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Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Southwest Virginia » Washington County » Abingdon and Vicinity » Sinking Spring Cemetery

Sinking Spring Cemetery

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1772 established. Russell Rd. at Valley St.

The cemetery is at the site of the first Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church (see WS8). The graveyard contains the tombs of men who fought in the American Revolution, three former Virginia governors, a small African American section, and a walled section for unknown Confederate soldiers. The most striking grave, perhaps reflecting the influence of George Washington's original tomb at Mount Vernon, is a masonry vault covered with earth and containing the 1890s tombstones of John Henry and Melinda Martin. Near this vault is the Parson Cummings House, moved to the cemetery and restored in 1971. This one-story, V-notched log structure with a central chimney and two front entrances is thought to have been built in the 1770s for the minister of the church, Charles Cummings, a Presbyterian leader of the early Scots-Irish settlers.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Depot Square
William King Museum (William King High School)
Fields-Penn House Museum
Martha Washington Hotel
Barter Theatre

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Sinking Spring Cemetery", [Abingdon, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-WS13.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 470-470.

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