Return to the John A. Via Cemetery

On October 18, 2010, after leaving the Allen farm, we went back to the John A. Via cemetery in search of the remains of the home which we'd heard were nearby.

We parked the car at the same gate and climbed over. It was much less muddy this time, which made things easier! We walked immediately up to the cemetery and went through the gate. We found that the cemetery had been worked on recently. The Virginia Via reunion is held Columbus Day weekend and one of the reunion activities is to clean up Via family cemeteries, including this one. The John A. Via stone had been repaired and some brush had been cut back. The sign by the gate had been taken down for repairs but was due to be replaced soon.

After exploring the cemetery we moved up road behind it, just to see where it went. We had some information that described approximately where the house was, but wanted to explore all we could. Up this road we found bones of cattle and an old dozer. It seems that the dead cattle were carried up here to be butchered, but we're not sure. The road continued up the hill but we didn't follow it all the way. I believe it goes to the top of the mountain.


We returned to the cemetery and then set off to the west across the open pastures. We headed straight towards the western corner of the fields, where we had seen something that could have been the remains of a house on Google Earth. This along with our other information from Via family researchers turned out to be correct and we came across the remains of the home without having to really search at all.


The first thing that stands out is the old metal roof that covers much of the remains of the house. The wooden boards have fallen into the cellar and at a glance appear jumbled randomly. If you look closely though you can make out what was once the floor and the walls and you start to see how the house was situated.


We began to explore around the house and noticed that the nails were made by hand. This is a sure sign that this was a very old house. We also discovered some non-native plants, probably planted by the Vias growing around the house. There were also old bottles, and pieces of ceramic (see above). I'm not sure how old these might have been.



There is still a lot we don't know about the house. When was it built? When was it abandoned? When did it collapse? We were told by one source that there used to be a small village in the area, but that everyone moved out during the depression.

Enlarge the map below to see the relative locations of the cemetery and house.



This calf kept following Grandma! We had to shoo it away. Perhaps it was her red sweater tied around her waist. Check out its shifty eyes!