The Broadway Presbyterian Church Cemetery is located on land to the north and immediately behind the church in Broadway, Virginia, on land originally donated by Dr. John Q. Winfield. The earliest burial seems to have occurred in 1869. (The church was founded in 1870). The Cemetery’s approximately 15,000 square foot plot is bounded on the west by the tracks of the Norfolk Southern Railway. Louisa Street defines a curved southeast border. Property owned by Jeanne Fawley Davies (deceased 2014) lies to the east. (The two-story residence still on the Davies land is a log house that Dr. Winfield had erected to house a new doctor for Broadway). At the northern edge of the Cemetery the ground level drops away, but extends in a large wedge shaped tract of undeveloped land covered with brush. The graves are roughly arranged in ten north-to-south rows. The rows are not marked, but the east-most row is “Row 1.”
By a current counting, there are 167 marked graves. A Rockingham County Courthouse record declares that there are “unmarked” graves. (In addition there is the marked grave of one beloved dog). Essentially the cemetery is at capacity. Although space remains for several burials, these spaces are amongst family groupings and hence are presumed to be “spoken for.” Unless the undeveloped land to the north can be made suitable by clearing of the woods and massive use of fill dirt, no significant number of new burials can be anticipated. There are no plans currently being discussed for enlarging the Cemetery. Burial of ashes, however, should be possible.
Fees for burial were never assessed, and the concept of “perpetual care funding” was never applied. Periodic appeals have been made to defray mowing costs. In 1965 Elizabeth S. Pearre made a major bequest, the income from which was to provide perpetual “care for the Shoup and Winfield family lots and the general upkeep of the cemetery.” The Cemetery is also currently maintained by contributions received from interested individuals and families, including members of the Broadway Presbyterian Church. Contributions designated for the “Cemetery Fund,” payable to Broadway Presbyterian Church, may be sent to The Counting Team, Broadway Presbyterian Church, P. O. Box 366, Broadway, VA 22815.
Mowing is the on-going major expense, but recently professional work was engaged to benefit several stones that were in particularly critical condition, due to stress fracturing. And in 2009 a very large dead tree was professionally taken down in the very midst of the Cemetery without damage to a single stone. In the 1990s, dedicated members re-erected dozens of stones following a rampage by vandals who overturned a significant fraction of the monuments! The most pressing maintenance need at this time is the leveling of burial sites and the memorials.
The Cemetery continues to be a link between the generations that founded and sustained Broadway Presbyterian Church in the past and the families who are the church’s present and future.
For the listing of persons buried, see BURIALS. (The listing of those buried may contain errors. Please bring needed corrections to the attention of Houston Lynch, Broadway Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 366, Broadway, VA 22815).
