Watson Cemetery
Chestnut Run Road
Arcadia, Virginia
GPS: 37.513001 -79.597241
Karen Baker and Daryl Reed photographed this cemetery in 2015 and 2018. It is a well-kept family cemetery with about 50 markers and another ten graves marked with rocks and no name.
Some family names are Bryan/Bryant, Burkholder, Downes, Early, Hensley, Lawless, Moseley, Noell, Walker, Watson, and Worley. Most of these families are related in some way, making it quite interesting.
William Akers Bryan does not have a date on his marker, but he served in Douthat’s Company Va. Lt. Arty. CSA and his is the only Civil War marker. He applied for aid on May 2, 1900, due to a war injury.
Annie E Lakes Bryan, born in 1847, died in 1932, and according to her obituary, “she lived in Jennings Creek all her life and was the oldest person of that section.”
William B Moseley, 1919-2001 was a WWII Veteran. His brothers Harry Moseley (1922-2013) and Clarence Moseley (1927-2014) are also buried here. Their father is William R Moseley (1895-1958), married to Bertha Powell Moseley (1894-1974).
These families were prominent in the Jennings creek area. Lewis & Mary Elizabeth Bryan lived in the Jennings Creek Tavern, built about 1821, before their death in 1922 and 1926. There was an article about the Jennings Creek Tavern in the Newspaper in 2006 and can be viewed on my Facebook group featuring the history of Botetourt County (1770-2020). It gives a fascinating account of the people and the tavern.
Lewis Bryan is the son of Lawson & Mary Murphy Bryan. His wife-Mary Elizabeth Bryan, is the daughter of Leonard & Nancy Reed Markham.
Mildred Eubank Watson appeared to be the earliest burial in 1891, and the most recent grave I have in my records is 2017 for Donald Bryan.
Rena Worthen welcomes the identification of Unmarked gravesites at doreatr@yahoo.com.
