A Meadows of Dan area man is seeking information about a grave from 1900 to assist an elderly woman’s dream of putting a stone on her grandmother’s grave.
Barry Fain, a deacan at Conner’s View Baptist Church, said he was contacted by Elsie Conner Capicatto, a 97-year-old woman from Idaho, via letter.
“It says: ‘Conner’s View Baptist Church, I am writing to you for help in locating the grave of my grandmother. She was buried in a corner of Conner’s cemetery, or Conner’s View. I was there before I moved to Idaho and there were stones where she was buried in 1900. When I went again, the stones had been removed. I would like to get in touch with the caretaker to get a map of the plots. She never had a marker.’”
The letter writer continued, “‘I am 97 years old, and I want very much to see that she gets one before I leave this world. Any information you could give me would mean so much to me,’” he read.
Capicatto’s grandmother was named Nancy Engle Hall Conner.
Fain said he’s done research on Conner, and found her on Findagrave.com, which reports her being buried in Conner’s cemetery, about a mile above the church.
“It’s a grave up there in Meadows of Dan. I didn’t even know the cemetery existed. We have a graveyard beside the thing. But it wasn’t constituted until 1930,” he said.
Fain believes the cemetery is maintained so well that someone must know the identity of the caretaker.
“I walked that one day, it was real cold though, back in the winter. There’s several graves up there that are marked, that have been weathered,” he said, adding it was difficult to make out the face of the markers or the names on them.
“There were several graves that just got initials on them, that got a cement marker,” he said.
Fain said he noticed there was one black rock in the cemetery that had a flower on it, which made him wonder if it was Conner’s grave.
“You can even look on that website and it shows the graves of the people that were buried there, but hers is not there because she doesn’t have a grave marker,” he said.
Fain said he promised Capicatto he would help her find out who the caretaker is, and help her find her grandmother’s burial plot.
“What I want to do is find the caretaker like she wants, and find out the actual plot, you know that I could help her get a stone put up there. I’m just trying to help her get a stone for her grandmother,” he said.
Fain said he also visited the Patrick County Tax Mapping office to track down the names of the cemetery’s owners. He wrote a letter to them but had not received a response as of this writing.
“Everything I’m doing comes to a dead end,” Fain said, adding the use of social media also has not yielded any results.
Anyone with information is asked to call Fain at (276) 694-8099.
