Pioneer Cemetery Hessey Vault
The most prominent feature in the burial ground is the stone vault of Edward Hessey and his wife Catherine Venable Hessey. Likely built in 1856 by Canadian born Jonathan Braithwaite, the earliest death date on a tombstone is 1798 for William James Hessey, presumably the son
of Edward and Catherine. He was approximately 17 years of age when he died. Edward and Catherine married in Middletown, Virginia in 1807 and probably migrated to Kentucky soon afterward as evidenced by Edward’s documented service in the War of 1812 with the Kentucky Militia. Edward was active in the community, evidenced by his service as the the third Master of local Free and Accepted Masonic Lodge #180, in 1850 Edward died in 1866 and Catherine in 1872.
John Jacob Peacock is buried here and has the earliest birth date of anyone in the graveyard. He was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1765 and migrated to Kentucky in 1789, He too served in the War of 1812 as a Captain of Gray’s regiment in the Kentucky Detached Militia. Jacob was a Justice of the Peace for several terms and moved his family to a town lot in Mt. Washington about 1835. Peacock died in 1845. There are at least 20 burials in the cemetery with names like Stringer and Snapp that resonate today in our local street names. Family members of hotel and tavern owners lie alongside bodies of the formerly enslaved.