Delayed, but not deterred

By Sandy James
Review Staff Writer
Published: May 29, 2008

In a small country cemetery near the eastern county line, Orange County resident Bessie Johnson was quietly laid to rest in the winter of 1986.
Last Sunday, nearly 22 years later, more than 50 people gathered at the Alexander Chapel Cemetery to dedicate a tombstone and pay their respects to Johnson.
Civil War period attire and lush country surroundings provided a nostalgic backdrop for the ceremony. If not for the cars and digital cameras, the scene could have been from another era.
Family members, friends, neighbors and historians came together with representatives of the Fredericksburg Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Nannie Seddon Barney Chapter #23 Children of the Confederacy and the Rev. Beverly Tucker Lacy Camp of the Sons of the Confederacy to honor Johnson.
Shirley Onderdonk, a distant relative, opened the ceremony with some facts about Johnson’s history.
She said “Miss Bessie” was the daughter of a Confederate veteran. Records vary, but it is believed she was born October 1, 1888. She grew up near St. Just, about two miles from Mine Run. She never married, and moved to the south side of Route 3 in 1925.  Her home was destroyed by fire caused by lightning in 1969.
She then lived with family and friends, including her cousin, Daniel Weedon. In the late 1970’s she moved to the President Madison Inn Home for Adults in the Town of Orange. She was later moved to Heritage Hall Nursing Home in Clintwood, Virginia, and died there December 16, 1986.
Johnson was buried among relatives at the Alexander Chapel Cemetery according to wishes expressed in a will she wrote while staying at the President Madison Inn. There was no money for a tombstone and her grave has remained unmarked through the years. Onderdonk and her brother, Charles Carter Hedrick recently decided the time had come to appropriately mark Johnson’s grave.
Sunday’s ceremony was poignant and at times emotional as the Rev. Beverly Tucker Lacy Camp of the Sons of the Confederacy presented the colors, wreaths were laid and the tombstone and Daughters of the Confederacy marker unveiled.
The original bell from the Alexander Chapel was discovered in Maryland in 1998. Area resident and historian Keith Walters, the bell’s current guardian, brought the bell to the cemetery for the occasion. The bell was tolled, not rung for the ceremony. A tolling bell signifies a solemn occasion, whereas a ringing bell signifies a celebration. To produce the toll, the bell is struck with a hammer.
“We dedicate this stone today marking the grave of Bessie Johnson, good neighbor and friend to all who knew her, an unassuming woman who lived an honest and simple life. May God rest her soul,” said Onderdonk.
Jill Simmons, Orange county resident and president of the Fredericksburg Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy repeated the familiar refrain, “Nothing is ended until it is forgotten.”
Simmons said Johnson’s father, James S. Johnson, was a Confederate hero enlisted in Orange County’s Company C of the Seventh Virginia Infantry.
The mood lightened as stories of Bessie Johnson’s life were shared.
Friend and neighbor, Dorothy Cooper Lewis, recalled times spent with Bessie.
“In the springtime Bessie and I would sit and talk among the trees and flowers. Sometimes she would let me help as she carried water from the spring behind her house. Bessie always walked to the store. Bessie was a daughter of a Confederate veteran, but she loved the Yankees--baseball team,” Lewis said.
“We were always excited to go see Cousin Bessie,” said Rupert Farley. 
“She had no electricity in her house but she always had plenty of batteries for the radio so she could listen to the ballgame,” Farley said.
“When Cousin Bessie was working in a Fredericksburg factory, she got her hand caught and mangled in a machine. The company paid her hospital bill and one-month salary and fired her,” Farley said.
He said it was a life-changing event for Bessie, because jobs were not plentiful and a handicapped woman had no chance of finding employment. 
“She would hide her hand in the folds of her dress when she had company,” he said.
“It was always great to visit Cousin Bessie, and it’s great this grave has finally been marked,” Farley said.
Onderdonk’s grandparents, the Carters, lived nearby.
“Bessie would stroll up the road with her pocketbook and wide brimmed hat.  She was thin and soft-spoken with a southern drawl. She would sit and pass the time talking with my grandparents,” said Onderdonk.
“My mother always packed a Christmas box for Bessie. It always contained the same things; a flannel nightgown, a long-sleeved sweater, sensible underwear and a bag of hard candy. It was a ritual to prepare and send Bessie her Christmas box,” said Onderdonk.
Onderdonk introduced local historian Joe Rokus, who has spent a great deal of time researching the history of the cemetery.
“He has worked tirelessly on the cemetery,” said Onderdonk.
Rokus thanked Kermit and Mac Dempsey for their dedicated care of the cemetery.
Rokus said the Lacy family established the cemetery in the early 1880s.  The chapel that once stood in the cemetery was named for Reverend Archibald Alexander. The chapel was established in 1883.  The chapel fell into disrepair over the years, and in the 1930’s, the occupants of the nearby Civilian Conservation Corps camp burned the chapel shutters to keep warm. A small pile of rocks is all that is left of the chapel today.
The latest burial was that of Jesse Jones in 2000. Bessie Johnson, at 98, was the oldest interment in the Alexander cemetery.
“There are 76 people interred in the cemetery, with nine unmarked graves. There were 10 until today,” Rokus said.