The cemetery in Gordonsville had a contact person, so when I asked her if there were a map available that tells who is buried where, she actually went out to the site to verify where my great-grandfather is buried and sent me a map with the section marked in red and a description of landmarks surrounding it. That one was a cinch and here is the proof. This fellow died in 1880 when he was only 32 years old, leaving a wife and five children. The oldest child, my grandfather, was only 12 at the time, and the youngest, named after his father, died a few months later. Both father and son died of consumption, as tuberculosis was known then. Here lies the father, George W. Rhodes. I wished that I had thought to bring a large sheet of paper and crayons or chalk to make a rubbing of the markings, because I couldn't get older eyes to decipher the saying at the bottom. Next time, perhaps.
The engraving on this stone is long gone, but the stone is small enough to be a child's, and my assumption is that it is the grave of the little one who died not long after his father.
The following day I moved into West-by-God Virginia. I had directions to the old Greenbrier Church outside Alderson, and the Perry great-grandparents are buried in the cemetery behind the church. However...
There are NO pictures of Greenbrier Church or the gravestones. I will make a concerted effort to find and scan in the ones I have from years ago and be done with it. I had reasonable directions, but very UNREASONABLE roads. Some so-called roads I was on at one point made the Going to the Sun Highway in Montana, which I drove this summer, look tame. Almost one lane wide with a tiny space on the edges in case, God forbid, you met someone on the roads which were series on tight S's, that was white-knuckle driving in the extreme. Fortunately I only met someone once or twice as I drove. When I got to the church after making several wrong turns because I couldn't believe what they wanted me to drive on was considered a road, there was no place to park and no way for several more miles of that road to even turn around. I finally found a real driveway with a real person coming out, and I asked for directions back to Alderson. She suggested I follow her since she was going there. I thought she knew another way. She apparently did not, for back we went along the same treacherous wanna-be road I had just come along. At least she was the lead going around the curves this time. I figured if she met anyone they would get her first! In Alderson, which isn't much, I found the road to Pence Springs, which is where my grandfather once had a general store. There was NOTHING there but a gas station with a bathroom, which by then I was beginning to need. Thank goodness for small blessings! Onward. I went through Lowell, site of Grandpa's other store in the area and that was a bust, too. SOOOO! Enough of WV. My original plans had an option of going to the county seat in Union to do some research, but that would have required another of those narrow winding roads. I know, because one of my wrong turns took me a ways down it! I headed back along roads that were a bit wider and better paved to civilization for the night, stopping in Wytheville, VA. I do NOT plan to go back to Greenbrier Church.
Next stop, Jonesborough, TN for the National Storytelling Festival. Stay tuned!
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