Keene - Black Walnut Cemetery

Keene family

John Newton (1804-1880) and Elizabeth Dulin Keene (1806-1874) of Loudoun County, Virginia had 13 children. We have found three sons: John Newton Keene (1825-1918), Charles Edwin Keene (1829-1880) and Flavius Josephus (1838-1906) who have family buried at Black Walnut Cemetery. We have identified two additional sons: Alfred Dulin Keene and Thaddeus (Thad) Keene (who was part of Morgan’s Raiders in the Civil War) also spent time in St Charles County. Margot Vossenkemper provided a clip from the Mincke Portage Des Sioux book that says,” C.E. Keene and A.D. Keene, settled between Machens and West Alton on Survey 1838 and farmed. A.D. Keene also became a Justice of the Peace.”

John Newton and Mary Wade Havener Keene’s daughters’ burial plot and obelisk had not been recorded by Mary Johnson McElhiney who recorded the details of this cemetery in the 1930s, in “Gone But Not Forgotten”, pages 117, 118 and 119. This gravestone was documented by Cyril Echele and Jule Pfaff in 1986. They found the obelisk and described the inscription: “Children of J.H. & M.W. Keene ‘Suffer the little children to come to Me…’ and then documented the names and death dates for the five girls. During the 2020/2021 restoration careful cleaning and inspection of the obelisk showed the following information: Elizabeth died May 15, 1864 age 1 year, 4 months, 10 days; Maria died Dec. 21 1864 age 7 months, 26 days; Emily died Jan 7, 1863 age 2 days; Arthelia died Oct 14, 1862 age 4 year, 11 months, 19 days; Julia died Mar. 15, 1862 1 year, 3 months, 7 days.

The Family Group Record at SCCHS lists John Newton Keene 1825-1918 born in Virginia and his wife Mary Wade Havener, along with a son Newton Keene born about 1859-1943. The family does show up in the 1870 Census with sons Newton and Leonidas.

Charles Edwin Keene’s wife Elizabeth W Davis Keene (1834-1875) and four of their children William N, Henry H, Thomas Franklin, and Sarah are also buried at Black Walnut Cemetery Their head stones and Thomas Franklin’s foot stone were discovered during the cemetery restoration in 2020-2021 by our volunteer restoration team.

Flavius Josephus and Harriet Byron Davis buried their daughter Hattie at Black Walnut Cemetery before the family headed out west to Montana. Hattie’s headstone was discovered during the cemetery restoration in 2020-2021 by our volunteer restoration team.