This site was posted to another group but I thought those who Remember Shenandoah Might like to look over it. I was asked if I could find the location of the Methodist Cemetery (today) on this early map of the Shenandoah area. Perhaps some of you may be able to identify the cemetery area or may have more information about the land for the developing of the cemetery. This 1865 map was drawn early in the towns history, just thirty years after the Forrer brothers started the Shenandoah Iron Works and before Milnes brought in the railroad (so no train tracks to go by), with very few landmarks on this map are still in the area today in which to go by to identify where the cemetery is now located. I remembered the old Forrer Mansion and where it was located on Long Avenue so I used that to help find the location of where the the Methodist Cemetery is today. The book SHENANDOAH - A HISTORY OF OUR TOWN AND ITS PEOPLE helps to locate things in the early history of this area. By 1865, when this map was drawn, Daniel and Henry Forrer had sold the Forrers Iron Works to William Milnes, Sr, William Milnes, Jr., John Milnes and John Fields. You can see the William Milnes and John Milnes mansions identified on the map next to each other. I believe the Milnes Mansion on the map was formerly the Forrer Mansion because on page 7 in the SHENANDOAH book: All of the property, including the mansion, was conveyed in the transaction with the Milnes group. I suspect the William Milnes family lived in the Forrer Mansion at the time of the drawing of this map in 1865 and John Milnes lived next to William. Another clue on page 6, (a)bout six or more log cabins were built on the island between the race and the river... which can be seen on the map. And later on the same page (t)he manufacturing buildings -- The forge, the run-out, the mill, the shops -- stood on the river bank (in front of the later constructed Methodist Church ...). The Methodist Church was started in 1870 after John Fields moved to the community. On page 135, John Fields planned the church which stood on the river and asked Reverend (A. P.) Boude to lay off the ground for the church,a cemetery and a parsonage. However, just as the church was completed a heavy rain began. All the forge buildings, the store building, parts that were to go into the church (the belfry and church bell) and Rev. Boude home and furnishings were lost in the 1870 flood. Later the Methodist Church and the parsonage were built or rebuilt in the same area and moved later in 1919. On page 33, another clue, (t)he Methodist Church was built close to the bridge with its cemetery... The old bridge was between 200-300 yards south of the present bridge. Today, Long Avenue (on which the Forrer Mansion was located) comes out directly across from the Methodist Cemetery. The old bridge is gone but it connected south of the church and cemetery. The cemetery was behind the church toward the south. The old River Road on the map, which traveled beside the river, was the only road going north to Luray and South to Conrads Store (Elkton) and Harrisonburg (there was no Rt. 340 until 1936-38). That old River Road is long gone but you can still find some of it here and there when walking along the river. All this makes me think the Methodist Cemetery is located on this map where the square marked old Mansion, stables and corn crib. I think the church was perhaps where the stables and corn crib were (church was closer to river and lower than the cemetery) with the cemetery further from the river and on higher ground where it is marked on the map old mansion. I think the old mansion found on this map was the Samuel Gibbons home built in 1833. Can anyone else identify where the area for the cemetery may be found on this 1865 map or know anything about the land purchased for the cemetery? loc.gov/resource/g3883p.cwh00248/
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 08:14:14 +0000
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