WATERS CEMETERY, Logan County, Kentucky

Back in 2003, one of my distant cousins and I had the opportunity to recover and rennovate a small forgotten family cemetery.  My 4th Great-Grandmother, both my 3rd Great-Grandparents, and a couple of their grandchildren are buried there.  More information will follow on these folks, but what I want to mainly focus on is the cemetery rennovation.

From Russellville, Kentucky, it is located east of U.S. 79 South between KY 1151 and KY 1309; headed southwest, look for the first gravel road on the left just after crossing Whippoorwill Creek.  Take the first lane right on up to the cemetery.  GPS: N 36.78109 W 086.99606

The Nelson H. Waters Family Cemetery Renovation Project:

The Waters Family Cemetery is located in southwest Logan County, Kentucky in the Old Volney community on what used to be the Nelson H. Waters Homeplace.  It had been neglected for many years with thick brush, fallen trees, and poison oak taking over.  Check out these photos of our on-going renovation:

WORK DAY 1 (March 8, 2003)

 Waters Cemetery before we started renovations:

How we found my 3^rd Great-Grandmother, Eliza Ann Duvall’s, gravestone:

How the cemetery appeared after a good morning’s work:

WORK DAY 2 (March 22, 2003)

We continued to clean up debris and burn it.  We made a major find!  Several stones unearthed:

 Found Nelson H. Waters tombstone:

 Found Mary Waters tombstone:

 You may be wondering how do we locate these buried stones.  We used long metal rods to probe the soft earth until we literally bumped into something.  At that point, we began to dig and determine if we hd just found a rock, a brick, or part of a tombstone.

WORK DAY 3 (April 12, 2003)

 N.H.’s tombstone base was buried deep.  Notice the slot engraved in the top:

After clearing, we used a roto-tiller to level the ground:

The site is beginning to look better, but we still have more work to do:

We are still finding random pieces every now and then.  Today we found N.H.’s base (with the slot) and Mary’s base.  Mary Waters’ tombstone has been broken off at its base and will have to be repaired.   It may be one of the oldest tombstones in Logan County of this unique style.  The stone and base was carved into one solid piece.  Notice the match between Mary’s stone and its base:

WORK DAY 4 (April 23, 2003)

 We built the forms and poured the concrete for the stone bases:

 First discovery of the day: Eliza A. Duvall Waters’ foot stone:

Second discovery of the day: Louise Waters’ tombstone:

Notice the crack at the top of Louise’s stone; it will have to be repaired.  Louise was not listed as being buried here.  This was quite a fortunate find.  We now have documented five graves in this cemetery.  Louise was the third daughter of Braden Waters and Nannie King; she died when she was eight years old.

WORK DAY 5 (May 3, 2003)

We continued to reinforce the bases of the stones; here is Mary Waters’ stone:

Now it was time to begin repairing the broken stones.   We mixed the special concrete epoxy to mount Eliza’s stone to the base:

We used a tractor to help lift some stones into place:

 N.H. Waters’ clamped and glued stone:

This place is looking more like a cemetery now!  What do you think?

MAY 10, 2003

We have been able to fill some of the excavations and level the ground around the repaired stones.  Here are a couple of views of the site as it is on this day: