Photo by Craig Howell A memorial notes the names of those buried at the Clendenen Cemetery located just south of Beech Bottom. Village residents recently held a dedication ceremony at the cemetery which dates to the 1800s.

BEECH BOTTOM – Village residents have long appreciated the history of their community, working to make certain it is preserved for future generations.

One such milestone was reached recently with the rededication of Clendenen Cemetery.

Located along West Virginia Route 2, just below Mac Barnes Drive, the small family cemetery includes 12 graves – most from the Clendenen family who settled in the area in the mid-1800s.

“This has been a labor of love for many, many moons,” noted Beech Bottom Mayor Becky Uhlly.

Much of the effort began in 2007 when former mayor George Lewis and his family, along with others from the community, began the effort to clear the property, which had become overgrown with vegetation over more than three decades without maintenance.

On May 2, Uhlly, members of Village Council and other guests gathered at the cemetery to dedicate a new sign and memorial marker listing the names of those buried.

Those listed include William Clendenen, his wife Rachel Magers Clendenen, and members of their family Edward, John M., Rachel V., Mary Jane, David, Laura A. and George.

Also known to be buried there is Eveline Bailey and two others whose identities are unknown.

A notation on the memorial also recognizes Samuel Elias Clendenen, a family member who died in 1864 while fighting during the Civil War as part of the 12th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

His final resting place is unknown, according to those speaking during the service.

“I think it’s important for the people of Brooke County to know its rich history,” said Charlotte Palmer, a local historian who has been among those tracing the lineage of the Clendenen family and the cemetery.

William Clendenen, she noted, was a son born to Samuel and Mary Clendenen, Scotch-Irish immigrants who came to the area when it was still part of Virginia.

William was born in what is now Brooke County in 1802, according to online records, making the Clendenens one of the early families in Brooke County.

Palmer noted that of William and Rachel’s children, Rachel V. died at age 9, Mary Jane at 16, John M. at 19 and Edward at 31.

The land where the Clendenen family settled and had their farm eventually became part of the Village of Power, just south of Beech Bottom, a community built around the Windsor Power Plant, considered one of the largest power plants in the region when it was built in the early 1900s.

While the plant and the town were thriving, the cemetery was cared for, but when the plant closed in the 1970s, much of the community was razed and forgotten.

“The cemetery is all that is left,” Palmer said. “It could hardly be seen from the highway and was forgotten.”

For Nila Boyd and Uhlly, the project was also personal, as they are descended from the Clendenen family through Anna Clendenen McCord.

Boyd told of her three-times-great-grandmother, who was known to chop wood and sell it to steamboats making their way along the Ohio River.

“Anna was, in effect, one of the first female entrepreneurs in Brooke County,” Boyd said.

Boyd noted other relations to the Clendenen family included abolitionist George Washington McCord and Charles Clendenen (or Clendenin) – said to be the namesake for the city of Charleston, West Virginia, whose son, George, a colonel in the Virginia militia, built Fort Lee in 1787 as the first permanent settlement where the city now stands.

There also may be connections to Gen. Sam Houston, a leader during the Texas Revolution who secured the state’s independence at the Battle of San Jacinto.