Place:Lady Dunn Cemetery, Montgomery, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States


NameLady Dunn Cemetery
Alt namesDunn Cemetery
Old Cannelton Burial Ground
Dunn Memorial Parksource: WV Cemetery Preservation Association
Dunn Farm Graveyardsource: WV Cemetery Preservation Association
Dunn Graveyardsource: WV Cemetery Preservation Association
Dunn's Cemeterysource: WV Cemetery Preservation Association
Dunn's Canneltonsource: WV Cemetery Preservation Association
Dunn's Montgomerysource: WV Cemetery Preservation Association
TypeCemetery
Coordinates38.1892°N 81.345°W
Located inMontgomery, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States

The town of Cannelton, which Lady Dunn Cemetery is usually associated with, is located in Fayette county, West Virginia while the cemetery itself is located in Kanawha county, across the river from Montgomery. For readings and photos of this cemetery visit the West Virginia Cemetery Preservation Association.


The Historical Importance of Lady Dunn Cemetery
by Dr. Bert W. Hudson


The Cannelton coal mine and community, the first coal mine and mining community to be established in the Kanawha coal field, have existed for over one hundred and fifty years, which is longer than the State of West Virginia has been in existence. Lady Dunn Cemetery, which was originally called "The Old Cannelton Burial Ground," has been the primary burial ground for residents of the mining community of Cannelton throughout its history. Most of the other mines and mining communities that now exist in the Kanawha coal field and in West Virginia were not established until railroad service reached the area during the 1880's and 1890's. (Charleston Daily Mail). Cannelton was one of the stage coach stops on the Midland Trail. On April 30, 1864, some 4,000 Union solders, who were enroute from Charleston to join the Union army's Spring Campaign of that year, camped at Cannelton, which was one of the only settlements between Charleston and Kanawha Falls. After the Civil War, recruiters were sent thoughout the south to recruit freed slaves to work in the Cannelton coal mine. Recruiters were also sent to the ports of New York and Philadephia to recruit miners from the throngs of European immigrants that were then arriving in America. Thus, by the late 1860's and well before most other mining towns were established in the Kanawha coal field, Cannelton was well on the way towards becoming a flourishing mining community comprised of persons of many nationalities and races.

The history of the Cannelton mine and community began in 1848, when Ben Burdette, while engaged in Col. Arron Stockton's lumbering enterprise on Cannelton Mountain, discovered cannel coal, a type of coal that was extremely valuable. By 1849, Col. Arron Stockton, who had operated a ferry and sawmill at Glen Ferris since 1812, was mining cannel coal on Cannelton Mountain and shipping it via flatboats to cities located along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Ben Burdette, the discoverer of cannel coal, spent the remainder of his life working in that mine and living in the community that later became known as Cannelton, West Virginia. The coal was transported out of the mines by ox cart and mule drawn wagons, slid down the mountain side on brush, and then loaded into barges for shipment. In 1852, the cannel coal mine was leased to the Finch brothers who built an incline for sliding coal down the mountain and a tipple in which the coal was separated from rock and slag and loaded into barges. Col. Stockton's cannel coal mine was located on the mountain bordering the north side of the Kanawha River and present day US Route 60, which is across opposite the site of the present city of Montgomery, West Virginia. In June, 1871, Cannelton Coal and Coke Company, which was incorporated in the same year, acquired the 2,100 acres of coal lands on which the Cannelton mining enterprise was based. In 1876, the first post office within the vicinity of the Cannelton mining enterprise was established at the Kanawha river site at which coal from the Cannelton mine was loaded into barges for shipment downriver. That post office was located at the site of the present city of Montgomery, West Virginia, but it bore the name of Cannelton Station until the city of Montgomery was incorporated on April 1, 1891.

The Lady Dunn Cemetery, which is located on Col. Stockton's original mining claim is near the Cannelton tipple on the north side of US Route 60, opposite the city of Montgomery, WV., has been the primary burial site for the residents of Cannelton since the community was established over 150 years ago. This author estimates that over 1,000 individuals of all races and nationalities were buried in Lady Dunn Cemetery during the period 1850 to 2004. Prior to the Civil War, all of the miners working in the cannel coal mine on Cannelton Mountain were slaves. At that time the technology needed to make underground mining safe did not exist and the owners of the Cannelton mine were probably unwilling to bear the cost of burying slaves in private cemeteries. Therefore, it is a near certainty that slaves died while working in the Cannelton mine and that they were buried somewhere on the 2,100 acres of Cannelton Mountain that were owned by the Cannelton mining company. Since most of that property was taken up by coal mining operations it is a near certainty that the area originally used for slave burials later became the Lady Dunn Cemetery. Therefore, there it is very likely that the site now known as the Lady Dunn cemetery was the burial place of slaves who died while working in the Cannelton coal mine as well as that of the white miners who later worked in that mine.

Cannel coal was very valuable during the mid 1800's because it had such a high oil content that kerosene oil could be refined from it. Thus, in 1856, Coon, Picket & Company, which had leased the cannel coal mine from Col. Stockton, constructed a refinery at Cannelton to produce kerosene oil from cannel coal that was being mined there. At that time candles and kerosene oil lamps provided the lighting in American homes and offices. By the late 1850's the refinery at Cannelton was producing up to 3,000 gallons of kerosene per day. The refining of cannel oil continued at Cannelton until the oil wells of Titusville, Pa., came into production in 1866. However, American industrialization, which was well underway by that time, had created a huge market for coal to fuel steel furnaces and steam boilers in this country and abroad. Thus, coal production, some of which still exists at Cannelton and throughout the Kanawha coal field, was very a important element in the history of American industrial development.

Although many, if not most, mining communities practiced racial segregation by providing seperate housing areas for whites and African-Americans but Cannelton's housing was always integrated. Cannelton's policy regarding access to company housing was first come, first served, without regard to race. However, during the time the author lived in Cannelton's racially integrated housing, he observed that in Gallagher and several other coal mining villages African-American families were forced to live in separate areas termed "black town." Although his family of origin and as well as many other families living in Cannelton's several neighborhoods lived amid African-American neighbors, this author was never been aware of the existence of any racial conflict among the families of that community.

In the opinion of this author, there is much that is of major historical importance in the long history of the Cannelton community and its Lady Dunn Cemetery. First, Cannelton was the first coal mine and mining community to be established in the Kanawha coal field, which was West Virginia's most productive and important coal producing. All the mining at the Cannelton mine was done by slaves prior to the Civil War. Therefore, it is a near certainty that slaves died while working in the Cannelton mine and were interred in the "Old Cannelton Burial Ground," which later became know as the Lady Dunn Cemetery. Third, the Lady Dunn Cemetery has been the burial ground for Cannelton's miners and their families, a community made up of many nationalities, for over 150 years. Fourth, Cannelton was a major center for the production of kerosene oil, the fuel that lighted American homes and offices, before oil wells were drilled in this country. Fifth, Cannelton was one of the first mining communities at which employee housing was fully integrated.

In conclusion, this writer submits that the information contained herein show with utmost clarity that Lady Dunn Cemetery is of such historical importance that the preservation and protection of the site should be given the highest priority by the State of West Virginia and the federal government. This author also submits that these data show that Cannelton and its Lady Dunn Cemetery are of such historical importance that both sites should be listed on the Federal Registry of Historical Places.


Dr. Bert W. Hudson
(Posted here with author's permission)

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