TAVENNER GRAVEYARD
Wood Co. WV

Some Pioneer Graveyards of Wood Co. by John A. House

'Twas not for greed or gold they came.
No search or hope for fame.
They sought a freer way of life,
And goal attained, now rest from strife.
(R. H.)

Another of the old time cemeteries in the vicinity of Parkersburg
is what is known as the "Old Tavenner Graveyard", though it was,
when first opened, on the land of Hugh Phelps.  It lies on the
second rise, well back from the Kanawha River, and on the south
side of the new Central Avenue, the paved street from Tavennerville
to Lauckport.  It is on gently rolling ground, and is south of the
supposed site of Col. Phelps' first house.

There are many old graves without markers, and the burying ground
evidently dates far back, though the oldest date I noted was February
10th, 1816.

Tradition puts the old Neal's Station burial place on the river, and I
am told the excavations for the upper side of the East Street bridge
exhumed bones and an old cedar post.

The most interesting object in the graveyard, when I first visited it
in 1914, was a huge sandstone slab, lying flat over a grave, the
grave of the earliest pioneer of Wood County.  The inscription on
the old crumbling stone is illegible.

On a sandstone headstone, I read -
"To the memory of Captain James Neal, -----er of the Revolution,
who --------" (balance unreadable.)  On the slab, the last words look
like "his eighty-fifth year".

On another old headstone near this, the inscription is crumbled and
gone.  Probably the grave of his wife.

Captain Neal died in February, 1822.  He came from Greene County,
Pennsylvania, to this place in October or November, 1785.

Thomas Tavenner was born in London County, Virginia, April 18th,
1776.  When twenty-two years of age, he came to this section, and
located at Neal's Station.  He was for many years a prominent leader
in the affairs of this vicinity.  Was married in 1806 to Elizabeth,
daughter
of William Beauchamp, of Elizabeth, Wirt County.  They raised three
sons, Thomas J., Cabell and Isaac, and one daughter, Elizabeth, who
married Rev. Charles Baldwin.  Tavenner died May 23rd, 1857, aged
eighty-one.

Elizabeth Tavenner, wife of Col. Thomas Tavenner, born March 15th,
1781, died September 30th, 1844.
Alexander Tavenner, born May, 1768, died February 10th, 1816.
(Probably a brother of Thomas.  Another note says February 10th, 1848).
Thomas J. Tavenner, born in Wood County, October 17th, 1821, died
January 18th, 1875.
Samuel Jacques (son of T. J. and Ann Tavenner) 1872 - 1899.
Franklin Tavenner, died in 18645, aged fifty-four years.
Eunice, wife of Franklin Tavenner, died August 15th, 1865, aged forty
years.
Also two children of B. F. and E. M. Tavenner.
Franklin Tavenner (B. F.) married Catharine Taylor in 1845, and Mrs.
Eunice Steed in 1852.
R. Wires, wife of Franklin Tavenner, April 16th, 1866, aged forty years.
Two other graves in the Tavenner lot were -
Fannie Elizabeth, 1849 - 1865.
Charles Baldwin, 1860 - 1883.
These were of the third generation.

The Tavenner lot contained two rows of graves, and when I visited the
graveyard in 1914, was enclosed with a dilapidated old fence of plank,
with sawed posts (of oak, probably, perhaps locust).  The graveyard lot
is about a half acre.  It was in 1914, surrounded by an old "shackling"
barbwire fence, with old plank bars for a gate, and graves and walks all
overgrown with weeds and briars.

There was a fine row of wild cherry trees around the lot, seedling
sprouts
that had grown in the old fence row years ago.

Other graves I noted were those of -
Jared Fugat (Fugate) July 26th, 1819.
Elizabeth Fugat, 1811 - 1822.
Ann, wife of Jared Fugat, November 5th, 1782 - August 17th, 1856.

Fugat bought sixty-six acres of Elias Barnes, at the present site of
Lauckport, in 1817, and traded it to Reese Woolf on two hundred
acres at the mouth of Rowell's Run, later.  He lived on this but the
date of his death as given seems wrong, as the deed to Woolf bears
date (as I have it) of September 5th, 1826.

Horatio N. Phillips, 1819 - 1865, forty-six years.
Julia, his wife, 1814 - 1901, eighty-seven years.
Huldah Phillips, mother of Horatio, died in 1865.  Her grave is railed
in.
Hannah, wife of John Nicely, 1792 - 1854.
Mary, daughter of John and Hannah Nicely, born in Greene County,
Pennsylvania, 1835.
Matilda, daughter D. and V. Fortner, died 1854.
Benjamin Smith, 1842 - 1905.
Hannah Maxwell, February 17th, 1827 - April 11th, 1873.
Laura, daughter of James and Sarah C. Timms, 1854 - a child.
Monroe Wires, 1852 - 1906.
Samuel McDougle, April 27th, 1853, fifty-one years, ten months.
Margaret, wife of George Armstrong (was she a McDougle?) 1866,
aged seventy-six years.
Benjamin McDougle, August 12th, 1869, aged thirty-two.
Ida L. McDougle, May 8th, 1871, aged twenty.
Mary McDougle, 1873, aged twenty-six.
Martha J., wife of S. S. Stalnaker, January 24th, 1843 - July 15th, 1924.
Then a child's grave, and then three apparently vacant lots.