A secluded cemetery is hidden by trees and laurel bushes atop a steep bank. Motorists driving along U.S. 64 from Edneyville to Bat Cave whiz by the isolated cemetery, never noticing.
There is no road, path or trail leading to the site, containing the graves of about 97 descendants of Asa Edney. The community of Edneyville was named for Asa Edney and his brother, the Rev. Samuel Edney.
Asa Edney had a drover’s stop on the Mills Gap Road and was one of the men who were charged with creating Henderson County. His grave site is located at the Asa Edney Cemetery (Townsend Cemetery) on South Mills Gap Road. His wife, Sarah Mills Edney, was one of the daughters of William Mills. Her grave site is located next to her husband.
The Edney Cemetery at the corner of Edney Inn Road and U.S. 64 East near Bat Cave contains the grave sites of Ambrose Jones Edney and his wife, Catherine Merrell, several of their children, grandchildren and other family members.
It also contains the grave sites of descendants of Samuel J. Edney, and one of the field stones most likely marks his grave,
Ambrose Jones Edney and Samuel J. Edney were sons of Asa Edney.
Descendants of Ambrose J. Edney, who are buried in the cemetery, also founded and built the Edney Inn, a popular tourist attraction in the county in the mid- to late 1800s and for which the road is named.
Decatur Edney, a veteran of the Civil War, is also buried in the cemetery. His name was incorrectly transcribed as David Edney in the Henderson County N.C. Cemeteries book. He enlisted in the 1^st Battalion Junior Reserves, Co. B, on 4-30-1864. He transferred to Co. C of this battalion between November 1864 and 1-12-65. He transferred to 31^st N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. K, on 1-12-1865. He died in 1911.
The cemetery was badly neglected and overgrown with poison ivy, brambles, brush and trees. Graves could not be located and it was so overgrown it was difficult to walk through the cemetery. The local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, along with descendants, members of the community and Scout troops cleaned the cemetery and identified seven grave stones that were not included in the initial survey conducted by the Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society.
Since the initial clean up, descendants and others have cleaned the cemetery at least once a year.
A property owner from Florida owns land on both sides and behind the cemetery. The cemetery fronts on U.S. 64 East, but there is no place to park on the side of the road. There is no driveway or path to the cemetery.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans cleared a path up the side of the bank, but it is a difficult and dangerous walk along the side of U.S. 64 East with cars flowing by in a curve. One must walk between the guard rail and the bank, along an extremely narrow path, then turn left and climb the bank.
Access from Edney Inn Road was cut off by the property owners, who built a tall wooden fence blocking the old access route. Some descendants state that there were additional graves on the property owner’s side of the fence that can no longer be located.
There are numerous unmarked or illegible field stones in the cemetery. The oldest legible grave stone dates from 1861 and the most recent burial was in 1945.
Female descendants of the Edney family buried in the cemetery married into families with the surnames of Davenport, Robertson, Collins and Rhymer, The Duvall family has graves in the cemetery. Louisa Duvall married Marcus “Mark” L. Edney. Her parents and other family members are buried in the cemetery. Samuel S. Enloe, whose mother married an Edney, is also buried in the cemetery.
The only graves with no known connections to the Edney family are those of three children of Robert Butler Justice and his wife, Lucinda Sorrells Justice. All the children died within weeks and months of each other in 1861.