tennessee Vol Cavalry (CSA)
Jesse P. Cox (1842-1912) Co "C", 8th Kentucky Cavalry (Union)
John M. Edwards (1825-1888) 6th Kentucky Cavalry (Union)(same unit as Levi Allen Pipes)
Samuel H. Harmon (1825-1895) Co. "G", 1st Reg Cavalry
James Barnette Williams (1840-1911) Sgt, Co. "A", 5th Kentucky Vol Cavalry

If these can be proven then we would have 11 total Civil War Vets in the Cemetery.
If you have information about these veterans or know any of the descendants of these men, please have them contact me.
I have about 6 more that are possible Vets, but need more research to verify the names.

Another Civil War Soldier?

Jesse P. Cox is buried in Old Union along with his wife Sarah Elizabeth. I have been emailing with a descendant of his, Tom Cox. We believe he is the same Jesse Cox who was in the 8th Kentucky Cavalry(Union). In the 1860 Census, Jesse is 17 years old and living with his family in Casey County. His mother Elizabeth is head of household. We will try to locate his records and check for a pension application as well.

Sorry for Not Posting Much in Last Few Days

As you probably know the Upper Mid West has been under a Noah's Ark Alert for the last two weeks. Rain, rain, and more Rain. I thought the "Rainy Season" only occurred in the Far East?

Anyway, with Rain Drops fallin' on my Head, A very Sick Father in Law, My wife attending a week long, All Day long Church Conference, I have been distracted somewhat. I did manage to get to the University of Wisconsin yesterday. That's where the State Historical Society Library is located. I managed to verify a few more possible Civil War Soldiers buried in the Cemetery, and found a copy of the Boyle County Cemetery Book.

Another item of interest is that Jacob Crow, A Revolutionary War Soldier is also buried in Old Union and some of his descendants maintain a web site on the Crow Family and have information on Jacob. It is at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~crow2000/toc.htm

This site has pictures of the Union Cemetery and some of the Crow Stones there. They were also close with and married into the Brumfield family.

Please note that there was another Jacob Crow about this same time in history who lived in Greene County, Pennsylvania. Not the Same man.

I will post more about Civil War Soldiers Later today.

Another Fund Raising Update!!

It is very rewarding to be involved with such a generous and caring family.
We are now at 55% of our goal! $825.00
Now we can get started with finding a stone.
A very heartfelt "Thank You" to all of you.
Bob

Civil War Soldiers in Old Union Cemetery

I think it is also important for us to recognize and establish the Civil War Veterans Buried here.
There are 5 Known Civil War Vets here that I know of. Three of them rode with Morgan's Raiders from 1862 to the end of the war. They were released from Camp Douglas POW camp in Chicago in April of 1865. These three are My Great Grandfather Obediah Brumfield Pipes, and his cousins Elias Hardin Pipes and Bradford Pipes. A very interesting historical note is that Levi Allen Pipes is also buried here. He was a member of the 6th. Kentucky Cavalry and is a brother of Elias Hardin and my research indicates there was at least once when their units were involved in a skirmish and they were shooting at each other. There are short biographical sketches on each of these soldiers on my pipes web page.
The other veteran buried here is R.B. Young, a member of Company F, of the 2nd. Kentucky Volunteer Infantry.
I have made an inventory of the remaining men buried here and find 27 who are of an age to have possibly been in the Civil War. So much more research to do.
If you have info on any Civil War Vets buried here, please let me know.

Revolutionary War Soldiers In Old Union

I believe it will be important for many reasons that we determine who is buried in the Cemetery as Revolutionary War Soldiers and also Civil War Soldiers. It may help for historical context as well as fund raising. The story I have heard is that 5 Revolutionary War Soldiers are buried here. I know one for certain and that is John Pipes Jr.
The Cemetery Book and a booklet published by the DAR in 1963 titled "Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried in Boyle County" says that Jacob Crow is also buried here. I am in contact with two others who believe that Robert Mitchell and John Gray, are also buried here. Another possibly buried here is Michael Harmon who lived just a short distance away. We may have to do some research to prove their connections. Please let me know if you have any information about this subject.

Fund Raising Report

It has been about 6 weeks now since we started raising funds and today the actual amount donated is $700.00. That is very close to 50% of our goal.
The current plan is to purchase the stone when we have about 800.00, then approximately another 300.00 for the engraving and the final amount for installing and mounting the stone.
Thanks to everyone who has donated up to this point!

More Gravestone Preservation

Here are two more links sent by Ken Sutherland on Gravestone preservationand repairs.

http://gravestonepreservation.info/

Another:

http://www.gravestonestudies.org/

Read and Enjoy

Here are two links to Kentucky State Sites for Cemetery Preservation. I have written to Mr Kiser who is the head of the Cemetery Preservation Fund Office. (see my post below)
http://gold.ky.gov/grants/stategrants/kcpf.htm

http://www.heritage.ky.gov/grants_link_resources.htm

Digging for VA Grants

I received this email from Carolyn Crabtree who is the current head of the Boyle County Genalogy/History group. She has been working with me on ideas for funding our project.

-----Original Message-----From: Greg-Carolyn Crabtree [mailto:cgtree1492@earthlink.net]Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 9:32 PMTo: 'Bob Pipes'Subject: RE: Union Cemetery info
Bob,

I met someone today who is writing a book about the Supreme Court Justices. We have three from Kentucky. He was telling me that the Veterans Administration has some type of grant program for restoring cemeteries that contain the remains of soldiers. It seems you can apply for $1500 per soldier, no matter what war. If we can prove that there are five Revolutionary War soldiers, we may be eligible for $7500 for the cemetery restoration. Are you familiar with this?

I also talked to a family who has a slave cemetery on their property. A couple of years ago the state sent some cadaver dogs to his property to identify the location of the graves. I will try to find out if we can do something like that down at the Union Cemetery.

Carolyn

My Response to Carolyn:


Dear Carolyn,
As I am sure you know, there are many ins and outs and sometimes hidden nooks and crannies in Government rules, laws, policies and regulations.

I have searched high and low for information on the program you mentioned about the VA and cemeteries and all I can find is the one that allows Federal grants to States for cemeteries that are designated as "Veteran Cemeteries". i.e they are State cemeteries and are primarily for Veteran burials.

Maybe there is some obscure policy for private historical cemeteries that have veterans buried in them, but if so, I could not find it.

I will try next week to talk to a live person at the VA about it but looking on line I could not find it.
Regards,
Bob

The ones I did find are similar to this item below:
Program:
64.203 State Cemetery Grants
Federal Agency:
NATIONAL CEMETERY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Authorization:
Veterans Housing Benefits Act of 1978, Section 202, Public Laws 95-476, 98-223, 100-687, 103-446, and 105-368; 38 U.S.C. 2408.
Program Number:
64.203
Last Known Status:
Active
Objectives:
To assist States in the establishment, expansion, and improvement of veterans' cemeteries.
Types of Assistance:
Project Grants.
Uses and Use Restrictions:
Monetary assistance is provided under this program to construct, expand, and improve State veterans' cemeteries. Cemeteries must be State-owned and operated solely for the interment of eligible veterans and their dependents and/or spouses. Construction cost means the amount found necessary to convert a tract of land to an operational cemetery.

Digging for Kentucky State Grants

I recently sent an email to Mr Eugene Kiser who is Branch Manager, Special Projects Branch of the State Government and head of the Cemetery Preservation Office. I am posting my email and his response.

Dear Mr. Kiser,
Thank You in advance for taking a minute to read my message.
My name is Robert Pipes and I am writing about the Old Union (also know as Doctor's Fork Baptist) Cemetery near Perryville. Three generations of my Pipes ancestors are buried there, among them a Revolutionary Soldier and a Civil War Soldier. The Pipes family is only a small part of the over 200 known burials there, many of them soldiers, pioneers and the bedrock of Kentucky history. I am part of a group trying to raise funds to restore headstones and preserve and stabilize this Historic old cemetery. Founded about 1800, (possibly earlier) it has gone thru several periods of famine and prosperity and is currently in dire need of attention.

My purpose in writing is to gather information as to where I can possibly turn for help of any kind from the State of Kentucky. If you could point me in the proper direction to ask for funds or historic designation that might garner other funding or any leads that might help us save this old cemetery before it is gone forever, it would be greatly appreciated.

You can see some facts and info about what we are doing as well as pictures, stories etc. at:
http://www.unioncemetery.blogspot.com/

I do look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank You,
Bob Pipes


Mr. Pipes:

As far as I know, the Cemetery Preservation Program administered by my agency is the only program that provides funds to assist with cemeteries such as yours. However, the General Assembly did not provide funds for the currently budget cycle that ends on June 30, 2008. We hope to receive funding in the session that begins in January as this has become a very popular program that has provided assistance throughout the state. Additionally, the end product clearly shows the hard work and efforts of those involved with each project.

The Kentucky Historical Society does provide classes in tombstone restoration and cleaning but I do not believe they have funds for individual cemeteries. Please continue to monitor the Cemetery Preservation web site, http://www.gold.ky.gov/grants/stategrants/kcpf.htm , for news up-dates on application acceptance.

Please do not hesitate to get back in touch with me if you have any additional questions.

Gene Kiser

Moving Towards our Goal.....

Today we reached 33% of our goal of $1500.00 Dollars. Thanks to the generous donations of a handful of supporters we now have $500.00. We started this effort on July 1st so its been a little over 30 Days. Which is pretty Good I think. I have also received about a dozen messages from other folks who have promised to make donations.

So I remain optimistic. We continue to dig for public grant money that might be available for the cemetery grounds improvement and possibly for headstone restoration. So far no luck but we keep digging.

Cemetery Pictures Added

Today I added a link (its on the left Side Under Web sites) that displays a series of Pictures of the Cemetery. Edwina Morgeson sent about 20 pictures from May of this year showing the condition of the Cemetery and the work and repairs that are needed to maintain it. Edwina and her Husband Keith have spent a lot of time and effort there. There are also 4 from Carolyn Crabtree from a few years ago and 4 from my collection from 1984.

What Can I Do to Help???........

Several People have emailed me to ask "What Can I Do?"

I would say right now that we desperately need more attention and one way to do that is sit down, make a list of all the persons you know who are related to the people buried in this historic, beautiful old cemetery and also anyone who you know that is interested in preserving cemeteries or is in general interested in History. Then make sure that they know about this web site and what we are trying to do. Gently suggest that we need funding and also more people to spread the word.

Next, consider gathering all the people in your circle of friends and think of ways to have a fund raiser or possibly a "pass the cup" event. If 15 people each chip in $3.00 that would make an excellent family contribution.

Post the information on message boards, genealogy societies, local history clubs, newspapers, libraries, bulletin boards and consider adding the web site address to your email sign off tag line.

Look for Corporate or Non Profit sponsors who might contribute to the cause. A 25 or 50 dollar contribution from them would be great.

Every little bit helps.

I have sent out about two hundred individual emails, posted items on genealogy message boards, spoken with one genealogy club person and I am preparing a one page flyer to pass out at the Pipes-Harmon-Gray family reunion in August.


And finally, throw your shyness to the wind and consider posting articles here for others to read. Or at least send me an email and I will post it for you if you tell me to.
Tell us your ideas, opinions etc...... HELP!!!!!!!

So far we have $300.00 in cash contributions and promises from about a dozen persons to contribute.

Bob

The Cemetery History Part II

After some more digging into the term "Old Presbyterians", I believe that the meaning might be construed to mean "Orthodox". Remembering that the article I referred to in my first post on this subject was written by Isaac Gray in the late 1880s when the history of the Presbyterian church was fresher in the memory of church going people he apparently was refering to a time after the Civil War in England in the late 1600s and the fact that some Presbyterians did not support the direction that the church elders were going in regards to the Monarchy and the governments relation to the church and the people and were then labeled "dissenters" and "Old" in their beliefs.
If any of you can shed more light on this term I would welcome your comments.

The name of this Cemetery is.........

This Cemetery is commonly known by several names and variations of those names. I have seen it referred to as Doctor's Fork, Union and Old Union. I was confused myself so decided to look at a historical document written in the 1880s by Isaac M. Gray.

The original organization to hold meetings on the site of the present Cemetery was a Presbyterian congregation known as the Union Congregation. They are referred to in Isaac Gray's document as "Old Presbyterian". I am not sure at the moment as to the meaning of the word "Old" in the description. This congregation was organized before 1800, so they were probably the origin of the word "Union" and possibly the use of the term "Old Union" often used for the Cemetery. The land for the Union Meeting was donated for use by John Copeland and is described as 1 and 1/4 acres to be used for a Meeting House and a Burying Ground. This property was in later years purchased by John Gray and the original agreement to maintain the meeting house was continued. (see the email letter from Dennis Gray elsewhere on this site.)

This makes sense in my mind as the Pipes Family in my research had always maintained a connection to the Presbyterian faith. They were sponsors of the Presbyterian Church in New Jersey in very early documents and John Pipes Jr. was married in the First Presbyterian Church In Morristown, New Jersey.

In March of 1801 several local people who were Baptist believers organized a Baptist meeting named after the local waterway known as "Doctor's Fork". Doctor's Fork has its headwaters very near the Cemetery and is a tributary of the Chaplin River. Many of the deeds in this area include the description "On the headwaters of Doctor's Fork". The original piece of property purchased by John Pipes Jr. was described that way and was purchased from the same John Copeland. The property lies just north and east of the Cemetery.

John Scott was the first pastor for the Doctor's Fork Baptist Meeting and they held their services in local houses until July of 1805 when the Union Congregation invited the Doctor's Fork Baptists to share the Union meeting house built on the grounds. The meeting house is described as "of ancient stiled construction".

Isaac's document does not explain what happened to the Union Congregation, but the Baptist's ended up owning the property and it was officially known as the Doctor's Fork Baptist Church. The original building, built about 1800 was finally replaced with a new structure in 1850 at a cost of $750.00.

It is my understanding that the Doctor's Fork Baptist Church, built across the highway, is still the proprietor of the property.

All of this means that the burying grounds there are over 200 years old now and the proper name could then be reasonably said to be either Old Union or Doctor's Fork Baptist.

I will do some more work to see if I can find out the fate of the Union Congregation. Some of you who read this may well know the answer. I found that I have several old Newspaper articles and other items that will add to this story. More Later.........

An eMail from Dennis Gray

Dennis Gray and I have been comunicating for the last two weeks or so about this project. I received his permission to share his last message with everyone. Dennis has been involved with the family association for several years. So here it is:

From: Dennis L. Gray [mailto:dlgray@verizon.net]
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 3:39 PM
To: Bob PipesSubject: RE: Old Union Cemetery and Pipes - Harmon - Gray

Hi Bob

Good to hear from you and I have taken a look at Union Cemetery web site. It looks great and I am hopeful that it will be a hit with others. I am working on a list of names of person buried in this cemetery which most likely are beyond what you presently have. These names have been acquired from various sources. Some come from the now deceased Ethel McGraw who provided a list to me years ago. Some come from my personal visits over the years to the cemetery in which I wrote down names and dates. Some of these markers are now lost or damaged beyond recognition.. Also,over my years of research, I have gleaned from the old newspaper obituaries the names of individuals buried in this cemetery of which there is no other record, so these individuals would be in addition to what you presently have. It will be later this year before I can get this all pulled together and provided to you, as I have just accepted a new position with a company and will be leaving next Sunday for a three week training program in Miami, Florida. Please bear with me and I will get it all compiled as soon as possible and forward it to you. Also, I have found that my elder John Gray and Lucy Jones Gray, in 1821 purchased 232 acres of land from John Copeland and his wife, Sally which included one and one fourth acre of land that was being used as the Union Meeting house, and John Gray agreed to continue the grant in like manner be the same more or less. I have some pictures of the grave markers that are now missing or damaged beyond recognition and would like to post them to your web site. Again, I will have to pull these together and scan them into my computer for sharing.

I have attended the Pipes, Harmon and Gray reunion for numerous years and this will be the first time in a long time that I will not be able to attend, due to my three week training in Florida, but I will be mailing a donation to the Pipes, Harmon & Gray Cemetery fund. Also, I am mailing out a letter to some of my fellow Gray researchers and requesting that they submit a donation to the fund. I hope others will contribute, since they have ancestors buried in this cemetery. I am a descendant of John Pipes and Mary Morris Pipes as well as John Gray & Lucy Jones Gray. I suspect that John Gray & Lucy Jones Gray are buried in this cemetery, but their grave markers have long been lost to history.

Please keep in touch !
Dennis

Information on Preserving Cemeteries & Headstones

I received this info today from Ken Sutherland. The article has many links to other articles about cleaning and preserving cemeteries and grave stones from several sources. Very good stuff.

http://www.everlifememorials.com/headstones/cleaning-cemetery-tombstones.htm

John Pipes Jr. and Mary Morris Pipes

These pictures were taken during a trip to Kentucky in 1997. As you can see, the stones are aging very fast.

The Proposed Memorial Stone Inscription

This is the wording as proposed for the memorial stone for John and Mary.

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Two Cemetery Pictures

These were taken in 1984 and again in 1997.

If you have others from previous years, please consider sending me a copy. These will help us map out the burial locations in the cemetery when there are missing or damaged stones.