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Through good fortune, I recently contacted my father's first cousin, who lived on a part of the Radford land that has been in the Radford family for over two hundred years. He said that he knew where the older of the two Radford cemeteries are. He thought that the older cemetery was on Blue Ridge Parkway land, and had been debrushed by them a number of years ago, but is again overgrown. I contacted the Park Servie to see if they had any record of that cemetery. They have been very cordial, and I believe helpful. Following is the last e-mail that I received from Bambi, one of their rangers. In that e-mail, Bambi forwarded an e-mail from someone she asked to research my request.
Bambi,
Just talked to Tom and Jon Murphy. Neither of those Radford cemeteries are inside of park boundary, Both are on private land. The larger of the two and the one that is still well kept is just north of milepost 152. It is
on the property of Arlene Turner. The access to that cemetery has been a real point of contention between Ms. Turner and Jesse Sutphin. The park has stayed out of it because it is on private land. Park land used to touch it on one side but with realignment of the state road some years ago, we are now completely out of the picture.
The second and smaller Radford cemetery is south of that point. It, too, is on parkway right and just immediately south of Smart View Overlook. It abuts the parkway land on two sides but is not on our property. That land was recently sold and Jon Murphy went up there to meet the landowner to help establish the boundary line. He saw the cemetery while there.
I would say the closest access to St Rt 888 is at milepost 153.6. There is a county road named Remington Road that one could use to access State Route 888. Turn south on 888 and traveling about one mile would put him at the
cabin (on the left of the state road) where this cemetery is located.
I don't know how well the boundary is marked there but Murphy and Tom both say it is not on our property. We looked at the land use maps and they verify that neither of the Radford cemeteries are on NPS property.
Talk with you later.
Rick Baker
Plateau District
Facility Manager
What now seems to be needed is for a volunteer to go up there, locate the cemetery, and see what records can be salvaged. I believe that there is a good possiblity that not only James Radford senior, and his wife Mary are buried there, but also some of the older Janney and Gillespie (Galaspe back then) may share that resting place.
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