A Southern Somerset Co. Cemetery

Lying on the spine of a desolate ridgetop in southern Somerset County is a small cemetery. Known only to the State Gameland workers who have kept the brush and briers at bay, and to a few passing hunters who happen to stop and wonder about its history. Some of the tombstones are weathered beyond reading, some graves are marked with a simple piece of slate and some are just impressions in the ground, their occupants forever a mystery.

In one grave rests a Civil War veteran. Jno. Kennel with no birth or death date just an ancient bronze star with the inscription Veteran 61-65. He rests forever on that quiet ridgetop far from the horrors of that bloody conflict he was a part of.

The most poignant part of this cemetery are the graves of Mrs. Halle and her two sons, George and Luther. Anna France Halle born 1884 died 1925 lived what must have been a rough life on a hardscrabble farm with its steep and rocky fields. She lived only 41 years on this earth but witnessed the death of her son Luther born 1918 died 1921. Her son George born 1906 lived and toiled on these rocky slopes 22 years before dying in 1928. There is no marker for Anna's husband. Did he finally give up after the death of George? Left alone or perhaps with other children to raise on his own did he leave this forlorn piece of land in search of some other place to start anew far away from the memories of this lonely windswept ridge farm? These are the unanswered mysteries of old cemeteries