Maplewood Cemetery, Kingwood, Preston County, West Virginia

Maplewood (Kingwood) Cemetery

The historic James Clark McGrew house and museum, E. Main Street, Kingwood

Cemetery map

One of the entrances to the Maplewood Cemetery at E. Hight Street and Gibson.

Just off Gibson street is the large monument to the family of James Clark McGree and his wife Persis Hagans McGrew. James C. McGrew was the uncle of my great great grandfather, James McGrew Trowbridge. Jane McGrew Trowbridge, sister of James C. McGrew was my great grandfather's mother. My granddaughter Jolie Madia (in this 2009 picture) accompanied in my Trowbridge searches.

The inscription on the back of the McGrew monument. George H. McGrew was a lawyer with a degree from Harvard. After practicing law for awhile in Kingwood he obtained a degree as a minister and was ordained in the Methodist-Episcopal church and served 10 years as a missionary in India. There he met his wife, Dr. Anna Julia Lore a medical missionary. In 1917 while visiting relatives in Kingwood he fell ill and died at his sister's home.

James Clark McGrew was a U.S. Congressman and mayor of Kingwood. He was part of the delegation from the western counties of Virginia who broke with the state in 1865 and formed West Virginia.

I believe James C. McGrew II and Dallas O.L. McGrew were probably grandchildren of James and Persis, but I have not researched their names. This inscription is on the side of McGrew monument.

Lowrie B. Hagans was probably a close relative of James C. and Persis Hagans McGrew. This marker and the next are located near the large McGrew monument.

Mary C. Hagans may also have been a relative of Mrs. Persis Hagans McGrew, but I have not researched either names.

On the same row a short distance from the McGrew stone are the graves of Samuel Ruble Trowbridge (1782-1864). He settled in Preston County before 1820.

Samuel Ruble & Susan Trowbridge stones. In the photo is my daughter Tonya Madia in 2009.

Susan (Sheets) Trowbridge (1798-1861) was Samuel's second wife after Margaret Grady (1786-1813) and were married in 1815. Daughter Martha Trowbridge Parks was responsible for these monuments to her parents.

Just behind Samuel and Susan's graves is their daughter Margaret Jane Trowbridge, Mar. 6, 1830, Mar. 17, 1903. Apparently she never married. My granddaughter Jolie in 2009.

Martha Parks's grave, daughter of Samuel Ruble and Susan Trowbridge, is a little west and down the hill from those of her parents. I have been unable to identify her husband.

At the back end of the cemetery, off the cemetery's Maplewood Drive is the Trowbridge plot where my great great grandparents are buried. Their graves are immediately behind this stone.

My great great grandfather, James McGrew Trowbridge, (1826-1909) headstone and grave.

James McGrew Trowbridge, photograph probably taken in the early 1900s. My grandmother Osa (Westfall) Corbett (born 1998) remembered carrying a chair outside for her grandfather (and his white beard) so he could enjoy a view.

My great great grandmother Sarah Ann (Snyder) Trowbridge's grave. Her stone is next to her husband James Mcgrew Trowbridge.

My great great grandmother Sarah Ann (Snyder) Trowbridge 1834-1913.

There is a headstone marker for Corporal Madison Ellsworth Trowbridge in the Trowbridge family plot next to his grandparents, James M. and Sarah A. Trowbridge. However, he was declared missing in action in France in October 9, 1918 and presumed dead. He is listed on The Tablets of the Missing in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France.  Madison was the son of Joseph Madison Trowbridge and Zona Elizabeth Farnsworth who died in 1901 from complications of childbirth in Buckhannon, WV and is buried in Heavner Cemetery. His father was the brother of my great grandmother, Luvenia Margaret (Trowbridge) Westfall.

Corp. M. E. Trowbridge welcoming a friend to his camp. There is no inscription on the back of the photo to tell this if the photo was taken, but it was likely in Texas or France. Madison served in Company C, 28th Infantry, and shipped out on the USS "Antilles" and arrived in France with his unit in June 1917.  He died in France during the Meuse-Argonne Forest offensive on October 9, 1918, one of more than 26,000 American soldiers who died in that campaign. He was nineteen years of age. This photo was among a packet of photos sent to me by a kind lady who rescued them from and estate sale in Florida. Madison's family moved to Fort Pierce, Florida between 1918 and 1920.

Thomas Jefferson Trowbridge and his wife Mary E. Schaeffer are buried in the section about midway on the southern edge of the cemetery. Thomas was the son of Jesse Trowbridge and Sarah Pugh. His father was the brother of Samuel Ruble Trowbridge whose information we gave above.

Israel Schaeffer Trowbridge was the son of Thomas J. and Mary Schaeffer Trowbridge. His headstone is next to that of his parents. I have no other information on him.

David Boyd Trowbridge, son of my ancestors Samuel Grady Trowbridge and Jane McGrew and brother of James McGrew Trowbridge. This gave is not in the Kingwood Maplewood Cemetery. He is buried in the Sunnyside Cemetery, Caney, Montgomery County, Kansas 19 miles west of Coffeyville, Kansas. This Veterans Administration stone replaced the old stone that was broken. This photo from Find A Grave, photos by Pam Redmond and Judy Mayfield, Memorial ID 30014593.

Margaret L. (Walls) Trowbridge was David's second wife whom he married in Morgantown, WV a year after his first wife, Mary S. Snyder died in West Virginia. Mary Sophia Snyder was David's first cousin. Find A Grave, Sunnyside Cemetery, Caney, Montgomery County, Kansas, photos by Pam Redmond and Judy Mayfield, Memorial ID 30014593.

The graves of my 4th great grandparents Colonel James McGrew (10 Jan. 1779-19 May 1873) son of our immigrant ancestor from Scotland, Patrick McGrew (1751-1829) and Isabella (Clark) McGrew (15 Feb. 1779-30 Mar. 1867) daughter of James Clark (1732-1808) and Eleanore Kirkpatrick (1754-1806).

The original headstone for David Boyd Trowbridge (1830-1902), Find A Grave, Sunnyside Cemetery, Caney, Montgomery County, Kansas, photos by Pam Redmond and Judy Mayfield, Memorial ID 30014593.

Ronald N. Wall

Modified: 12 July 2020