Pine Creek Church Cemetery

By Bob Heafner © 1985

Issue: April, 1985

Dear Mountain Laurel,

I just want you to know that we all appreciate what you have done for Pine Creek Cemetery. We hope to go to church up there this Fourth of July. I think it's such an humble looking church, looks like the times when I was a child. And oh, how I hate to see a family cemetery grow up. We have one and I try to help my brothers keep it up. Brother and Sister Spangler have people there in Pine Creek Cemetery. I am sure he will not be able to come back up this 4th of July. He has an incurable disease but still tries to come to church in a wheelchair and preaches from his chair. May God bless you in your good work. I take The Mountain Laurel and I love it dearly. I think my subscription is out in May, but keep it coming. I'll send you the money for it.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs. R.C. Smith
Reidsville, North Carolina

Dear Mountain Laurel,

A friend of ours had a copy of The Mountain Laurel. We found it very interesting, especially the article about Pine Creek Church and the cemetery. I have relatives buried there and have been to the services held there on the 4th of July. Enclosed find check for our subscription.

Thank you,

I.H. Spangler
Eden, North Carolina

We'd like to thank everyone for their comments and support for the old Pine Creek Cemetery which was featured in BACKROADS in January. We would especially like to commend and thank Mr. and Mrs. Brammer C. Nickols for their efforts to maintain this part of the Blue Ridge's past. While many families are buried in the Pine Creek Cemetery, we feel it is far more than a family cemetery. It is a place where as many as seven Revolutionary War veterans are buried and where those who were opening up the new frontier in the early days of our nation's birth now lay forgotten. We feel the preservation of the final resting place of these early pioneers is an honor and an obligation to be shared by all Americans.

When we requested donations in January, our goal was to raise $1,000.00 which would assure Mr. and Mrs. Nickols, who are in their seventies, of enough to maintain the cemetery for several more years. The shortage of funds and their poor health were making the cemetery maintenance a source of constant worry for them.

Recently, Mrs. Nickols called and said she wanted to thank everyone for their contributions and that they had received $250.00 from The Mountain Laurel's readers. We, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Nickols, thank all of you very much. I personally wish The Mountain Laurel could write them an additional check for $750.00, but we just can't afford to. If any of you could see your way clear to send a small donation, it would be very much appreciated. We have no relatives buried at Pine Creek, but there are over a hundred early mountain pioneers buried there who, it would appear, have been forgotten. It bothers me to know that, at a little backroad mountain church in Floyd County, Virginia, weeds are taking over the final resting place of those who helped to shape our nation. We won't ask our readers to do something we won't do, so we plan to send a small contribution to:

The Pine Creek Cemetery Fund
c/o Brammer C. Nickols
Rt. 1, Box 16-A
Floyd, Virginia 24091

If you can, please do.