HISTORY · HISTORICAL MARKER
Willcoxon Family Cemetery
Mantua, Virginia
· Who Is Buried Here?
History
Rezin Samuel Willcoxon purchased this parcel of land around 1806 and lived here with his wife, Betsey DeNeale Willcoxon, and their 10 children. His gravestone records his service as a captain in a cavalry unit of the 60th Virginia Militia during the War of 1812. Betsey's gravestone bears an open book symbolizing the book of life and heaven's open door. The burial site of Rezin's second wife, Fanny Halley DeBell Willcoxon, is unknown. In his 1889 will, Albert Willcoxon, Rezin's youngest son, directed that the cemetery be enlarged as a family burying ground, but it later fell into disuse. His wife, Mary Hunter Eskridge Willcoxon, was buried in the Fairfax City Cemetery, reflecting a cultural shift away from family cemeteries. Legible gravestones in the cemetery include those of Richard Ratcliffe Farr, husband and first cousin of Margaret Conn Willcoxon Farr; Margaret Conn Willcoxon Farr, daughter of Rezin and Betsey; Elizabeth Betsey DeNeale Willcoxon; Rezin Samuel Willcoxon; Margaret Conn Willcoxon, Rezin's mother; Albert Thomas Willcoxon, son of Rezin and Betsey and owner of the Blenheim house and farm; and Maude, the infant daughter of Albert and Mary Eskridge Willcoxon. Taller gravestones include Victorian symbols of mourning, and small footstones are carved with the deceased's initials or year of burial. To investigate whether other family members, former property owners, enslaved people, or Union soldiers might be buried here in unmarked graves, specialists conducted non-invasive Ground Penetrating Radar and supplementary electromagnetic induction surveys in and around the fenced cemetery. The data summary inferred the presence of a maximum of 52 possible and 25 suspicious burial sites, suggesting that further investigation may reveal more about who is buried here.
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