First Cedar Creek invites public to visit founders’ cemetery site Sunday

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 — The First Cedar Creek Baptist Church will mark its 231st anniversary on Wednesday, July 4, 2012.  In celebration of this milestone, interested persons have been invited to visit the Bealmear-Summers Cemetery this Sunday, July 1, 2012. The cemetery is the burial site of many of pioneer founders the First Cedar Creek Baptist Church (see the historical narrative of the founding and history of First Cedar Creek below).

The Bealmear-Summers Cemetery is located four miles west of Bardstown off U.S. 62 on Old Airport Road. Be advised the cemetery is in a former cow pasture. The current landowner, Jodie Haydon of Cedar Creek Quarry, has given visitors permission to visit the cemetery. Mr. Haydon has cleared a road and path to the cemetery, but please, use caution when walking. For more information, call 502-507-7159.

Pioneer settlers founded First Cedar Creek Baptist Church

“We miss thee from our home, dear father. We miss thee from thy place. A shadow o’er our life is cast. We miss the sunshine of thy face. We miss thy kind and willing hand; Thy fond and earnest care. Our home is dark without thee. We miss thee everywhere.”

These words are inscribed on the grave stone of James. H. Lewis who is buried in the Bealmear–Summers Cemetery.

A gravestone in the Bealmear-Summers Cemetery. Photo submitted. Click to enlarge.

In 1779, Col. James Rogers, a Baptist preacher and one of the first settlers in what was then Jefferson County, Virginia, took possession of 1,000 acres of land west of present day Bardstown. Col. Rogers acquired the land by preemption – a type of land transfer – from William Bard, the surveyor who later laid out the city of Bardstown.

During the next year, Col. Rogers and other pioneers built Rogers Fort, also called Rogers Station, to provide temporary shelter for the many settlers who were coming into the area. Residents of the fort soon included Evan Williams; Atkinson Hill, the first judge of Nelson County, Kentucky; and Joseph Barnett, the initial pastor of (The First) Cedar Creek Baptist Church. Rogers, Williams, Hill, and Barnett were all founding fathers of Cedar Creek, the second oldest church of any denomination west of the Allegheny Mountains.

In 1812, the land on which Rogers Fort stood was sold to Samuel Bealmear. A cemetery established on this land was named the Bealmear – Summers Cemetery. According to the Bealmear family of Columbus, Ohio, who in July of 2002 took on the task of reclaiming the overgrown plot, the cemetery measures 60 feet by 40 feet and is surrounded by a waist-high stone wall with no gate. The first known burial in the cemetery was in 1824 and the last in 1891. Records indicate that at least seventeen graves are there. Samuel and Priscilla Bealmear, the great-great-great-great-grandparents of the Bealmear family of Ohio, are in that number. Names etched into the stones located within the rock walls include Bealmear (also spelled Beallmear and Bealmare), Smith, Summers, Gore, Lewis, and Cash.

A large colonial style, two story brick house also located on Old Airport Road, currently referred to as the Combs House, was at one time known as the Samuel Bealmear House.

A Kentucky historical marker erected at the intersection of Hwy 62 West and Old Airport Road near the site of the cemetery states that Col. James Rogers was born in Virginia in 1742 and died in Kentucky in 1828. It needs to be noted that Kentucky was formed from Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette Counties of Virginia and gained her independence from Virginia in 1792. Although there are no Rogers listed on the existing stones of the Bealmear-Summers Cemetery, historians say it is possible that James Rogers and/or some of his family are buried there.

The Rogers Fort was demolished in 1961. The historical significance of the old building was not known to the land owner at that time.

ABOUT THE CHURCH. The First Cedar Creek Baptist Church is located five miles west of Bardstown off HWY 62 (Boston Road) on HWY 733 (Bellwood Road). Bible Study in age appropriate small groups is available to all from 9:45am to 10:45am each Sunday. Everyone is invited to attend events and worship services of The First Cedar Creek Baptist Church.

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