ALBRIGHT — The Shaw Cemetery is off W.Va. 26 on Coal Lick Road, about three miles down on the left, according to information on FindAGrave.com.
What the website doesn’t say is the cemetery is in a field on property owned by William Feather.
“I cut hay around the cemetery, but I leave it alone,” he said. “I pay the taxes, but as far as I’m concerned that piece of land belongs to them (the people buried in the cemetery). It doesn’t belong to me.”
Janice Cale Sisler, local author and historian, said she knew the graveyard as Cress Cemetery. The cemetery is listed in Sisler’s books, “In Remembrance: Tombstone Readings of Preston County.” There are three volumes.
“My grandfather, Merle Feather, bought the property before World War II,” Feather said. “J. [Jacob] C. Cress built the house I live in 1821.”
The cemetery was there before the house was built.
Feather believes both Cress and his wife are buried in the cemetery.
He said he remembers a story his grandfather told him.
“Granddad said some people brought the hearse in for a burial. The ground was so wet and slick they couldn’t get it up the hill. He said they took the casket out of the hearse and he (granddad) took the casket up to the cemetery on his horses and sled.”
Feather said he believes this happened while his father was serving in the military during the Korean War.
“I believe that was the last person buried here,” he said.
The oldest tombstone in the cemetery bears the date 1818, almost 50 years before West Virginia become a state in 1863.
The writing is illegible on many of the stones and many have fallen into disrepair. Feather said the markers laying down he turned face down to keep the inscriptions from becoming even more unreadable.
Sisler said there are numerous old cemeteries in Preston County that are no longer cared for.
“It just breaks my heart,” she said.
Sisler said some of the cemeteries are beyond just weeding and setting up stones. She said she and her husband worked to restore the old Cale Cemetery.
“It was a big job. It hadn’t been touched for 75 years,” she said. “Next year we are going to try to raise up some of the tombstones.”
Sisler’s books can be found at the Kingwood Public Library or can be purchased at Amazon.com.
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