According to the November 22, 2023, page 5A issue of the Hampshire Review at the November 13th meeting of the Romney Town Council: "The council discussed getting the Mt. Pisgah Benevolent Cemetery (used for the burial of black slaves since the 1800s) deeded over to the town so that Romney could properly care for the site. Keadle said that although the Division of Highways states the area does not belong to them, the Hampshire County Assessor parcel viewer shows it does. Both delegates (Rick Hillenbrand, R-88 and Darren Thorne, R-89) have shown interest and support in turning that cemetery over to Romney. The town has solicited a survey of the property to include it in its request for transition."

A new Quit Claim Deed to the Town of Romney dated 26 November, 2025 is now on file at the Courthouse in Deed Book 615, Page 602. It is a very strangely worded document in which the Secretary of Transportation of the State of West Virginia says that he "believes that property subject to this Deed [the cemetery] was reconveyed to West Virginia Department of Transportation, Division of Highways a/k/a State Road Commission of West Virginia by virtue of deed dated October 23, 1934, from 'Trustees Colored Cemetery, Romney, WV,' which is of record in the County Clerk’s Office of Hampshire County, in Deed Book 97, at Page 364." Links to images of the referenced deed can be found on the cemetery main web page in the paragraph immediately above the colored plat which was drawn by the DOH in connection with that deed of October, 1934. [To return to main page hit your brower's back arrow or click the button at bottom of this page.]

The referenced deed of October 23, 1934 clearly states, as the blue highlighted area in the plat shows, that the state bought a one tenth acre strip of land which now lies under U.S. Rt. 50 across from the old cement plant. The strip is on the south border of the cemetery. On the plat, unlike the drawing of the highway ROW and the one tenth of an acre sliver the State bought, the sketch of the cemetery itself is not to scale and is incomplete because the DOH had no ownership of it or interest in it. So in effect, Sec. Rumbaugh is saying the DOH passes any title to a parcel of land which no record shows ever belonged to them to the Town of Romney just in case they ever did own it. One should also note that the DOH paid the cemetery trustees in 1934 for three new burial plots within the cemetery in which to reinter remains then in the area to be taken for the new road bed. The State would not have paid for plots within the cemetery if they owned the cemetery.

The settling of a clear title for the African-American community to their long held cemetery is not a matter for local politicians or highway department staff or various members of the community who have no family buried in the cemetery. Nor is it a matter for some staff of the Assessor's Office to decide. It is a matter for the registered Trustees of the Cemetery to clear up and then to decide if they wish to arrange some long term agreement with the larger community for the upkeep of the cemetery. HistoricHampshire.org would suggest that the cemetery Trustees and the Town of Romney work together as partners to find a way to keep ownership in the hands of the successor of the Colored Benevolent Association while providing for the continued maintenance and preservation of this historic cemetery. It is a unique part of the African-American history of our county as well as the honored resting place of a number of our fellow citizens.

If you have any interest in this proceeding, please, let your concerns be known.