Some history regarding the 1/8^th acre cemetery (Graveyard) approximately 100 yards from the Bartram/Fort Gay Cemetery. This is near the center of the property owned by the Wayne Co. Board Of Education since July 1947. This property was originally owned by the Wellman family. John and his wife Nancy Webb Wellman are buried with others unknown in this cemetery. It is strongly suggested that John’s mother Mary Mulligan and Steven Bartram may also be buried there. The fence and headstones and any trace of a cemetery have been destroyed. Since a new school K-8 is now under construction surrounding the cemetery, the Genealogical Society and the Cemetery Board of Trustees proposed to the Board of Education that the graves be moved to the Bartram/Fort Gay Cemetery and the board rejected our proposal. There are 65 direct decedents of John & Nancy buried in the Bartram/Fort Gay Cemetery. John was born 8/2/1779 to Bennett & Mary Mulligan Wellman in the state of Maryland during the Revolutionary War. His father Bennett was in the Revolutionary War at the time of his birth. Bennett is buried back of Louisa off of Cranberry St. in the Eloise section. The Wellman Family was among the first settlers who came to and settled at what was then called the Forks of the Big Sandy in Kanawha Co. VA. (later Cassville) (now Fort Gay) in 1802. John & Nancy were a young married couple with one child. John & Nancy raised 9 children. Cabell VA was formed from Kanawha Co. VA. In 1809. John Wellman became very prominent. He was a Gentlemen Justice in the county for 30 years. I have read numerous Legal Documents signed by him. Nancy was the daughter of Robert & ???? (Breeden) Webb. She was born 8/22/1782 and died 4/7/1822. In 1823-25 Governor James Pleasants Jr. of Richmond VA. appointed John sheriff of Cabell Co. VA, for two one year terms. In 1841 John led a movement to partition Cabell County and set up a new county. He headed a delegation to Richmond (on horseback) in December, 1841, and worked for the creation of the proposed new County. The bill was passed to become effective January 1842. John Wellman, Joseph Naglee and Burwell Spurlock were the first County Commissioners and John was given the responsibly of establishing the boundary lines for the new Wayne County VA. John Wellman was born during the Revolutionary War and lived up to and through the Civil War. He died December 26, 1865 in Wayne Co. West Virginia. He was 86 years old.

By John Jarrett Peters 3^rd Great-Grandson of John Wellman

Below is an article on the Wellman family which appeared in the Wayne News. This article was written by William H. Mansfield, Historian and Editor of The Wayne News in  the late 1880's. Many of his articles were not published until after his death.

The Wellmans settled at the forks of Big Sandy river, which later came to be known as Cassville and finally Fort Gay, in October, 1802, migrating there from the Clinch valley section of Virginia in what was then known as Washington county, but finally partitioned into what is now Russell county. At the time the family located in the Big Sandy valley, that region was a part of Kanawha county, which had been formed from parts of Greenbrier and Montgomery counties in 1788. It continued a part of Kanawha until 1909, when Cabell was formed out of the former.

The earliest Wellman of which this generation has any definite knowledge, was Bennett Wellman. He appears on the records of deeds of Cabell county as Burnet Wellman as grantor and grantee in various real estate transactions consummated in the first third of the last century. But this is no doubt an error in transcribing the records, since John D. Wellman, the oldest living Wellman at the time of his death, which occurred after he was well advanced in the ninties, always said that he could remember the original Wellman from childhood and that his name was Bennett. The latter was the great-grandfather of John D.

Bennett Wellman, a shoemaker by trade, lived in both Philadelphia and Baltimore during the Revolutionary War. The year of his settling in the Clinch valley section has not been handed down to late generations. But it is known that he led his family, which was a large one, into the Big Sandy country in October, 1802, coming by the way of Pound Gap and down Levisa fork, a greatly traveled route for emigrants from the southwestern section of Virginia seeking homes and lands in the west.

Bennett Wellman was of English origin. Furthermore, Wellmans were to be found in several of the colonies for several decades preceding the Revolutionary War, particularly in the New England section.

Among Bennett's numerous children was one John, born in 1779. He was a young man still in his early twenties and only a short time married when the family settled in the Big Sandy country. He had married Nancy Webb, the daughter of Robert Webb, in the Clinch valley country. The Webbs followed their daughter and son-in-law into the new country in 1804.

John probably was the most successful and prosperous of Bennett's children. He began to acquire land shortly after arriving at the Forks of Sandy. He became a large landowner as well as a slaveholder. His land, which he acquired in parcels from time to time, lay principally between Big Sandy river and Mill creek, named for a grist mill, the first to be erected in that section, owned and operated by William Thompson about a half mile from the present town of Fort Gay. This mill was established in 1802. John Wellman was the tenth sheriff of Cabell county, the sheriff at that time serving only one year terms. He served two terms, from July 21, 1823 until December 23, 1825, under appointment from Governor James Pleasants, Jr., of Virginia. Bondsmen for his first term were General Elisha McComas, F. Moore, Henry Phillips, Hugha Bowen, Moses McComas, Samuel Webb, Hezekiah Adkins, Andrew Barrett, Jesse Toney, Joseph M. Fulkerson and William B. Davis. The Samuel Webb referred to here was a brother to Nancy Webb, the wife of John Wellman. Samuel Webb lived to be 105 years old, the oldest man in Wayne county at the time of his death in 1885. Bondsmen for John Wellman during his second term as sheriff were Hugha Bowen, Edmund Morris, General Elisha McComas, Philip Baumgardner, John Laidley and Jesse Toney.

In 1841, John Wellman became the leading spirit in a movement to partition Cabell county and set up a new county, to be known as Wayne, to better suit the convenience of citizens residing in the Twelve Pole and Big Sandy valleys. He headed a delegation to Richmond in December 1841 and worked for the creation of the proposed new county. The bill was passed to become effective in 1842, the act of the legislature designating John Wellman, Joseph Naglee and Burwell Spurlock as commissioners to establish the bounds of the new county.

John Wellman's first wife died about 1820, and he married a second time, one Lydia Marcum. She appears as joining him in land conveyances in Cabell county as late as 1839. All of his children, however, were born of his first union with Nancy Webb. John Wellman died on his farm near Cassville in 1864.

The first child born to John and Nancy Wellman was James, on March 4, 1802, in the Clinch valley country, about seven months before the family migrated to the Big Sandy river. James Wellman married Nancy Wilson on April 27, 1822. His wife was born in Greenbrier county on October 9, 1803, the daughter of James Wilson a Revolutionary soldier who married a Mounts from Tennessee. James Wilson settled in the Big Sandy valley, near Cassville during the first half of the first decade of the last century.

The first child born to John and Nancy Wellman after the young couple established themselves in their new home on Sandy river was David. The date of his birth was April 11, 1804. Consequently, he was the second born of this union and one of the first white children born in the little settlement around what later became Cassville and Fort Gay. He married Rebecca Wilson, who was born on April 8, 1808, after her father, the aforementioned James Wilson, had migrated from Greenbrier county to the Big Sandy river. She was the sister of Nancy, the wife of James, the oldest brother of David Wellman. In other words, John Wellman's two older sons married Wilson sisters. David Wellman died January 25, 1881, on his farm near Cassville.

The third child born to John and Nancy Wellman was Robert. The date of his birth was March 23, 1806. On January 29, 1829, he was married to Mahala Short, the daughter of Samuel Short, who was the first white settler at the Forks of Sandy. He erected his log cabin there in 1796. He was the son of Thomas Short, who also came from the Clinch valley country to the Big Sandy shortly after his son, Samuel, already had settled there. The father was accompanied by another son, Thomas Jr. Samuel Short's son, John, was the first white child born in the settlement. He was born in 1801. He was a brother of the aforementionod Mahala Short, marrying Robert Wellman. Their mother was Elizabeth Breeden, the daughter of John Breeden, who settled in the Big Sandy country in 1804.

Other children of John and Nancy Webb Wellman were Samuel, Jeremiah, Elisha, Laruna, Elizabeth and Mary. Laruna married William Bartram, who was born in Cabell county on November 1, 1816, the son of David Bartram who was a native of Appomattox county, Virginia, who migrated to the Big Sandy in 1802. Laruna was born March 14, 1818. Elizabeth married Nathan Holt and was known to the countryside as "Aunt Betty." Mary married John Frasher, better known as "Honest John." She was always referred to as "Aunt Polly Frasher."

UPDATE - December 8, 2012

In order to have a qualified committee to represent the John Wellman Cemetery in any future proceedings, Jarrett Peters has formed a Board Of Trustees of descendants of those buried in this cemetery, as required by law.

An attorney has filed a Petition with the Wayne County Circuit Court for a hearing to establish said Board Of Trustees. The hearing will take place at the Wayne County Court House on the 18th of December, before Judge Darrell Pratt. Any other parties who have an interest in establishing this Board, should appear at this hearing.

At the conclusion of this hearing, legal papers will be filed with the County Clerks's Office to establish said Board Of Trustrees.

Please try to attend.

On the 18th day of December, 2012, a petition was filed and a hearing held by Circuit Court Judge Darrell Pratt to establish a Board of Trustees for the John Wellman Cemetery. A certified letter has been sent to the School Board for a hearing on this subject.

Below are the documents of the filing.

ON MARCH 28, 2013, THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS MAILED TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION BY REGISTERED MAIL. TO DATE (JUNE 17, 2013) NO RESPONSE HAS BEEN RECEIVED.

\JOHN WELLMAN CEMETERY

FORT GAY WEST VIRGINIA

DESCENDENT TRUSTEES

Samuel D. Wellman
Nancy Wellman Workman
John Jarrett Peters
Shawn Spears
Mary Lou Wellman Lakin

March 28, 2013 

Dear Ms.  Hurt & Elected Members Wayne Co. Board of Education

The newly formed board of trustees of the John Wellman Cemetery and the Wayne Co. Genealogical and Historical Society is very concerned regarding the status of the Historical Cemetery located inside School Board Property in Fort Gay, site of the Pre-K 8 School now under construction.

It has been established that John Wellman and Wife Nancy Webb Wellman and Samuel Short and his Wife Elizabeth Breeden Short are buried here.  Samuel Short was the very first pioneer settler arriving here in 1796.

We feel in order to properly establish the perimeter of the cemetery for purposes of building a fence, a ground radar procedure by an independent archaeological survey company, agreed to by all concerned parties, will have to be done covering the whole area to determine where and how many graves exist.  Records show the Wayne Co. Board of Education has owned the property (8 ½ Acres) surrounding the cemetery since July 31, 1947 (65 Yrs).  Several people have stated they remember several headstones being on the cemetery grounds.  Mrs.  Pauline Adkins who attended the special joint meeting (Mr. Don Davis was present) under the tree September 15, 2010 stated she remembered and knew of at least five graves in the cemetery.  This would have been subsequent to the board purchasing the property in 1947 from Mr. Wardy Lovely. He was an educator in the Fort Gay School System and a life long resident of Fort Gay and owned the property from Sept. 30, 1938 (74 Yrs. ago).  For this reason, we feel it should be the responsibility of the school board to defray the cost of the ground radar procedure in order to properly establish the perimeter.

Proclamations by Mayor Rose Devaney, Fort Gay and  Wayne County Commissioners President Robert E. Pasley, Charles E. Sammons and Kenneth R. Adkins Proclaims:  John Wellman as the  “Father of Wayne County, W V”.   By Legislative Citation,  the Speaker of the WV House of Delegates Rick Thompson and Delegate Don Perdue “hereby recognizes that Saturday September 1, 2012 be known as John Wellman Day as proclaimed by the Town of Fort Gay and the Wayne County Commission”.

We plan to erect a monument in honor of John Wellman, Father of Wayne County.  Also Samuel Short and others buried in the cemetery that are unknown.  We want to Honor, Preserve and Protect this cemetery and take every precaution to prevent the desecration  of this sacred area again.

We accept your commitment to erect a fence to properly guard against any vandalism and to maintain the grass cutting in your overall maintenance program.  With this Historical Cemetery on our school campus in full view of the school,  we feel we can all agree that we do not want this to ever be an unsightly area or diminish the environment.  We want to welcome the students in structured tours inside the cemetery for educational purposes.  We plan to erect the monument in such a way that the children can read the inscription from outside the fence.

In the absence of a favorable decision to this request, we are requesting a meeting with the elected members of the Wayne Co. Board of Education.  We also request we be placed on your agenda for consideration when and if a vote by the elected board is necessary.

John Jarrett Peters,  Chairman  
5766 Hubbards Br. Rd.     
Huntington WV, 25704
Ph 304 429 2033

Randy Marcum,         President  W.C.G.H.S.

P. S.

We feel in the past, we have tried to work in good faith with the school board on this issue and it’s important to note:  that on your web site it states, 

“Our future must be built on a partnership of the school family and community.  These groups must communicate with each other in an ongoing, honest dialogue.  They must build trust which surpasses political or regional issues”.

On August 20, 2013, the Court Appointed Committee to oversee the John Wellman Cemetery met on the grounds at the new Fort Gay K-8 Grade School. Also attending were reporters from the Wayne News and the Charleston Daily Mail. Pictures below.

Article concerning the involvement of John Wellman in the formation of Wayne County

The article below appeared in the April 10, 1969 issue of the Wayne County News. This account of the formation of Wayne County was abstracted from Hardesty's History which was published in 1884.