Pearis Cemetery: Pearisburg, Virginia

I live in a place commonly referred to as Giles County, Virginia. While there may not seem like there are too many historical sites to visit while in the county, there are some that may be appealing to the people who inhabit the county. I asked around if there were any places in the county that the residence would say is a historical site and which one would they say is most important to them. The answer I got was "The Pearis Cemetery". I thought, why would a cemetery be the most important historical site to so many people?

Captain George Pearis Grave Site

This is the grave stone of Captain George Pearis. Pearis was a Captain in the Colonial Army during the Revolutionary War. He was wounded during the war but lived until 1810. After the war, Pearis bought a large amount of land from another famous family from Montgomery County. It was in 1806 that Giles County became sectioned off from Montgomery County and became it's own county. George Pearis donated land to the county government so that they could make their county seat, which remains the same to this day, "Pearisburg, Virginia." 

The Cemetery is also a historical because, while sectioning off townships in the county, while it was still very young, the town boarder between Narrows and Pearisburg was indecisive. the New River ran through one half of the boarder, but there were still many miles to dispute. The Cemetery became the general boarder line between the two towns. Arguably, George Pearis's grave stone is the actual line; however, actual geographical concordances would say that the line is actually on the outside of the cemetery; more towards the Narrows side of the cemetery. 

The Pearis Cemetery "Panorama" View

This panorama view of the cemetery is the best view of the cemetery. There are 250 discovered graves in this cemetery, though most of them are unmarked, now, and could only be deemed a grave site because of the sunken soil. The ages in this cemetery range from just a few months old to a woman who was over 100 when she died. However, the earliest tombstone belongs to Captain George Pearis (1810). There are also four confederate soldiers buried in this cemetery who were killed in action in a small skirmish that occurred in Pearisburg, Virginia a couple of days before the battle of Cloyd's Mountain. In this cemetery also, are two of the founders of the township of Narrows, Virginia. Two men with the last name Hare, who owned a large portion of what is now considered the downtown section of Narrows, Virginia.

South Wing of the Cemetery

North Wing of the Cemetery

After the 1910s there were no more burials in the cemetery and the cemetery was forgotten about. Until recently the cemetery was buried under large portions of brush and leaves. However, in the early 2000's, as a Boy Scouts project, with county funding, the cemetery was uncovered and revived back to the way it may have looked in the late 1800s. There are still many graves that are uncovered and work continues to move more brush and leaves from the mountain to preserve this sacred cemetery.

Now that I have researched about the cemetery, and have visited the cemetery myself; I can see why it is such an important part of Giles County History, and Virginia History as well.