Mounts Cemetery

In reading articles on this website I note that there is some confusion as to the name of the cemetery located at the stoplight intersection of the RT 119/91 Mud Fork connector road from the Corridor G-Logan connector road RT 73 near the college. Some people refer to this cemetery as the BAISDEN CEMETERY, others refer to it as the MOUNTS CEMETERY. Some may also refer to it as the LUTHER MOUNTS CEMETERY or as the SHAMROCK CEMETERY.

I have no personal knowledge about the naming of this cemetery. I will note that on all of the government’s USGS topography maps since 1963 (1976, 1989 and 1996), the cemetery in question is named BAISDEN CEMETERY. I will note that on all those USGS maps, there is also a MOUNTS CEMETERY shown up in Lower Dempsey Branch. This MOUNTS CEMETERY is a few hundred feet away toward the north from the BAISDEN CEMETERY.

Design and construction plan drawings of Corridor G-Logan connector road RT 73 also show the MOUNTS CEMETERY and the BAISDEN CEMETERY as separate and distinct cemeteries at about Station 75+00 of the road on Sheet 44 of the plan drawings. Both of the cemeteries are shown outlined in irregular shapes in heavy black dotted lines. Both cemeteries show that portions of each were taken by the road and some graves may have been relocated from each.

On Sheet 2 of the Corridor G-Logan connector road RT 73 design and construction plan drawings is a listing of the names of parcels that were taken for the road.

A portion of this BAISDEN CEMETERY was taken by the construction of the Corridor G-Logan connector road RT 73. This cemetery is on the SOUTH side of the Corridor G-Logan connector road RT 73. The design and construction plan drawings show a plat map of some 210 graves and a listing of the names in the BAISDEN CEMETERY. Many of the names of graves were listed as “unknown”. The listing also shows the locations of where the relocated graves were relocated to. The BAISDEN CEMETERY area taken by the road is listed on Sheet 2 of the design and construction plan drawings as parcel Number 134.4

A portion of this MOUNTS CEMETERY was taken by the construction of the Corridor G-Logan connector road RT 73. The part taken by the road covers only a small portion of the irregular shaped area of the cemetery outlined in heavy black dotted lines on Sheet 44 of the plan drawings. For the MOUNTS CEMETERY, a 9,731 square foot parcel Number 125.1 was taken from a larger parcel which overlaps only a very small portion of the MOUNTS CEMETERY in question as mapped.

Indications are that there is a plat map of the MOUNTS CEMETERY on Sheet 42 of the design and construction plan drawings. I don’t know if the names of graves in the MOUNTS CEMETERY is listed in the design and construction plan drawings.

If any of the graves of the MOUNTS CEMETERY are still there, they would be on the NORTH side of Logan connector road RT 73, directly opposite the East (Logan) end of the concrete abutment of the U.S. Army SPC Harmon “Hoppy” Lee Hopson Jr. Memorial Bridge. On Google Maps, it appears that there is a fence line of 2-inch pipe posts in that area and there is a power pole nearby. This fence and power pole are visible as you drive by.

It is the historical nature that larger tracts of lands usually ran within a watershed drainage area defined by streams and mountain ridgelines. Accordingly, the original Mounts tract more than likely ran from Mud Fork creek up the point between Lower Dempsey Branch and Lower Baisden Bottom.

Accordingly, it is likely that the boundary line up the point between Lower Dempsey Branch and Lower Baisden Bottom would have the Mounts owning the West side of the point and perhaps Baisdens owning the East (Lower Baisden Bottom side) of the point which could have led to the Baisdens establishing a Baisden cemetery on their side of the point.

The area where the college was built was known as the Luther Mounts farm which had a single large house on several acres of land. It would not be too unreasonable to assume the MOUNTS CEMETERY up in Lower Dempsey Branch may have been established as a family cemetery by the Mounts family on the upper end of their own property.

It would be of interest to know where the access road to the “Baisden Cemetery” was prior to the construction of the Corridor G-Logan connector road RT 73.

Note that the areas commonly referred to locally as “Baisden Bottom” and “Lower Baisden Bottom” is labeled as “Lintz Addition” on the USGS HOLDEN QUAD maps. It is interesting to note that the area known as “Lower Baisden Bottom” is listed as the “Town of Litz” on some real estate property records for the area.