Incorporated by Wheeling’s Civil War mayor Andrew J. Sweeney, state founder Archibald W. Campbell, Dr. Eugene A. Hildreth, W. M. List, C. H. Berry, and other prominent citizens, 37.5 acres along the National Road became Greenwood Cemetery in March 1866. Prior to the first interment on July 22, 1866, several bodies had been removed to Greenwood Cemetery from other cemeteries. Greenwood operated as a for-profit business until 1919 when it became a nonprofit corporation, a status it still maintains to this day.
Laid out in a park-like style popular with cemeteries in the mid-19th century, Greenwood was designed by civil engineer James Gilchrist. Greenwood Cemetery’s grounds have expanded to nearly 100 acres. More than 37,000 people are now buried there, many of whom were re-interred from other cemeteries that were lost to highways and building projects.
Greenwood Cemetery is a non-denominational cemetery maintained and operated by the Greenwood Cemetery Association, located at 1526 National Road in Wheeling. (Source: Ohio County Public Library)
Basil Beall, Sr. (c. 1725 – 1818) served as First Lieutenant in Captain Thomas Frazier’s Company, 34th Battalion, Frederick County, Maryland Militia. Born in Prince George’s County, Maryland, he was a son of Nathaniel Beall (1705 – 1763) and Elizabeth Brooke (1707 – 1774).
No record has been located naming his wife, but family tradition is that Basil Beall was married to Harriett Gaither. Their issue included daughters Beth Ann, Mary Ann, Cillann, Ann and Mary, and sons Citizen, Joseph W., Ninian and Basil, Jr. Citizen Beall founded Beallsville in Monroe County, Ohio.
Sometime after 1800 Basil Beall relocated from Montgomery County, Maryland to Ohio County, Virginia. His farm was located on property that was acquired by Greenwood Cemetery Association. His stone house was demolished in the 1950’s. It is assumed that he was buried near the location of the house, but no marker has been found.
James Caldwell (1724 – 22 April 1804) was born in Cork County, Ireland and died in Wheeling. He was appointed Justice of the Peace for the first court of Ohio County, Virginia. He was a defender at Fort Henry during the second siege of September 11, 1782. His son James Caldwell, Jr. also served in the Ohio County Virginia Military District, and he is buried at West Liberty.
Grave site: Section B, Lot 13
John Eoff (14 February 1752 – 13 February 1831) Documents indicate he sold wheat to the colonial forces in October 1780 while living in Berkeley County, Virginia. He renounced Allegiance to King George III in Virginia 8 October 1777. His will provided for laying out an addition to Wheeling Town, along with William Chapline.
From Find-A-Grave: John Eoff was the son of Johannes Eoff and (unknown). His father was the son of Jacob Eoff and Mary Magdalena Spanheimer of Pluckemin, Somerset County, New Jersey. John married Susannah Shepherd, daughter of Thomas Shepherd and Elizabeth Van Metre, 15 April 1777 in Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia). Their children were Elizabeth (Eoff) Woods, Eleanor (Eoff) White, Dr. John Eoff, Naomi (Eoff) Williams, Cecil and Susan (Eoff) White.
John and Susannah Eoff pioneered in what is now Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. John owned large tracts of land on Wheeling Creek and on the Ohio River. Wheeling.
From West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, Vol. 7 p. 1473
“John Eoff, one of the first settlers of Ohio County, West Virginia….His daughter was born at the old fort at the forks of Wheeling Creek in 1791 but was carried back over the mountains when she was three weeks old, because of the hostility of the Indians.”
Grave site: Section H, Lot 7
Zachariah Sprigg (12 May 1751 – June 1829) Served as a Private in the Ohio County, Virginia Militia. He was in Broadhead’s Expedition to Coshocton in 1781. He renounced Allegiance to King George III in Virginia 24 September 1777. He was also one of the first justices of peace in Ohio County, appointed in January 1777.
From History of Ohio County, West Virginia and Representative Citizens by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902: “He was one of the early settlers of West Liberty and Ohio County and was a man of prominence and influence in the affairs of the county. For several years he kept an inn at West Liberty, but after the removal of the county seat to Wheeling he removed to the same place and conducted a hotel on the site of the Windsor Hotel.”
Grave site: Section B, Lot 104 removed from East Wheeling Cemetery
