Blanton Cemetery Traditional Cache
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The cemeteries in Kentucky dot the hillsides like wild flowers, they are everywhere…Blanton Cemetery is one of many small cemeteries just off the Industrial Parkway and Kentucky Route 1... Located off Culp Road and Litteral Lane, the cemetery has many graves from the Blanton Family…
The Blantons moved to Greenup County from Carter County, and hailed originally from Johnson and Magoffin Counties in Kentucky… One noted story about the original Blanton Families from the 1920’s is captured below from a Carter County News Paper and written by Glen Haney:
[“2/1/1923 A new feud seems to be in the making in Eastern Kentucky. The principals are the Herron and Blanton families. Three of the Blanton's are in jail, one charged with the murder of a Herron the others accused as accessories before the fact. The arrest grew out of the murder on the streets of this little mountain town recently of Paul Herron. The killing occurred just an hour after Herron had walked from the court house a free man. He had been acquitted of the murder of William Blanton, father of the three Blanton's under arrest. Harrison Blanton took the revenge the law had denied him and likewise following the precepts of the Kentucky mountaineer in the immutable law, "An eye for an eye".
The murder of Herron by Blanton occurred in front of the Commercial Bank. The main street of Grayson was filled with country people who had gathered to buy Christmas goods. Many of them had attended the Herron trial. Herron had just been accepting the congratulations of various people upon his freedom and his wife was waiting to return home with him. According to stories Blanton come through the crowd. He saw Herron. At short range Blanton drew a pistol and opened fire shooting his fathers slayer three times. The bullets entered Herron's back within an area that could be covered by a child's hand. Blanton, seeing his enemy fall, ran into a business building, then came out and surrendered to an officer. Herron's assassination caused a wave of indignation over the little town. Blanton's friends were here and they were trying to pacify the people but danger of a mob grew until a heavy guard was placed around the jail as night came on the situation grew so menacing that Blanton was taken to Catlettsburg, forty miles away, for safe keeping. The crowd shouted threats as he was taken away.
The Carter County Grand Jury was still in session here when Blanton slew Herron. Within an hour the Grand Jury had indicted Blanton on a charge of willful murder. His trial had been set for a special term of circuit court in January.
The next chapter in the case was written when Warnie Blanton, twenty five, and Earne Blanton, twenty one, brothers of Harrison were arrested at Catlettsburg and charged in warrants with been with being accessories before the fact of the Herron killing. Both men had revolvers when arrested. The brothers had gone to Catlettsburg in an attempt to secure the release of Harrison Blanton on bond. Soon after they reached the town a man who's name as not been divulged appeared before Police Judge McConnell and ask for warrants, which were immediately issued.
It is reported that the men who went to Catlettsburg from Grayson were anxious to prevent their names becoming known, and one of them showed a hole in his coat which he said was made by pistol bullet during the shooting in Grayson. The trial of Herron and three other men on the charge of murdering the elder Blanton July 15 resulted in freedom for all the quartet. The men, including Herron, who were freed, are Fred Perry, Jim Mullins and a brother of the latter. William Blanton was shot during a church meeting on Wilson's Creek. Warner Blanton, a Deputy Sheriff, attempted to arrest one of the assailants. The man's friends attempted to rescue him from the officer and when the elder Blanton went to aid his son, a member of the party shot him to death.”]
The Blanton and Herron feud was to Greenup and Carter Counties what the Hatfield and McCoy Feud was to others... While none of the feuding parties are buried here, the distant relation have representation here and the families today thrive and are vital members of the two counties communities, serving in public office and various other careers that touch the lives of many in a positive way…
A tragic burial here is for what is marked as “God’s Little Angels”- graves for John and Jeffrey Blanton who died tragically at five days and one month respectively in 1972 and 1973... Their graves are a reminder of how fragile life can be...
Blanton Cemetery is not far from Pennsylvania Community Cemetery… The cache is a camouflaged medium size peanut butter jar with a log book and small trade items… You will find it hanging around waiting for you... Come between dawn and dusk and enjoy the view from the hillside…
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