Cemetery guidelines
Free(!) Cemetery Plots
All grave spaces are free of charge for the descendants of John and Malissa, including spouses and legal children. This benefit saves Nugen descendants thousands of dollars in burial costs.
Flexible Uses
Cemetery spaces can be used for a casket, ashes or a memorial stone. There is no requirement that caskets be used in the plots.
Designated Family Rows
Cemetery rows have been designated for the children of John and Malissa who lived to adulthood: James Samuel, Alonzo Joshua, Edna Jane*, William Henry, Warren David, Emma A, and Robert Eden.
*Many members of the Edna Jane Nugen Randolph family are buried in the cemetery, so that branch of the family has more than one designated row.
Burial Responsibilities
The family of the deceased is responsible for:
- Contacting the Plot Master at nugencemeteryplotmaster@gmail.com to notify the Trust of an impending burial.
- Making burial arrangements with the local funeral homes.
- Having a grave opened and closed. John Meadows (cell: 304-573-7113 or home: 304-934-7113) is our cemetery's gravedigger.
- Placing a permanent marker on the grave. The family is encouraged to choose head and foot stones compatible with those already in the cemetery.
Reserve a Space
To reserve your free burial plot:
- Review the cemetery plot map and decide which plot(s) you would like to reserve.
- Email our Plot Master at nugencemeteryplotmaster@gmail.com letting her know which plot(s) you'd like. In your email, also list your family lineage showing how you are related to John and Malissa Nugen.
CEMETERY HISTORY
The Official Beginning
The John Nugen Cemetery came into being in 1910 as a legal entity by a deed signed by the heirs of John and Malissa Nugen.
The first burial in the cemetery is unknown. Many of the earliest graves were marked with simple field stones.
John and Malissa Nugen and their four children, James, Lucinda, Alonzo, and Edna, are found in the 1860 Federal Census to be living on Laurel Creek, with John listed as a farm labourer. It is believed that John is the one who built the log cabin. The land was part of a large parcel (2,888 acres) purchased by the Cassidys on May 5, 1855. Charles B. Ellison bought 37.5 acres from the Cassidys on December 24, 1859, for $5.00. Mr. Ellison, however, is not recorded in the 1860 census alongside the Nugens, so it is believed that they did not live on the farm. On May 16, 1870, John Dempsey bought the farm from Charles, and in 1874 John Nugen bought the farm from John Dempsey’s estate after his passing.
Both John and Malissa are buried in the cemetery, along with all seven of their adult children.
The oldest grave identified in the cemetery is that of L.L. Bragg, son of Emma Nugen Bragg and her husband John. L.L.’s birth year is 1886 and his passing was in 1887. This marks the first use of the cemetery 23 years before it was legally established in 1910.