Powell Family Cemetery

Date: About 1893 to about 1931
Location: Whaleyville, Worcester, Maryland, United States
Surnames/tags: Powell Williams Lewis

For the Cemetery Category, see Category: Powell Family Cemetery, Whaleyville, Maryland.

I have been intending to go to this old, abandoned cemetery for years. Now, semi-retired, I ran out of excuses and finally went there. There is no street access to the cemetery which is located about 1/2 mile off of the road. I had to ask the homeowner (not the owner of the cemetery) of the house in front of the agricultural field which surrounds the cemetery for permission to park in his driveway to walk back there. He is a very nice young man and was happy to give me permission.

The cemetery has a wire fence around it but the weeds and old grasses are much taller than the fence. The first grave I found upon entering was that of my 2nd great grand mother Margaret Elizabeth Smack Powell (1829-1906) and her husband, my 2nd great grandfather Jacob R. Powell (1829-1893). Their headstones were so covered with algae that they were barely readable. In addition to the weeds and tall grasses, the cemetery had fox holes all over it. One headstone had collapsed on its right side into the ground with only about 1/4 of it above the earth. It was in the worst condition of any cemetery I had ever seen.

I learned who the owner of the cemetery was and got permission to clean it up and make whatever repairs I deemed necessary. Thirty-five days passed between my first visit there and my second. The amount of damage caused by the foxes between the two visits was amazing. On the second visit there were at least three headstones which had sunk into the ground from the tunneling of the foxes. There were holes everywhere.

This will be an ongoing project.