Dutch Hollow Hanger Cemetery is nestled on the side of one of the slopes that forms Dutch Hollow. It is difficult to find but easy to get to, sort of. If you find your way to the intersection of Broadhead School Road and Wagon Shop Road in Augusta County, Virginia and look northwest from that point you will see it. For access to the cemetery, call (540) 490-1506. You can drive right up to it but currently there are no signs and the access is through private property, and not from that location. Once there, the tranquility of the spot will make you want to stay for a while.
All of the headstones face east, and when the morning sun is rising and casting its light on the stones, they seem to glow. If you wish to photograph any of the stones, I strongly encourage you to plan a morning visit on a day when there is ample sunlight to be had.
The cemetery location appears on the 1736 Beverly land grant map which has orginal grantee names recorded from 1738-1815. While the oldest found marked headstone is dated 1798, the cemetery most assuredly has graves much older than that. Even using the known date of 1798, the graveyard has been there for at least 224 years.
The list of names from the headstones are the same names of folks who settled and lived in Dutch Hollow. Following the trail of their descendants, their graves can be found at cemeteries such as Old Providence Associate refromed Presbyterian Church, about four miles from Dutch Hollow, where worship has been continuous since the 1740s when settlers were meeting at South Mountain Meeting House, the predecessor to Old Providence. While the Scotch-Irish obtained some of the first lands in and around Dutch Hollow in the 1730s, by the 1760s the Germans were buying some of that same land from the Scotch-Irish and settling . St. John's, also nearby, was a German Reformed Church and her register is full of German names recorded as far back as the mid-1700s. The church began with a German speaking minister and later had both a German and English speaker, and then finally transitioned to all English services. Finding a church cemetery, or for that matter any cemetery, within a horse and buggy ride of Dutch Hollow without one or more surnames from Dutch Hollow would be difficult today.
To illustrate the demographic impact of those descendants of Dutch Hollow Hanger Cemetery, The following article is offered, found in the January 25, 1870 issue of The Staunton Spectator newspaper. CENTENARIAN.-We mentioned the fact not long since that Mrs. Catherine Fulwiler, living in Dutch Hollow, in this county, was 101 years old on the 1st day of January last. Though she was the only child of her parents, she is the mother of 14 children, 101 grandchildren, between 500 and 600 great grandchildren, and between 15 and 20 great great grandchildren of the fifth generation-Staunton Spectator.
And how does this dovetail with those buried at Dutch Hollow Hanger Cemetery? Well, Catherine's Brother is buried there, a sister-in-law is buried there, two of her neices and their husbands are buried there, and many of their children and spouses are buried there. The list continues. And with Catherine's place of burial unknown beyond being listed as being in Augusta County, an argument could be made that she could be buried there too.
Catherine is just one example of the many mysteries that surround Dutch Hollow Hanger Cemetery, but collectively we can solve some of these mysteries. You can be a part of and take advantage of the research. What do you think? Let's use this website and get to work, shall we?
