The bottom part of this grave stone had been found many years ago - or perhaps, it was never lost to history. However, the top half, which held the critical detail of who this stone belonged to... that was lost to history for many, many decades.
In November of 2019, I was asked to come out and document, photograph, and find lost stones if I could, at the Cheatham Cemetery in Zion.
That's just what I did when we prodded and found the top half of Nancy (Cheatham) Negley's stone.
Nancy was the daughter of Eleazer Cheatham (1779-1849) and Martha Robertson (1777-1846.) She was born on August 20th, 1808, in Virginia. They are the original Cheatham's to come to Henderson County, Kentucky. Her siblings include Phineas Cheatham, John W. Cheatham, Martha (Cheatham) Cooksey, Catherine (Cheatham) Maloney, and Eleazer T. Cheatham.
Nancy married George W. Negley on March 9th, 1843, in Henderson County, Kentucky. She was 34. It was her first marriage and I believe his second. I don't believe their union resulted in any children.
Nancy died on July 24th, 1851, at the age of 42. George lived until abt 1864 and passed. I don't believe he's in Cheatham Cemetery with her. He lived in the Hebbardsville area, so he could be anywhere.
If you're a Cheatham, Cooksey, Maloney, Negley (through Martha's daughter that married a Negley), Dunn, Baskett, Brown, Balee, Schaeffer, Farley, Watson, White, Allen, Crafton, Trader, Smithson, and many other last names -- you most likely descend from Eleazer Cheatham and Martha Robertson.
In Cheatham Cemetery, Nancy lays to rest with her parents, at least three of her siblings, and many nieces, nephews, and other kinfolk. There's only I believe six graves documented in Cheatham that we weren't able to find and most are infants that we know are buried there via their death certificate.
Broken tombstones, especially those like this that have been "lost to history" for a long, long time... they deserve a special spotlight. Nancy had no children. I'm sure her step-children remembered her and told their children about her. I'm sure her own siblings told their children about her.. but eventually, without a tombstone to pay respects to... she was forgotten.
As of November 2019 - she's forgotten no longer.
I believe that Nancy's tombstone might be standing up right now and repaired - I don't have a photograph of that, yet. I haven't been able to get back out to Cheatham. 2020 and 2021 being what they were for me and everyone else. Hopefully I can go out there and get some new photographs soon. Maybe take some D/2 to some of the stones as well.
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