Second Stop: The actual site of Fort Chiswell, according to Mary Kegley, is buried under 30 feet of fill dirt placed when Interstate 77 was built. We will have the bus drive on the service road between The Mansion at Fort Chiswell (Exit 80) and Exit 77 (paralleling the interstate) to see the state historic sign for the McGavock family cemetery (and perhaps the cemetery itself) near here.

Text from the nomination of the cemetery for historic status:  The McGavock Family Cemetery is noted for its rich collection of 19th-century funerary art, including an important group of Germanic stones, the only ones of their type located in a family burying ground. The stones are attributed to Laurance Krone, the best of the region's Germanic carvers, and the only one to be identified by name.  In addition t o its a r t i s t i c interest, the McGavock cemetery is significant for itsassociation with a prominent Southwest Virginia pioneer family James McGavock, Sr. of Rockbridge County moved to what is now Wythe County in 1771 where he purchased the Fort Chiswell property and established a highly successful ordinary. At his death in 1812 the tract was left to a son, James McGavock, Jr., (1764-1838). He was in turn succeeded by his two sons Joseph Cloyd McGavock and Stephen M. McGavock. These two men undertook a massive improvement project emblematic of their family's status as one of Wythe County's oldest and most influential clans. Immediately after their father's death they built themselves the enormous brick Greek Revival-style mansion which overlooks the site of the original family house. At the same time, they commemorated the family's long prominence in the area by engaging Laurence Krone, the county's most skilful carver, to fashion monuments for their father, grandfather, and aunts and uncles. These stones equal in craftsmanship and design the high quality of the mansion, and like it are the marks of a family certain of its position and eager to display it to the world.  The McGavock family continued to bury its members under elaborate monuments there throughout the 19th century, and the cemetery remains in use today.

Third Stop:  Wythe County Genealogical and Historical Association, 115 East Main Street, Wytheville.  We will proceed down Main Street in Wytheville to this store front building, with its fine collection of marriage, death, and birth records, to meet with and hear a presentation by its principal volunteer staff person and distinguished researcher and author, Mary B. Kegley.  (Ms. Kegley is related to George Kegley of Roanoke by a former marriage to George’s cousin.)  Ms. Kegley is an extremely well-informed and well-spoken authority on the colonial period in Southwest Virginia and will speak to us about not only the Fincastle Resolutions but about the lead mines and how people lived in that area at that time.  (See her article, “Fort Chiswell and Chiswell’s Lead Mines of Wythe County, Virginia: A New Perspective,” in Vol. XIV, 2010 of The Smithfield Review.)   Text from her website:

Author and attorney Mary Kegley has been researching the genealogy of Southwest Virginia families for over 45 years. She has a Masters degree in history from Radford University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Richmond. The combination of history and the law has been an asset in understanding the court records which play a great role in authenticating the information used in her publications.

She was chosen by the Wythe County Bicentennial Commission to write its bicentennial history. As a professional researcher, she has documented hundreds of families on the Virginia frontier both in text and photographs in her fifty publications, and has researched and written more than 400 family sketches of these early adventurers.  Kegley continues to publish actual records from the courthouse, bringing a wealth of material to the attention of the genealogists and historians which otherwise would not be available. Her books are well known all over the United States and have also served as valuable resources for researchers in Northern Ireland, England, Canada, and Australia.

Notes from Mary Kegley on June 19, 2013:  “There is no record to show lead was found in 1756, and Fort Chiswell was not developed by James Chiswell.  The discoverer of the lead was John Chiswell and he had nothing to do with building the fort, said to be named in his (John’s) honor.  The fort is too far away to protect the lead mines and was not on the “Great Wilderness Road.””  She will expand on all this in her talk.