“I came up here to figure out a way to straighten some of these stones out,” Davison said on a recent walk through Green Mount. “One day I saw some people who were resetting the stones so I volunteered to work with them.”
Green Mount would become the first of hundreds of cemeteries that Davison would find himself involved with in one way or another.
“It started with family,” Davison said. “I knew there was a Negro Run Cemetery in Gilmore Township. I found the record for it and it said there was one white and 30 Negroes buried there. I thought they almost have to be family, at least one of them.”
When Davison traveled to the cemetery he said he was saddened to find just one grave stone. It marked the grave of the only white believed to be buried there. Davison desired to learn more.
As he began looking at maps and cemetery records for Greene County he found many more cemeteries, like this one, that were all but forgotten. And, although Davison’s quest is always driven by the search for his own family, he realized there were many other people in the same position – missing pieces of their history.
Davison purchased a topographic map and began seeking “all” of the cemeteries in Greene County, including small family plots. When he started he was told there were around 400 burial places in the county. However, through this labor of love to locate all of them, he has identified just over 600…so far, he notes.
Surprisingly, many family plots and even some church cemeteries have been moved over the years in the name of progress, or simply left behind and forgotten. These are the ones that Davison works the hardest to document.
Using a centuries-old technique for finding water underground, Davison walks through areas believed to contain graves. Carrying an ‘L’ shaped piece of wire, known as a dowsing rod, he attempts to locate them. The rod, held loosely in the hand with the end pointing upward, will turn downward when it hits upon a disturbance under the ground. It turns back when one steps outside of the area of disturbance, allowing the user to mark off the perimeter of a grave.
While dowsing has been known as a means of locating water beneath the ground, Davison used it to find possible abandoned graves in Waynesburg Borough’s Monument Park just below Waynesburg University’s Buhl Hall.
For a time this park was the resting place for two groups of people. It once held the St. Ann Catholic Church Cemetery and the Protestant Church Cemetery. The area was then known as “The Waynesburg Commons,” and it was open to all citizens of Waynesburg for their use. Hogs, horses, cows and other livestock roamed free in The Commons. This of course created a problem when they ran through the cemeteries knocking over grave markers.
In 1870, Waynesburg Borough Council passed an ordinance that prohibited further burials within borough limits. Seven years later the Roman Catholic Church purchased land on the north side of Green Mount and moved their dead from The Commons to this new location.
In 1879 borough council ordered all remaining graves in The Commons to be reinterred at Green Mount. Family members were to be contacted and their permission sought. Historical documents indicate difficulty in reaching some of the descendants and it is unknown if all of the graves were moved. Through dowsing, Davison believes the reason there is no record of them all being moved is that there are still remains beneath The Commons.
This would not be unheard of since there are several locations in the county where cemeteries once existed with no record of where the graves were moved to, if they were in fact moved, according to Davison.
A parking lot is currently located where the Methodist Church Cemetery once sat in Jefferson, according to Davison. The markers have been moved but Davison found no record of the remains having been moved with them.
There has been substantial residential development in the area in East Waynesburg where a cemetery once stood. Records indicate these graves were moved to Green Mount Cemetery and a marker there lists the names of those who were interred in East Waynesburg. Again, it is unclear if all were moved.
A cemetery behind the Greene Academy in Carmichaels has a single marker left. Locals say the graves were moved to nearby Laurel Falls Cemetery, but this, too, is in question.
Yet another cemetery above the Greene County Prison on Rolling Meadows Road sat for decades, unmarked and virtually forgotten. A handful of markers proved it was the cemetery for the county’s poor farm. Davison fought to have the land protected and crosses were placed where dowsing indicated graves are located.
As he continues his search, Davison, a Vietnam War veteran, is always mindful of his fallen comrades in forgotten locations. More than 80 veterans’ graves in Greene County have received the proper military markings, thanks to his efforts.
“They changed the law after 2002. You can get a veteran’s marker no matter what, even if they have a family marker,” he said.
Continuing to walk through Green Mount Cemetery, Davison becomes more serious.
“There are 280 graves in the “colored” section. Only 50 or 60 are marked,” he said. “In the spring, before they are cut down, peonies will come up and you can see where some of the unmarked ones are located.”
These are the graves of those whose families once tended but the relatives have either moved, become unable to care for them or have passed themselves, Davison said.
Looking north, he noted that the backs of the final row of grave stones in the Catholic Church cemetery is the point where the “colored” section of Green Mount Cemetery begins, over a hillside and stretching the length of half a football field.
This is where many of Davison’s immediate family are buried, including his mother, father, brother, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. The majority of the men in his family are war veterans dating to the Civil War.
“Most didn’t have military markers. I made sure they did,” he said.
Walking on solemnly, Davison asks, “You see that brick dividing line there? That divides the pauper’s section from the main section.”
Using topographic maps and dowsing Davison believes the pauper graves are under an access road and in among an area of weeds. No graves appear to be marked here. Circumstances like these are unacceptable to Davison and that’s why he continues to work diligently to account for Greene County’s dead and the history that was buried with them.
“People come in to the (Cornerstone) Genealogical Society all the time and ask us about cemeteries,” Davison said. “Sometimes I have an answer for them and sometimes it is a question I haven’t heard yet.”
Regardless, Davison continues to mark the resting places of his and other families, one by one, on a map that can be seen at Cornerstone Genealogical Society. Most weekdays that is where Davison can be found, pouring over records, checking and rechecking, and then documenting, always documenting.
It was the Hennen Cemetery Maps created by James and Dorothy Hennen that Davison used in the beginning. They started the search. Davison is mindful of those who came before and is certain others will carry on.
“I did not begin the cemetery research of Greene County and it will continue long after me,” he said.
