"Firebrick Cemetery" Traditional Cache
Northstar and Gemini: Due to changes at cemetery we are archiving the cache. We will leave it listed for historical research purposes however.
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Firebrick Cemetery is located about a quarter mile off of Kentucky Route #8 that runs along the Ohio River in Lewis County…Lewis County was formed from a portion of Mason County in 1806 and is named in honor of explorer Merriweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame…
West of South Portsmouth across the Greenup and Lewis County line is the community of Firebrick…Once a company town named for the local firebrick plant that operated there, its first post office was in 1892...
The brick industry thrived from the 1880's until the 1930's... "Portsmouth Granite" blocks or paving bricks were made in Firebrick, Kentucky… By the Depression years of the 1930's, road building had changed dramatically... Automobiles were common, and the need for more and better roads was increasing... Alternative surfacing materials such as cement and asphalt were overtaking brick... Roads could be laid faster and cheaper with other materials, and the demand for paving brick was gone…Towns built around the brick yards dwindled in population over the years…
You might say that the roots of Rock and Roll took seed in Firebrick…William Albert Haley was from Firebrick… His son William John Clifton Haley, a.k.a. Bill Haley and the Comets, was born July 1925 in Michigan where he moved after he got married to the younger Haley's mother…
Many of the folk buried at Firebrick were hard working farming folk and brick workers who were born in the 1800’s…They could not envision rock n’ roll music that would come in the 1950’s…
John Hollaway (1868-1913) who rests here is relation to Civil War Captain John Hollaway of Company G…Hollaways originally immigrated to this country from Norway…James Hammons (1868-1947) who rests here with his wife Rebecca are relation to Hammons who came to Kentucky on land grants for soldiers following the Revolutionary War…
Several Woodsmen of the World Memorial markers dot the cemetery here, including ones for John T. Anderson (1876-1914); Russell Cox (1899-1919); George Ditty (1877) and John Hollaway… Woodmen of the World derived from the Modern Woodmen of America... It was a fraternal group which was founded in 1883 and is still in existence today... The organization is dedicated to family, community and country… The Woodmen of the World emblem is a sawed-off tree stump, often with a mallet or beetle, an ax, and a wedge…The motto "Dum, Tacet, Clamat" (Though Silent He speaks") usually appears somewhere on the border of the emblem... These Woodmen emblems are found throughout the United States, including on markers as memorials in cemeteries…Fraternal and social organizations were very popular in the United States during the 1800s… Half the population in the 1920s belonged to at least one fraternal organization… Two thousand fraternal societies existed in North America in the mid-1800s…Evidence of the popularity of fraternal societies can be seen in the number of grave memorials with fraternal symbols…
Two other markers to note- Conroy Felty (1922-1945) was a Private in the Infantry in World War II… He died serving his country at the young age of 24...James Rewakowsky died in 2001 at the age of only 3...Next to his marker are some of his favorite toys and a stone that reads “If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever…” It is a grim reminder of how very short life can be and how sorely missed all of our friends and family are when they die…
The residents of Firebrick and surrounding area buried here are second and third generation descendents of some of the early pioneers…Some are war heroes and others just hard working good people, but all lived interesting lives and believed in the American Dream…We need to remember to pay our respects at their gravesites often as a tribute to those who have gone on before us…
Cache is a camouflaged medium size pill bottle with a log book…Bring a pen…Be sure and notice the uniqueness of some of the Woodmen of the World Markers here…
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fcehpr gerr unatvat nebhaq jnvgvat sbe lbh.