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I apologize in advance for the length of this discussion, but there's no short way to get through it. Hopefully you'll make your way to the end. The red arrow in the photo above points to the location of the Rowe-Renner Cemetery, viewed from the Price-Renner Cemetery. Its name on the few records we have is simply the Rowe Cemetery, but since there is another so-named cemetery, I've added the Renner name to this one because it is on property once owned by John Renner. It's also possible John is buried there (more on that below). This cemetery has been neglected/abused perhaps more than any other that I'm aware of in the area. There are no marked stones and haven't been for at least 60 years. In fact, there are only a few fieldstones indicating graves. The information here is from a variety of sources: courthouse records, land documents, death certificates, stories told by a former landowner, and interviews conducted by myself with area residents, including a descendant of a person known to be buried there. Here are the known facts, which mainly concern the property and treatment of the cemetery. The cemetery is on property that was once part of "the old John Renner farm." John received grants for this land in 1827 and 1846. The cemetery is very near the boundary of those two adjoining grants; it may have been just inside the boundary of either. Regardless, it was no more than 1,000 feet from his house, which was on the 1827 grant (we don't know the exact house location). John died between 1847-1848, his wife Martha Linville sometime after 1850. Their land looks to have been split between son Granderson and son-in-law Solomon Rowe (married Lucinda Renner) in 1850. Solomon got the northeast portion, which included the cemetery location (the cemetery is not mentioned in any of the land records). In 1876 Solomon gave his part of the Renner land to his son-in-law, John Wesley Kirby (married Sarah Elizabeth Rowe). The deed called the property "the old John Renner farm," a designation which was repeated in later transactions, and excluded the Mount Pisgah schoolhouse, for which Solomon had donated an acre of land. The school was in the 1846 grant, about a thousand feet east of the cemetery. The Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, in which Solomon was a deacon, was about 2/3 mile northwest up the ridge. The property was traded around in the Rowe family for the next seventy or so years, spending the most time in the John Thomas Rowe family. Tom and his wife Sarah Emeline Doan lived in an old dog-trot-style log cabin (a cabin with two large rooms connected by an open breezeway) that was about 750 feet below the cemetery. Their son Jack, who was the last Rowe to own the property, lived on the ridge above the cemetery. The land was sold out of the family during the 1950s. By then, many of the family had either died or moved away in the general exodus that took place in the middle 1900s. In the 1940s some family members who had moved to OH erected a fence around the cemetery in an effort to protect it; there were no marked stones in the cemetery by this time. However, the fence proved to be detrimental to preservation, as a later owner took advantage of the enclosure and used it as a hog pen. In the 1970s a new road was built by the county through the property. In grading for the new road, adjacent and parallel to the old one, the workers realized they had infringed upon the cemetery, which unknowingly lay on both sides of the old road. Until a few years ago, evidence of graves on the west side of the new road was visible. At some point, at least by the early 1970s, animals were no longer being kept in the vicinity of the cemetery and the larger section (the part on the east side of the road) began to be swallowed up by the forest. It remains in that state today. Due to all the damage that has occurred over the past decades, its practically impossible to tell how large the cemetery once was or to count the unmarked graves. Though the road went through the eastern third and the forest has reclaimed the remains of the animal lot, there are a few fieldstones yet visible. The area that was once cleared that connects with the section where most of the fieldstones still stand is quite large, but the area has been so disturbed that making any kind of boundary determination is futile. Known burials in the Rowe-Renner Cemetery: 1. John Thomas Rowe, b. Jan 1854, d. 22 Mar 1920, son of Solomon Rowe and Lucinda Renner 2. Sarah Emeline Doan Rowe, b. 15 Apr 1853, d. 18 Mar 1942, daughter of Joseph Doan and Margaret Hood Strongly suspected burials in the Rowe-Renner Cemetery: 3. Catherine Rowe Swinney, b. 3 Jul 1827, d. 7 Jul 1911, daughter of John Rowe and Catherine Sowder (see discussion below) Possible burials in the Rowe-Renner Cemetery: 4. Harvey Green Renner, b. 23 Jun 1858, d. 21 Mar 1938, son of Westerfield Renner and Maranda Mize (see discussion below) Discussion of potential burials in the Rowe-Renner Cemetery: This may ramble a bit, so be forewarned; there's a bunch of stuff to cover. I'll begin with a few things concerning 3 and 4 above. Catherine Swinney was the sister of Solomon Rowe and lived, best we can tell from census records, within a mile of the cemetery her entire life. Her death certificate states she was buried in the "Rows Burial Ground." Catherine and Solomon were the only two of John's children who stayed in the area. Harvey Renner's death certificate says he was buried in the Rowe Cemetery. He grew up and lived in the area, and owned some property nearby. But in the 1930 census he was living on "U.S. 25 between Pine Hill and Mt. Vernon", a location about six miles away. There is yet another Rowe Cemetery somewhere near the the Chestnut Ridge Road, so he may be buried in that one. The PVA maps have a Rowe Cemetery marked on the property we've been discussing. It's not correctly placed, being marked about 2,000 feet up the road. There is no cemetery (or even a flat spot or old clearing) where map says it should be, so it's safe to say the this cemetery and the one on the map are the same. From family sources we know Sarah Doan Rowe is buried here. Her death certificate says she was buried in the "family cemetery." The definition of a "family cemetery" is wide-ranging and could mean her husband and some other close family, like children. That could be all there is in this cemetery, considering we don't know how large it once was. There is evidence, either fieldstones, obvious sunken graves, or remembrances, of at least sixteen graves. That's too many to have been only Tom and Sarah's immediate family, based on what we know of them. Plus, assuming Catherine Swinney is buried there, that wouldn't really constitute a Rowe burying ground. (A quick note here--the other nearby Rowe Cemetery is, to the best of our knowledge, mainly a cemetery for Tom and Sarah's son John Henry Rowe and his family; in 1911 it would hardly have been deemed a family cemetery from Catherine's point of view.) What would live up to that name is a place where more than one or two generations of the family are buried. We are missing graves for several members of the Rowe family, including Solomon and several of his children. There is no cemetery that can be found up Long Branch, other than the very small Adams Cemetery near the head of the creek (info here). It is possible the Rowe-Renner Cemetery is where Solomon, Lucinda, and other members of their family are buried. Solomon and Lucinda both died after 1880, probably not many years after, as neither of them show up in land, church, or other records after that date. Going further, and this is all speculation, if Solomon is buried here, then there is a good chance it is the final resting place of John and Martha Renner. John's son Granderson and daughter Elizabeth, plus several of his grandchildren, are buried in the Price-Renner Cemetery, across Skeggs Creek within sight of the Rowe-Renner and about 1,800 feet away. I had long assumed John and Martha were also buried there until, while working on reconstructing the original area land grants, I realized John never owned that property and that he lived on the opposite side of the creek. As stated above, John's house was very near the cemetery; it's possible the log cabin Tom and Sarah lived in was originally John's. If John is buried in this cemetery on his land, then placing Solomon and Lucinda there is not a stretch and would explain Catherine's interment and death certificate reference. |
