July 1st Grave Hunting In Mecklenburg, Virginia

Tobacco growing in Chase City, Virginia

The first time I visited Mecklenburg County I sought out someone who would help me find the places where my ancestors lived. I was tremendously lucky to find John Caknipe a local historian and author. John graciously offered to take me to the places where my Pattillo ancestors had lived and farmed. John taught history for a time, among other things, and has an intense passion for Mecklenburg history and the surrounding counties.

So before I left home for this trip, I let John know I was coming and that I would contact him when I got to Virginia. A couple days ahead I emailed and asked if I could take him and his wife Betty to lunch. He gave me directions to his log home in Clarksville and as soon as I walked in John began to tell stories. Fortunately, I remembered to bring my digital recorder, so I turned it on and sat back to enjoy the tales. John has an extraordinary memory and can tell you something about pretty much every building, family, business and event that took place around here.

Flower of the tobacco plant

When I emailed John I told him what I most wanted to accomplish on this trip was to find and photograph the gravesites of some of my ancestors. John emailed back 29 pages of articles he’d written for the local paper. Two of the articles featured my 2^nd great grandfather James H. Pattillo. He also contacted his cousin who works at the Boydton Library and asked her to track down whatever they had about Pattillo burial locations.

I used that information along with things I’d found on my own and printed out Google maps of each place. This was a little tricky because several of the place names and street names have changed. For example Hanford is now called Skipwith and Black Branch Road is now Highway 47. Considering all things Google did a pretty amazing job of finding the places I sought. John helped me solve some of these name puzzles and helped me plan a sensible route.

Land Family plot with Robert C. Land, Mary Willis Land
and Florence E. Land in Trinity Church Cemetery

So, after our lunch a wonderful visit, I headed for Trinity Church Cemetery in Skipwith and had immediate success finding Robert C. Land in the front row with an upright headstone. Unfortunately the date of death told me this was not the Robert C. Land who died in 1847 and was my 3^rd great grandfather. I am confident it is one of his descendants though. I just need to figure out the familial connection.

Next I headed for New Hope Baptist Church because James H. Pattillo was living nearby during the 1870 census. I was interested to see that tobacco is still being grown in the area where he had farmed tobacco. A little further north was Chase City and Woodlawn Cemetery where James’s brother Robert H. Pattillo and his son, Robert W. Pattillo are buried.

Robert H. Pattillo my great uncle

Robert W. Pattillo my 1st cousin twice removed

I found the cemetery easily and entered from the west side. This was a large cemetery divided into 7 sections, and with hundreds of graves. How to find the two I was looking for? These were common citizens, so I did not expect an upright headstone with a large PATTILLO engraved in stone. I felt it was much more likely that they would have modest, flat headstones, i.e. hard to find. I decided to start by walking over to the mausoleums on the east side, hoping there might possibly be a directory of who was buried where. Silly me. Next I started looking at the dates on the headstones and quickly realized I was in a newer section. I needed to be in the oldest part of the cemetery.

I walked back towards where I’d parked and chatted with a local who told me everything west of the Magnolia was the oldest area, so I focused there. I did my best to walk by every row of graves reading off names aloud as I passed. There was no one else in sight so no one heard me. This is not a military cemetery and the graves are not perfectly aligned so I needed to take care to not miss a low, flat stone.

The clouds were getting darker and then I felt a few sprinkles but did I give up? Oh no. Finally after finishing two sections, having walked about a mile and read off a couple hundred names or so, I needed to go back to the motorhome for water. Did I mention it was hot and humid?

Then when I was maybe 12’ from the motorhome, there they were – father and son, side by side, two modest, flat headstones exactly how I’d envisioned them. I got the water and a brush to sweep off the red soil and clean the lettering, noticing as I did that Robert W. Pattillo had a Mason symbol engraved on his headstone. I lingered for a few minutes and told my great uncle and 1^st cousin twice removed that I was very happy to find them. 

New Hope Baptist Church. James H. Pattillo lived nearby in 1870

A couple more shots of the tobacco fields