as seen from the road

McKee Cemetery on Big Spring Road
Rockbridge County, VA

I took these photos in the summer of 1999. Top pix is just RIGHT of cemetery and bottom includes the cemetery on the left and behind the fenced in area. About 3 minutes from New Monmouth Church, going north. It's on Big Spring Rd/Rt 631, just off of route 60/West Midland Trail. If you keep going, down 631, you'l pass the Big Spring (pond). Interstate 64 is just beyond it, but no entry to it.

McKee Cemetery used to be called Big Spring Cemetery. It's just 3 minutes up the road from New Monmouth Presbyterian Church. From the Church on Rt 60, go north, toward Interstate 64, on the right is Rt. 631/Big Spring Road (just before Frederickburg Rd on the right). Its after a school on the left (Highland Belle Mid Sch), also on the left (or north side) before the Big Spring (pond) in an open field, on the old Clarence Tardy farm (1921-2006).

There was an earlier attack here on 10 Oct 1759 and on 17 Jul 1763 which took lives of a some of the people believed buried here. It is believed that there are many unmarked graves here. There are many conflicting stories about the dates, the people and the events from these 2 or 3 Shawnee Indian raids.

The sign says:
THE MASSACRES OF KERR'S CREEK
TOOK PLACE NEAR THE BIG SPRING
A FEW HUNDRED YARDS FROM THIS SPOT
OCT. 10, 1764.

A BAND OF SHAWNEE INDIANS COMING OVER
THE MOUNTAINS FROM THE OHIO SURPRISED
THE FORT AND KILLED FROM FIFTY TO SIXTY
PERSONS. THIS WAS THE LAST ATTACK BY
INDIANS UPON THE WHITE SETTLERS IN
THIS SECTION OF VIRGINIA.
ERECTED BY
THE BLUE RIDGE COMMITTEE OF THE
COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA IN THE
STATE OF VIRGINIA
1929