Boone-Naff Cemetery

Locality: Roanoke County                  Temporal Period:                  2nd half 19th c.

Realty Map:          98.04-2-31                              Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Garden City                           Landform:                              Ridge bench

Grid Locus:            G-8                                          Elevation:                              980 feet 

UTM Easting:       594380                                    Aspect:                                  Southeast

UTM Northing:    4115590

Site Dimensions:  30 by 55 feet

Survey Description: Site consists of a small family cemetery containing at least 19 interments.  Observed graves include: nine with uninscribed fieldstone markers, five with inscribed fieldstone markers, two with inscribed marble markers, and three unmarked graves.  Unmarked graves were identified on the basis of ground surface depressions.  Historic plantings include: tulip poplar, hemlock, oak, yucca, periwinkle, and English ivy.  Orientation of graves ranges from 65 to 80 degrees.  Cemetery is not enclosed by any fencing.  Site is situated on a small bench of a ridge which was apparently truncated by road construction.  Cement markers with VHD (Virginia Highway Dept.) on two sides of the site indicate that at least a small part of the cemetery is under VDOT ownership.  Site was field inspected, photographed, and headstone inscriptions were transcribed and compared to previous site documentation.  Site size was estimated by pacing the horizontal extent of observed graves.

Survey Date:         2/98

Field Notes:           _x_Yes   ___No

Photographs:        _x_Yes   ___No

Reference(s):         Roanoke Valley Historical Society

                                1986        Roanoke County Graveyards Through 1920.  Privately printed, RVHS, Roanoke.

Additional Comments: Assigned temporal period was based on the range of death dates inscribed on observed headstones.  These dates range from 1874 through 1895.  However, the presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers may indicate an earlier or later use of the site.  Cemetery is not marked on the USGS Garden City map sheet, but it is marked on local realty/tax assessment maps.

This cemetery was initially surveyed by the RVHS (1986;  22) and their report  provided biographical information on eleven members of the Boone, Naff, and Peters family who were buried in the cemetery.  Some of this information was derived from inscriptions on grave markers, and some of the information was apparently obtained from another source.

Marker Inscriptions:

Issac Naff                                              Chas S. Boone                                      In Memory of

Born                                                       Born                                                       Rebecca Boon.

Mar. 1, 1810,                                          Jan. 16, 1856,                                         Born July 11, 1846

Died                                                        Died                                                        Died June _____

Oct. 3, 1893                                            Nov. 12, 1881.                                       (inscribed fieldstone marker/

Aged                                                      Our father has gone                             stone has sunk and death date

83 yrs. 7 mos. & 2 days                       to a mansion of rest,                            partially buried)

To the glorious land

by the Deity blest.

Boone-Naff Cemetery (continued)

In Memory                                            E.B.W.P.                                                L x Boon

of                                                            1874                                                        Born ??? e ??? 7

Emily Boon                                            (fieldstone marker)                               1815

Born Feb 28, 1879                                                                                 Died Apr 28

____  31, 1884                                                                                                       1895

(fieldstone marker has                                                                                         (partially illegible

sunk so month of death                                                                                      fieldstone marker)

was not determined)

The RVHS provided the following information pertaining to individuals buried in the cemetery,, but associated headstones with inscriptions were not observed during the 1998 survey:

Ellen Boone Peters, deceased 1903

O.W. Boone

Rebekah Flora Boone

Levi Boone

Mary Boone

Doda Boone