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PARSONS -- The Tucker County Community Foundation recently created an endowment to provide perpetual funding for a historic cemetery in Barbour County.
The Mount Olive Cemetery, located just outside of Philippi on the Mount Olive Road, will receive funding from the foundation to help with ongoing maintenance, upkeep and preservation of the grounds.
"We are so excited to be working with the Mount Olive Cemetery to help preserve the history of Barbour County." said Michael Moore, chief financial officer for the Tucker Community Foundation.
On Sept. 15, 1800, Isaac Votaw and Ann, his wife, of Harrison County, and Benjamin Yates, John Votaw, Zacariah Ellyson, Moses Votaw, Preston Beck and Isaac Votaw Jr., members of the Richland Meeting, designated the tract of land for the use of the Society of Friends for a meeting place and burial grounds.
In the late 1940s, Judge Ira Robinson, founder and president of the Barbour County Historical Society, who stemmed from Quaker ancestry, researched the cemetery's history and learned that the Society of Friends continuously maintained the grounds near what is now known as the Cherry Hill Farm.
Since that time, trustees have been appointed to maintain the cemetery, and over the years the cemetery has been cleared by volunteers and kept up through donations. John Green, David Matko, Carolyn Waddell, Ladonna Davis and Chris Irvine are the current trustees of the cemetery.
The Tucker County Foundation currently manages close to 150 endowed funds. Not only does it provide annual scholarships to students, but it supplies grants to nonprofits and supports charitable causes in its eight-county service area that includes Barbour, Grant, Mineral, Preston, Pocahontas, Randolph and Tucker counties, and Garrett County in Maryland.
The Tucker County Foundation's mission is to create opportunities for the communities it serves. The foundation was created by a group of individuals who were concerned after the devastating flood of 1985. The foundation believes that promoting and protecting its heritage is important and should be a part of all decision-making within the foundation. For more information on how to set-up an endowed fund or to learn about the foundation, call 304-478-2930.
To make a tax-deductible donation to the Mount Olive Cemetery Fund, make checks payable to TCF, and note Mount Olive Cemetery Fund in the memo line and mail to the Tucker Community Foundation, P.O. Box 491, Parsons, WV 26287. Online donations can be made at www.tuckerfoundation.net