{"nrhp_refnum":"85002722","name":"Glebe Burying Ground","other_names":["Glebe Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"S of Swoope on VA 876","address_restricted":false,"city":"Swoope","county":"Augusta County","state":"VA","lat":38.10944074200006,"lon":-79.22200169299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-acre cemetery on the former glebe lands of Augusta Parish, set in woods on the east side of a ridge near Swoope in western Augusta County, Virginia. Its gravestones date from 1770 to 1891.","why_significant":"The cemetery holds a large number of surviving stones that show how local funerary art changed among Scotch-Irish, English, and German settlers and their descendants. These changes give insight into acculturation in the Valley of Virginia during the first half of the 19th century. The form acknowledges that cemeteries are usually not eligible, but argues this one illustrates an important sequence in regional funerary art.","narrative":"Glebe Burying Ground is a small cemetery tucked into woods on the east side of a ridge between Middle River and Back Creek, near Swoope in western Augusta County. It occupies the former glebe, the income-producing land bought by the Augusta Parish vestry in 1749. The surviving stones run from Mary Trimble's 1770 marker to an 1891 stone, and together they trace changes in local gravestone design. The earliest markers are flat horizontal slabs with head and footstones, reflecting German settlement. Early 19th-century sandstone markers carry six-point and eight-point stars, and some are inscribed in German script. By the mid-19th century, white marble memorials with willow, urn and obelisk motifs had replaced them. Buried here are Col. John Willson, a member of the House of Burgesses, and several Revolutionary War veterans. The cemetery was listed because it documents how Scotch-Irish, English and German settlers and their descendants blended traditions in the Valley of Virginia. It is now county-owned and maintained by the County Historical Society.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799, 1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as unoccupied and vacant; owned by Augusta County and maintained by the County Historical Society. Access is restricted.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.101495-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/6796/41679697/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/85002722.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002722/d05dd882a1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002722/d05dd882a1-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glebe_Burying_Ground.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glebe_Burying_Ground.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679697","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glebe_Burying_Ground","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712361"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/augusta-county/glebe-burying-ground-85002722/"}