Shady Grove Cemetery

Shady Grove Cemetery located in Shady Grove, Ky. about 15 miles East of Marion is a large well-maintained county cemetery.  Shady Grove is located close to the Caldwell County line and also the Webster County line, so there are people that have close connects to all three counties.  

There are many interesting and unique stones in the cemetery, as in most old cemeteries there are some stones that have become unreadable with time, but our local cemetery books help with identifying these unreadable stones.

One of the unusual stone memorials are a set of concrete stone-like steps. It is a memorial for the F. L. Atwood family.  Each stone has a small white marker embedded in it, they say: Blanch Atwood, Alpha Atwood, Elizabeth Atwood, Clara Atwood and F. L. Atwood.

Rev. Frank L. Atwood's obituary tells us who this family was and how they came to be in Shady Grove.

Crittenden Press, May 10, 1940.  Rev. Frank L. Atwood, 89, was buried at Shady Grove Cemetery last Sunday.  A former resident of Crittenden, born at Canton, Ky, Rev. Atwood came here as a young minister and pastored the Shady Grove Baptist Church about a half century ago.  At the time of death he resided with his daughter Mrs. R. H. Keeton, Little Rock, Ark.  Funeral services were conducted by Rev. I. W. Talley, Providence, assisted by Dennie Hubbard. 

One of the names, Clara Atwood, married R. L Wood.  She was born March 31, 1880 and died April 16, 1905.  She died of consumption at the age of 25.

The tombstone in the picture at the left is for Clara.  It is placed by her 'step' with the rest of the family.

Many stones like these that only have a name and no date, without family members present to help with the history it sometimes hard to find any information about the family and who the people are.  Sometimes we are fortunate and can find an obituary that will shed light on who the people are and when they died.  Such was the case with the Atwood family, with whom these stones were for.