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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Pay Dirt...At Last!

     Recently, my gravin' buddies and I went on a mission to find some lost cemeteries in Benton Co., AR.  Not only did we enjoy ourselves, but we accomplished the mission as well.  Our first stop was to find the elusive Wayt Family Cemetery.   Alvin and I went about 3 miles east of Maysville and first searched through field near a pond.  From the satellite photo there was an unusual fenced off square that we thought might be a possible cemetery.  As it turned out, it was not.  Next, we decided to go to a nearby farm and see if we could visit a cemetery there.  The graves we were hunting for were of the Cornett children.  The owner gave us permission and this is what we found:

 Cornett graves as we found them
 The only nearly complete stone we found
 The mysterious foot stone of M.C.

 Believed to be the headstone of Emmett Cornett
 Grave of a pet, Age 9
The Cornett graves after some minor excavation

     Plans are being made to revisit this historical cemetery.  Where there are base stones or foot stones, there must be some headstones too.  Also, it is believed that the father, Marshall Cornett is buried here with the children.  The foot stone seems to indicate this.  All we need is a headstone.
     Next, Alvin and I headed to look for the Wayt Cemetery.  We knew we were in the right area, but we just could not locate it without help.  So we went and visted with Mr. Pritchard.  Bingo!  Mr. Pritchard knew about the cemetery and also talked about the encampment and the Harmonious Vegetarian Society located near his home.  However, he said that the Wayt graveyard was on the next property over as was the site of the Harmonious Vegetarian Society buildings.    He also spoke of another small graveyard located on 80 acres he used to own and told us how to get there.  He didn't seem to positive about the neighbors cooperation, but we headed over there anyway.
     Mr. Holloway greeted us in the driveway and after talking about a few local things we spoke about the Wayt Family cemetery.  He confirmed that it was on his property that he had leased out and for that reason he could not allow us to go back there.  However, he mentioned that he would take the pictures himself.  So we had to settle for that and we were unsuccessful in accessing the cemetery for ourselves.  So while we do not have any pictures, we do have a grave listing from 1964:

Allen G. Wayt
Nov 25, 1810 -Jan 2, 1884
Age 74 Years

Allen S. Wayt
June 7, 1855 - July 22, 1881

Eliza B. Wooden, wife of James "Jim" Wooden
Sept 20, 1866 - Aug 22, 1886

Eless Wayt*
June 22, 1877-July 22, 1878

Byron Wayt*
May 12, 1872 - Dec 23, 1873

*These two names are on one stone.

    Due to some confusion in the past, it was believed that the Cornett family and the Wayt family were one in the same or at least in really close proximity.  This seemed to by why they were always placed together.  However, the cemeteries, while in reasonably close proximity (about 1 mile apart), they are defintely two separate cemeteries.  Through later research it was learned that the Cornett and Wayt families are related.

     We did attempt to find the other cemetery that Mr. Pritchard informed us about, but were not successful in finding it...rather nobody was home to ask.  However, later follow-up research yields positive results and we hope to visit this graveyard really soon.  Watch for the result here!
   
     Thus ends our adventure for this time....