This small family cemetery is all that remains of what was once Joseph Hite's 1000 acre estate. Stephen Hite, Joseph's son and intended heir, is buried here, along with Stephen's wife, Martha, and daughter, Sarah. Another of Joseph's sons, John L, also has three children buried here: Courtney, Noel, and John, whose is the only legible headstone remaining. Joseph Hite is not buried here but at the main family cemetery on the estate of his brother, Abraham Hite, west of Jeffersontown, Kentucky. The Hite family was deeply involved in early Kentucky and Jefferson County history. Family founder Hans Jost Heydt arrived in America in the 1710s, obtained Virginia land grants for 94,000 acres by 1732, and moved his family there. His fourth son, Abraham, became a prominent landowner, served in the Virginia House of Burgess, and in 1776 was a member of the Virginia Convention, where his efforts to raise money and supplies for the Revolutionary War earned him the rank of Colonel. Colonel Abraham Hite's three sons established the family in the Jefferson County area. Isaac arrived first in May 1774 with the Fincastle Survey exploring the Ohio River. Captain Abraham Jr. arrived in 1783 after receiving his Captain's commission from George Washington while fighting in the Virginia Regiment during the Revolutionary War; in 1790 he was appointed a trustee of Louisville and elected one of the first County Court Judges, and he later went on to the State Senate in 1800. In 1784, Joseph moved to the area with his father Abraham Sr., and soon afterward the family formed a company to buy and sell large tracts of land. Joseph settled on 1000 acres in Jeffersontown, built a simple log cabin near this cemetery, and later constructed a larger two-story home on the estate. The land and cemetery remained in the Hite family until 1873. Ownership changed several times until 1879, when Courier-Journal founder Henry Watterson purchased the property, renamed it Mansfield, and probably added the stone wall around the cemetery while renovating the home and grounds into a large Victorian mansion and estate. After Watterson's death in the 1920s, ownership again changed hands several times and the buildings fell into disrepair. In 1975, a fire destroyed the main house, and soon afterward the remaining outbuildings, including the original log cabin, were removed as the area was prepared for development. In 2000, the Watterson Woods Property Owners Association, with funding from Jefferson County A District Commissioner Russ Maple, the City of Jeffersontown, and Jeffersontown Mayor Daniel Ruckriegel St., began uncovering and restoring the badly neglected cemetery as closely as possible to its original state.