This cemetery is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Bess Cemetery" or "Bess-Wright Cemetery".

Historically and correctly, it was originally referred to as the "Pinnell Cemetery"; named after Benjamin Pinnell who was the first to be interred in this cemetery circa 1841 at the approximate age of sixteen. Benjamin was the only son of the Reverend Joseph Pinnell, a Circuit Rider and Elder of the Monroe Circuit of the the Methodist-Episcopal Church and who was the second to be interred in this cemetery in 1849, thus sealing this cemetery's true namesake.

"ALLEGHANY COUNTY, VA CEMETERIES – Pinnell Cemetery

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Cemetery Location: 22 miles southwest of Covington, Virginia and 2 miles southeast on the old pike. From Covington, go 22 miles southwest on Route #18 to Sizers; thence 2 miles on the old pike towards Fincastle.

OWNERS: (1936) J.L. Bess Estate

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:

At the time of Rev. Joseph Pinnell's death, there were not many cemeteries in this section. Whether by request or because his heart-broken wife felt that she wanted his body laid to rest where it would be near so that she could visit the grave often and care for it, we do not know, but his body was laid to rest on a hill only a short distance from the house. This was the beginning of the Pinnell Cemetery, where part of the fifth generation of Pinnells now rest.

There are preachers, teachers, stage drivers, and Confederate soldiers buried there. Some have markers of hand-hewn mountain stones with inscriptions chiseled thereon which have grown very dim. There is one Government marker, erected three years ago."

Source: Library of Virginia Digital Collection LVA Titled Files: Survey Report, Pinnell cemetery: 15 NOV 1936.

Research by Leila Blanche Bess