Over the years I have been to Carey’s Run Cemetery several times. My first visit was in 2001 while doing community service with a local church. At the time I was more concerned with how I was going to clear a hillside of overgrowth without adequate tools and being envious of those that had taken the easier task of mowing. During that first trip I paid no mind to the stones that were to my back or to the lost town that was in front of me.
Situated above Carey’s Run (once Fuert’s Run) and overlooking the fields where Alexandria once stood is Carey’s Run Cemetery, sometimes referred to as Carey’s Run Point Cemetery. The property once belonged to George Crawford before being set aside as a burial ground. Within its steep boundaries are the remains of no fewer than 175 persons many of whom were early settler’s of Scioto County including former superintendents of the County Infirmary, Veteran’s from the Civil War, the War of 1812, and others of notoriety. Eastern cedar, shagbark hickory, and even mirabelle plum occupy this space as well.
When I first started submitting to FindAGrave I started with Carey’s Run Cemetery. I was certain that given its limited accessibility and the age of the stones there that very little of the work had been done. It was an added bonus that it is nearby. What I found was both heartbreaking and exciting simultaneously; many of the stones were down, many broken, many partially buried. The ground above the cemetery had been removed to fill the former cornfield where Washington-Nile school was built. The cemetery now appears as an earthen glacier, slowly sliding down the hill twisting and tilting markers as it goes; those stones that are already down slowly buried beneath run-off and leaf litter.
This past summer I was researching the Gharky family after reading a Scioto Historical story, written by Dr. Andrew Feight, about David Gharky, a figure of early Portsmouth history and resident of the cemetery. The monument for his wife, Elizabeth Knappenberger Gharky, is an enormous limestone obelisk ornately paneled with bas reliefs is the largest monument in the cemetery and was quite possibly visible from both Carey’s Run and the Old River Road. Unfortunately, a hickory tree has taken root beneath the monument’s stone base, lifting it to a precarious angle, and one day without intervention will cause it to topple.
Exposed to the elements for over a century the limestone has begun to deteriorate. Well-meaning people have painted the reliefs but in their efforts have compounded the problem.
My son was quick to point out that the position of this woman in this relief was nearly identical to the position of the marker; with the hill rising to the left above us and the river behind her in the valley below. Possibly be design or by happen-chance his observation of this left me happy father.
Behind this monument is a much smaller obelisk for Manuel Gharky, Eliza Jane Gharky, and David Gharky. Hidden on the backside of this marker was an ominous warning to the passer-by: “Death is a debt to nature due. Which we have paid & so must you.”
There’s nothing quite like sitting beneath an enormous tilted monument, and struggling to clean and read an engraving only to find that message. Thankfully, a section a few feet beyond this had caught my attention. Immediately behind the marker were five sunken burial locations. Not so much sunken as obvious they were burials that had been made side by side. There were also several tissue box-shaped supports designed for the headstone and for the footstone. Only one partial stone remained upright with only a small section bearing the date of death remaining. It would be several months until I returned to Carey’s Run Cemetery.
A late summer thunderstorm prompted by return this site. I knew that the torrential rainfall would have potentially washed away layers of sediment, and possibly exposed several more stones. If nothing else, water trapped in the engravings would make more stones legible. When I arrived the rain has indeed made the stones more legible. The wet stones provided more contrast, deepening of the colors, and with the sun at my back such good conditions for photographing engravings were few and far between so I spent over two hours capturing as much as possible. When I came again to the five unnamed markers I discovered a corner of a marble headstone had revealed itself. Using my hand to wipe away less than an eighth inch of mud and dirt the missing piece to the partial headstone of Laurence Williamson had been found.
Unfortunately, the sun that had warmed my back was quickly sinking over horizon, and I wanted to be off the hill before it was gone. That evening I began trying to discern who Laurence Williams had been. I reviewed the Cemetery Inscriptions of Scioto County – Washington Township and he had not been included; most likely because at that time the stone had been down and covered. The engraver had done me no favors by only including the initials of the parents, but I knew that a family plot of five small graves and a close proximity to the Gharky family that the family had most likely stayed in Scioto County and that there were only so many Williamsons and even fewer where a person with the initials A.W. was married to a person with the initials S.A.
Fortunately, a quick search of FindAGrave yielded a positive result. Sarah Ann Gharky Williamson was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery. She was the wife of Captain Alden Washington Williamson, and I suspect, the daughter of David Gharky There was my Gharky connection! My suspicion that these were the grandchildren of David and Elizabeth Gharky would be more supported by additional findings.
At first glance it looked like the blades from an old pair of ice skates, but then I thought that maybe it had been used to hold a funeral display. Either way, it hurts when you stumble across it in sandals. *Note to cemetery enthusiasts: don’t wear sandals. I thought it best to inquire to more able minds and asked local cemetery researcher and photographer Beth Shoemaker of A Grave Sight Cemetery Photographs what she thought it could be. After several messages back and forth we were stymied and that further research would be required.
This Wednesday, I was again able to make it up to the cemetery to find further document the Gharky plot, but this time I had my son and his pointy stick that he had picked up along the way. I started by showing the him the “metal ice skate thingy” and we pondered what it was. It was too deep into the ground to be there by accident; its design looked purposeful as though it was meant to keep something fixed in place much longer than the duration of a few days or even months. This was meant to be permanent. So we decided to look about and we were much surprised when we found another, but this time of a different design.
This design was square and no less permanent as the first. With the square iron plate intact it seemed more familiar and recognizable. It was a wrought iron fence corner post! The Gharky plot at one time could have been enclosed in a wrought iron fence with decorative corner posts similar to those at Greenlawn with the posts slipping over these anchors. Thinking of how popular square plots were in the 1800’s I thought that maybe the angelic number of 7 paces from this mark would find the next anchor. Either my stride was short or sexton practical I found the next anchor at 8 paces or roughly 25 feet.
Turning 90 degrees south and stepping 8 paces the 3rd anchor was quickly found after raking away several layers of pine needles.
Making another 90 degree turn and taking 8 paces brought me into alignment with the three previous anchors, but at my feet was what was a marker, but instead would be best described as the tomb cover of Eliza Jane Gharky who died in her third year. If there is a fourth anchor it is most likely beneath this behemoth stone.
So at one time the Gharky plot was once enclosed in a wrought-iron fence, and the first unidentified metal object was likely an anchor for a post that joined two sections of fencing in between the corner anchors. At once time it may have looked like this:
With that mystery somewhat resolved we began our further cleaning of Laurence Williamson stone. With brittle plastic paint scrapers we worked around the edges of the stone until we were able to free it from the ground. Then with a wide soft-bristle paint brush we whisked away the dirt that filled the beautiful engraving. And lastly with a small low-pressure garden sprayer we removed the last of the soil
Over the years the marble had fractured into two pieces, and this piece had landed in between the marker support and the foot-stone support. Now we needed to find the missing foot-stone. Using my son’s handy dandy pointy wooden stick I showed him how to probe the ground feeling for resistance. The headstone was only partially beneath the surface so the foot-stone would likely be the same. After a few seconds the foot-stone had been located.
Using the same method of cleaning as the headstone we carefully excavated the foot-stone and cleaned it in the same manner. We removed the moss from inside the foot-stone support, re-leveled it despite the unexpected red ants, and placed the foot-stone back into its original support.
We marked the coordinates of the grave, photographed our work, and proceeded on to the next adjacent grave. We figured the slippage of the hillside had caused the supports to become un-level, toppling the markers from their supports, but it didn’t account for the breakage of the headstone. For whatever reason we decided that probing in between the foot-stone and headstone would be our best bet for locating the other stones. Probing approximately 1-2″ at a low angle with an interval of 6 inches we worked left to right in the suspected area. Within minutes another stone had been located.
What started out as a bit of resistance on the probe soon became a full marker
And moments later a name was revealed that had not been seen in years.
The marker support adjacent to Laurence was much too large to properly fit this narrow stone that was also broken at its very base. The closest properly fitting support was approximately 6 feet away. Before further excavating it we chose to probe near the foot-stone support of the burial we thought that it would best fit. No stone was found, but after hitting an object several times over a larger area we found the the remainder of what had been a cedar tree that had fallen along the length of the burials. It is possible that with its wide bows the headstones were struck and fell inwards and the foot-stones, closest to the trunk of the tree, fell outwards. Rather than guess where a headstone should be located we opted to find its proper location by process of elimination. Working near the buried cedar we located the buried foot-stone of E.J.W. Many genealogists hit a wall when they have too little information, but in this instance I had too much information. The foot-stone sat at the intersection of two other graves: Elizabeth Waller and Eliza Jane Gharky. It was decided given the present unoccupied headstone at the other end of the burial that it most likely a grandchild that was a namesake of Eliza Jane or at least beared her initials, but nonetheless, this burial belonged to someone with the initials EJW and not to the headstone we had just found.
We continued on, working with the theory that a tree strike had broken the stones and caused them to fall inwards. Using the same probing technique as before we were soon rewarded.
By this time was had partially excavated the headstones of John A Williamson and Thomas Elisha Williamson. A quick measurement confirmed that John A Williamson belonged alongside Laurence Williamson.
And that Thomas Elisha Williamson belonged further down.
Thomas’ marker support was broken at the back (most likely from the pressure of the tree strike pushing the top inwards) so it would not remain upright so it was place directly on the support to prevent it from sinking again. An enterprising soul with experience (and a drill bit intended for stone) could easily pin the support together and the stone would be upright again.
When we were working around the edges of Thomas’ stone my son discovered another. In my haste I failed to photograph it being freed from the ground, but did photograph it after we had cleaned and fit it back into its support alongside Thomas. This is the headstone of George Henry Williamson. While cleaning the moss from the support we found bit of marble “sugar” which is the remainder of the stone base that remained after the stone was broken.
At this point we had located the headstones of Lawrence Williamson, John A Williamson, George Henry Williamson, and Thomas Elisha Williamson, but not the headstone for EJW. All foot-stones were located for the aforementioned except for Thomas and John, but they probably still there waiting to be found. After several hours we stood back and look at the work that we had done.
There were a few less names that were unknown, and hopefully one less wall for someone wishing to learn about their family. More importantly I had the opportunity to spend time with my son, and teach him why the work that genealogists do is important.
The sun was again sinking over the horizon and with the warm sun gone the air had chilled. We gathered up our bucket of supplies and made one last trip around the cemetery. We stopped at each one that I had read about and shared that knowledge with him. As best I could I tried explaining a quote from David Eagleman. “There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.” I’d like to think that he understood what that means, and that the work we had done spared the Williamsons a little while longer.
