Articles
HISTORICAL SOCIETY DONATES SIGN MARKING
OLD BROOKSVILLE WOODWARD CEMETERY
The Old Brooksville Woodward Cemetery located at the eastern junction of KY 19 & KY 10 has a new sign! After several years of fundraisers and donations directed toward cemetery signage, the Bracken County Historical Society has given recognition to Brooksville’s oldest cemetery.
The name was chosen by a committee after researching former names listed over two centuries. The sign gives reference to father and son William and Joel Woodward who settled this high central point of trail crossroads in Bracken Co., which became known as Woodward’s Cross Roads prior to 1839 then was renamed Brooksville after the county State Legislator David Brooks. The earliest burials recorded in a cataloging done by the Society in 1999 and published in Bracken County Kentucky Cemeteries and Burial Sites 1796 -1999 noted grave sites from 1805, 1807, & 1808, all named Woodward. Also noted were 13 known Civil War soldiers, WWI and some WWII veterans and Brooksville’s founding families.
The beautiful new sign notes the 1805 date and a Veterans logo along with the Bracken Historical Society logo.
It was constructed from laser cut steel, welded and painted by local artisan Buck Bauer of Metal Connections located on 55 Neave Ridge Road, Brooksville 606-782-5963. Buck is the nephew of our former well known and recently passed, area historian and Society VP Al Bauer, whom we know would be very proud to see this sign erected.
Several summers ago a group of concerned locals, Monte & Sue Case and Roberta Shepherd, who’s Case relatives occupy a large plot in the cemetery, started working clearing out overgrown brush and hidden grave sites discovering many toppled tombstones and completely covered grave sites. Interest grew and Mayor Craig Hester along with his wife Mary became involved. Mary contacted Northern KY University Department of History, Geography and Anthropology. The Mayor brought in heavier equipment to start uncovering many long forgotten graves . Steve Free donated his time to upright and reset veteran stones found in piles and leaning against trees. The Mayor and historical society met with Dr. Sharyn Jones and Dr. Brian Hackett who brought in NKY students to the cemetery with special instruments to locate graves. Findings concluded that the cemetery is twice as large as it seemed previously.
Thanks to the City of Brooksville and Darrell Tucker for continuing to mow and maintain the cemetery. Much more work could always be done in cleaning and righting headstones. The Society is grateful and acknowledges several other concerned historians in the county who are presently doing the same in Augusta’s Hillside Cemetery and a cemeteries throughout the county. The Society would like to continue the campaign to place signs in county cemeteries. If you would like to donate toward this effort, please contact them by email [email protected], call 606-735-3337 or visit the business office on Fridays in the same building as the 911 Dispatch office or at The Haley House Museum on Saturdays.
This worthy organization is an all volunteer, non-profit Historical Society that maintains Bracken County’s pre-1900 archives of legal documents, does genealogy and historical research for a fee. If you would like to join us or pursue finding your relatives burial sites or work on your genealogy, contact us. We are always at work PRESERVING OUR HISTORY!