Glenfawn Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of Glenfawn Cemetery. Now, every graveyard has a beginning, and this one starts with an ending. The cemetery was begun after the death of Julien Sidney Devereux, born in 1805, gone by 1856.

When the ground was broken for him, the family didn't stop there. The remains of his father, John W. Devereux, born in 1769 and gone in 1847, were reinterred there, along with those of an infant son.

So from the very start, this plot held three generations of one family. They called it Devereux, and also Sand Field, and it served the nearby Forest Hill community, just a mile to the north. That community itself was home to an academy that Julien Sidney Devereux had founded back in 1850.

A man who builds a school and then becomes the reason the cemetery opens. That's a heavy piece of ground. Now, things changed in 1872.

That was the year a post office opened, with Charles Nunnally serving as postmaster, and with that opening came a new name: Glenfawn. The settlement around it had filled out by then. Several stores, two blacksmiths, a school, a church, a Masonic Lodge building.

And just to the east of the cemetery itself stood the old Methodist-Baptist Church. A whole little world gathered around that quiet plot of ground. The names changed.

The post office opened. The settlement grew up around it. But the cemetery was there first, holding the Devereux family, waiting on the rest of the story to catch up.

What the marker says

Cemetery was begun after the death of Julien Sidney Devereux (1805-56), with the remains of his father, John W. Devereux (1769-1847), and an infant son reinterred soon after. Called Devereux and Sand Field, the plot served nearby Forest Hill community ( 1 mile N), site of academy founded by Devereux in 1850. Name was changed to Glenfawn in 1872 when post office opened with Charles Nunnally, postmaster. The settlement had several stores, two blacksmiths, school, church and Masonic Lodge building. The old Methodist-Baptist Church was located east of cemetery.