Date: Saturday, July 23, 2022
Time: 5-7:15pm
Location: Sinking Spring Cemetery Admission: $5, cash only

The Historical Society of Washington County Virginia presents a Living History Tour of the historic Sinking Spring Cemetery at Russell Road and Valley Street. The guided group tours will walk through the picturesque burial ground where beautifully carved granite and marble monuments stand side by side with simply etched limestone markers.

Interpreters in period costume at selected grave sites will tell the remarkable stories of the people lying at rest. The cemetery was the original site of the Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church, established by 1773 as one of the first Presbyterian churches west of the Alleghany Mountains.

Burials at the old churchyard date back to 1776 and include over 2,100 early leaders and settlers of Abingdon. Another 300 people are buried across Russell Road in the African-American section, including Landon Boyd, who was chosen to serve on the ill-fated petit jury to try Jefferson Davis for treason.

The cemetery is the final resting place of two Virginia governors, at least four members of Congress, and members of every American military conflict, including at least 47 known Civil War soldiers and about thirty more unknown soldiers who died in a troop train collision in Abingdon in September 1862.

The tours start at the cemetery entrance and last about an hour. The first one begins at 5pm and the last one will begin at 7:15pm. The ground can be uneven in places, so appropriate shoes are recommended.