by George F. “Frank" Mayfield
For the last 17 years, the two headstone images to the left below, one of John Higdon, the other of Nancy Higdon, and the six lines of text under them were shown on a separate page in this website as Bardstown, Ky. Headstone Mystery. On October 31, 2017, while visiting the Bardstown area, my 1st cousin Donny Higdon, his wife Susan Alexander, my wife, Nell Heffernan, and myself decided to visit the Pioneer Cemetery, just behind the Old Jail, near the center of Bardstown, KY. We knew from the photo images of the two headstones below that at least two Higdons were buried there, and we wanted to see if we could find these two tombstones, and perhaps others, as well.
The link below titled Old Bardstown Municipal Cemetery images contains a photo image tour of our visit. Fortunately in fall of 1999, Nancy HIgdon (of Clinton, TN) was able to read and note down some key information about these two headstones as she photographed them during the HFA walking tour on Friday during our annual HFA meeting, which is the six lines of text following the link images below. In addition, both headstones had been photographed, before a major incident of headstone vandalism in 2011, at this Pioneer Cemetery by several people and then posted on Find A Grave. Finally, David Bryant, current president of the Nelson County Kentucky Genealogical Roundtable, referred Donny, Nell, and I to a four volume Nelson County Kentucky Cemeteries survey, link below; this survey effort produced a listing of all legible information from all extant headstones in all Nelson County, Kentucky Cemeteries. There was a 2 page entry on The Pioneer Cemetery at the end of Volume 4 of this cemetery survey, which included four deceased Higdons.
Once back home, with these multiple sources, I decided to examine the various information sources from the photographs to the printed text, and then attempt to establish a direct descent line from these buried Higdons to their oldest ancestors and descendants in English North America. The results of that research and analysis are on the link below titled Research Analysis.
click on a photo to enlarge and read any other text information on, or, connected with the image
Two Higdon headstones, above left, of John and Nancy Higdon were located in the Old Municipal Cemetery, a.k.a. The Pioneer Cemetery, (1785 - 1856) of Nelson County on a walking tour of Bardstown, Kentucky at our HFA Annual Meeting in 1999.
The headstone at left: John, son of PVN Higdon, born May 6 1843(?), died Sept 1 1844
The headstone at right: Nancy Higdon, wife of Philip, born May 1807, died July 11 1851
Did anyone link these two people to their Higdon family ancestors? If so, please share the information with us.
The photographs and information above were sent in by Nancy Higdon of Clinton, Tennessee.
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