PLEASANT HILL GRAVEYARD Wood Co. WV Some Pioneer Graveyards of Wood Co. by John A. House I visited the Pleasant Hill Graveyard at the low gap in the ridge between the heads of Walker's Creek and Isaac's Fork, of Bull Creek. The cemetery is on a point at the foot of a high hill, and the later Pleasant Hill Church is across the road, in a grove of small trees, and the hill towers behind it. On the top of a twin peak across the low gap where nestles the village of Pleasant Hill, a new oil rig has just been erected. Here nestling between these two wardens, was in my boyhood days, the farm of Henry Ewing, and the newly established Post Office of Deerwalk. This old man, though he seems to my childhood memory to have been - say eighty years old when I knew him, was in reality only sixty-nine when he died, four or five years later. His family lie in a long row in the old graveyard, with him at one end and his wife at the other. Henry Ewing, December 27th, 1864, aged sixty-nine years, five months. Jefferson, son of H. and S. Ewing, February, 1858, twenty-one years, five months. Jane, daughter of H. and S. Ewing, January 15th, 1857, aged twenty- five years, ten months. Ann Elizabeth, daughter of H. and S. Ewing, March 29th, 1852, aged twenty-five years, seven months. Mary Francis, daughter of H. and S. Ewing, May 19th, 1849, aged nineteen years, eleven months. John, son of H. and S. Ewing, May 11th, 1850, aged twenty-nine years, one month. James, son of H. and S. Ewing, June, 1854, aged twenty-eight years, six months. Nancy, daughter of H. and S. Ewing, November 10th, 1868, aged thirty- four years, four months. Sarah, wife of Henry Ewing, died May 27th, 1876, aged seventy-nine years, two months. Elizabeth Gabbert, wife of James Ewing, born March 7th, 1810 - died 1904, aged ninety-six. Jacob Jones, born January 25th, 1811 - died May 11th, 1849. He lived on Stillwesl and was a prominent land speculator of his day. Morgan Jones died March 22nd, 1853, in seventy-seventh year. Other Ewings who are buried here are sons of James and Elizabeth Ewing - Nathaniel F. Ewing (Fulton), born May 27th, 1850 - died July 11th, 1900 (Asphyxiated in a well.) Lloyd Ewing, born 1851 - died 1908. Belle, his wife, 1857 - 1909. Letitia, wife of John H. Ewing, 1854 - 1916. She was a Whitlatch. Noah Whitlatch, August 4th, 1864, aged nineteen. Co. H., 11th W. Va. Probably killed in the army. He was a son of J. and M. Whitlatch. In 1856, Violetta, a Whitlatch child of ten, died, and in 1872 Flavins, the son of W. P., one of the younger generation. If there are any of the older members of the family, I have missed them in my notes. Arnold Wellinger, died March, 1864, aged twenty-seven. Edward S. Leach, August, 1843 - October, 1871. Richard Mussetter, January 1st, 1798 - April 4th, 1863, evidently the founder of the family. ChristopherWeinrich, December, 1854, aged fifty-seven. John S. Edwards was born in England, August 24th, 1813, died February, 1864. Catharine Fauss died 1852, aged sixty-nine. John Marshall, November 24th, 1851, aged twenty-eight. The only one of the large family I noted. John Standiford was born in Massachusetts, September 25th, 1773. (A nearby figure reads 1776.) I got no date of his death. Probably he has been Frank Standiford's father, and may have been related to others in the vicinity. Joanna, wife of Allen Smith, July 9th, 1857, aged sixty-seven. A marble slab lying flat. Who was she? (born in 1790) John W. Riley (Watson) June 30th, 1861, twenty years, eleven months. He was a son of one of our near neighbors whose house was in plain sight after the woods were cleared. William B. Smith, December 20th, 1861, aged nineteen years, two months. He was another neighbor boy. His name was Morrison and he and a younger brother had been raised by the Smiths, who had no children of their own, and hence took the name of the foster parents. William had enlisted in the 11th W. Va., and was in camp at Parkersburg at the time of his death, when he was hot by a comrade who claimed it to be an accident. At his trial, nothing was proved against him. I will remember the night Smith came up the hill in the middle of the nights to get my father to go to Parkersburg, seventeen miles away, with him, but do not remember the burial. The Death Record for the county has entry - December 20th, 1861, William D. Smith, born Morgan County, Virginia, cause accidental shooting. James A. Kelley, December 25th, 1862, aged forty-nine years, six months. David Gabbert, March 2nd, 1794 - October 9th, 1863. He was a soldier and has a flag on his grave, but being well up in sixty when the Civil War was begun he must have been in the war of 1812, or Mexican War. Probably he was the father of Dave and Jake Gabbert. Sylvester Carder, March 10th, 1872, aged fifty-one. Sarah (his wife) 1872, aged forty-nine. David Carder, 1856 - 1885, probably a son. (I have no recollection of the name). Jesse Southern, 1827 - 1897. The south row of graves was near the fence. On another visit, I copied the names: Jesse South, January 15th, 1827 - January 27th, 1897, aged seventy years., and by it Jeanette South, died January 24th, 1892. Of the family row, there are fourteen graves - Jane South, died in 1873, aged sixty-four. Ur South, September 11th, 1875, aged sixty-four. Christena South, 1884, aged sixty-two. Susie South, 1882, aged sixty-five. Joseph South, 1893, aged eighty. Bartley South, 1897, aged seventy-seven. Bailey South, died 1846, aged sixty-five years, six months. Elizabeth, wife of Bailey South, 1868 - aged eighty-two. Samuel H. South, born October 1811 - died June 7th, 1867. Lucinda, wife S. B. South, 1819 - 1897 - aged seventy-seven. Sarah Ann, their daughter, 1863, aged eighteen. Jesse, their son, died a child in 1852. In the same row, perhaps of same - South - family, were: Elizabeth, daughter of E. and S. Whitlatch (no date - a child). Martha, daughter of E. and S. Whitlatch, 1862. William L., son of B. W. and E. W. Barmore, April 20th, 1852, one year. Mariah, daughter of Wm. C. and H. Worley, died 1865, a child. Catharine D. McGuire, daughter of E. D. and L. McGuire. (Old Neddy and Lucy) died in 1869 in her twenty-seventh year. Nancy Collins, 1849 - 1898. By her side an unmarked grave with a flag. Jane Morrison, October, 1811, August, 1885, aged seventy-four. William H. Morrison, 1841 - 1898, flag on grave. Catharine, his wife, 1874 - aged twenty-one. Eugenie, wife of J. B. Wilson, 1851 - 1881. Garfield, son of L. P. and H. J. Collins, 1898, seventeen years old. By his side, a grave (no headstone) with American Legion flag. In the German corner of the Pleasant Hill Cemetery is the inscription "Daniel Fauss, Beboren, Langenbach Rheinpfals, Deutchland Am 3 June 1820 gestorben Pleasant Hill W. Va., den 2 Apr 1880" He was almost sixty years old. Nearby are graves of Louisa, (1881, age nineteen) Peter, Daniel (February 11th, 1871, aged thirty-six years, seven months) Peter and Katie Stilzenbaur.