10 December 2010

Lost In The Woods



Over Thanksgiving Break I began the process of restoring the Wright's Chapel Cemetery in Graves Co., Kentucky. It is located six miles northwest of Mayfield on Highway 80. The cemetery contains over 40 known burials.

Josiah McGehee Wright came to Graves County from Warren County, Kentucky, in 1837. He and his son, William James Wright, bought 480 acres of land four miles east of Fancy Farm. He was a devout Methodist and since there was no church nearby, he offered his home as a meeting place for the traveling circuit rider.

In 1845, a log schoolhouse was built in the neighborhood that had become known as the Wright's Chapel neighborhood. Two years later the church was officially organized and met in the schoolhouse. In 1866, a new church building was built. That same year Josiah McGehee Wright's son, Robert Thackston Wright, became the pastor of the church, a position he held for 65 years.

The schoolhouse and the church are all now long gone. All that remains is an abandoned cemetery that is... lost in the woods.

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