What the sources support
The National Register nomination for the Josephine City Historic District begins the district's period of significance in 1874, the date of its oldest resource: the marked burial of Mary Slowe in Milton Valley Cemetery.
The Josephine City Historic District nomination cites Clarke County Deed Book P, pages 152 to 154, of 1874, for the three-acre purchase of Milton Valley Cemetery, as this project's notes record the citation.
The People's Journal reported that George Cooper was killed by a freight train while attempting to jump off at the Josephine City crossing, and was buried in Milton Valley Cemetery; the report's own day and date do not agree.
About thirty volunteers cleaned headstones and cleared brush at Milton Valley Cemetery in Berryville on a Sunday afternoon in March 2025, in work organized by Jim Weinmann and David Branham of Frederick County.
The Clarke Courier of June 30, 1909 announced that Black residents of the section would hold "a big gathering" on Thursday, July 8, to unveil a monument costing about $200 "to the memory of the original stockholders of the Milton Valley Cemetery," and that people from Washington and elsewhere had been invited.
The same Courier notice says that forty-one Black men and women formed the Milton Valley Cemetery Company in 1879, bought three acres "from Mr. Engle," and laid out there "the first burial ground for colored people in this section of the State," and that only fourteen of the forty-one were still living in 1909.
The People's Journal of June 1, 1910 printed among its personals: "The Milton Valley Cemetery ought to have their flower strewing when flowers are plentiful."
The People's Journal of July 1, 1926 printed an appeal headed "Cemetery Walk," asking help for a "very much needed Walk in the Cemetery" and announcing an entertainment at Fishermen Hall, Berryville, on Friday night, July 2, 1926, with refreshments at reasonable price and admission free; it was signed by Hila Blackburn as president and M. C. Young as secretary.
In a card of thanks in the Clarke Courier of May 19, 1897, B. R. Blackburn thanked "the many friends, white and colored," who had helped during the illness of a daughter, Ellen C. Blackburn, who died on May 15, 1897, aged about 16; after a funeral at the F. B. Church, "her remains were deposited in the Milton Valley Cemetery."
The Clarke Courier of April 25, 1917 reported that Helan Fields, an old and well-known Black woman who had lived nearly all her life in the community, had died at the home of her son, Dr. William H. Fields, in Cairo, Illinois, and that her remains would be brought back "for interment in Milton Valley Cemetery."
The Clarke Courier of February 8, 1923 reported that Edward Jones, 26, who had served in the World War and been gassed at the front, died in Detroit after the grip, followed by tuberculosis in lungs weakened by gas, and was buried in Milton Valley Cemetery; his father, Isaac H. Jones, then working in Detroit, "brought the body here."
The Clarke Courier of February 7, 1935 reported that the funeral of Lewis Myers was conducted at St. Luke's Baptist Church by the Rev. E. T. Johnson, and that his interment in Milton Valley Cemetery was in charge of the Black lodge of the Knights of Pythias, of which he had been an active member.
Funeral notices in the Clarke Courier from 1897 to 1948 that mention Milton Valley Cemetery commonly name the church and the minister in charge, the Rev. E. T. Johnson among them repeatedly, and several report the dead brought home to be buried there from other places.
The Clarke Courier of May 28, 1931 reported that the Lloyd Williams Post of the American Legion, with its Woman's Auxiliary, planned a Memorial Day service at Green Hill Cemetery on the Friday afternoon, May 29, after which the Legion would go on to Milton Valley Cemetery and place flowers on the graves of the Black soldiers buried there.
The Clarke Courier of May 31, 1934 reported Memorial Day exercises at Milton Valley Cemetery, which it placed in Josephine City, similar to those at Green Hill: they opened with "The Star-Spangled Banner," followed by a prayer by the Rev. E. T. Johnson, principal of the Clarke County Training School; "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and an address by Johnson; then "In Flanders Fields" and a reading by Willis Tryman; with a salute by a firing squad and taps.
The Clarke Courier of November 22, 1945 reported the death at 72 of the Rev. Edward Thomas Johnson, pastor of St. Luke's Baptist Church for nearly 25 years; it said he founded the W. B. T. Williams Training School in Josephine City and was its principal, that he was writing a history of Virginia's Black training schools for a second book to be called "On My Way Up," and that he was buried in Milton Valley Cemetery.
The Clarke County Historical Association's catalog lists a Clarke Courier photograph described as Memorial Day services at Milton Valley Cemetery on May 30, 1991.
The Clarke County Historical Association's catalog lists a plat of the graves in Milton Valley Cemetery, dated Fall 2004, kept to accompany Don and Mary Royston's volume on the cemeteries of Clarke County.
The Josephine City Historic District nomination says the cemetery's three acres were bought in 1874 by the president and officers, or trustees, of the Milton Valley Cemetery from A. Moore, Jr., guardian of the children of Edward T. Hebb (in another passage, "Guardian for the heirs of E. Y. Hebbs"), and that the deed, though not recorded until 1880, refers to an 1874 agreement for the sale; it cites Deed Book P, pages 152 to 154 (1874), and suggests the parcel may have been part of the Milton Valley property.
The nomination says the marble obelisk at the center of the cemetery was dedicated in 1909 and contains the names of all 41 original stockholders, with the inscription "In memory of the original stockholders and our beloved dead"; it gives surnames on its base including Laws, Robertson, Jackson, Page, Carter and Jenkins, and names Thomas Page as one of the original stockholders, his name prominently carved on the base.
The People's Journal of June 1, 1910 reported the death of Mrs. Sarah E. Mills, about 63, with a funeral at the Free Baptist Church, Rev. B. F. Thomas officiating; it said she was a member of the "Gallean Fishermen Society" (the Galilean Fishermen), which "turned out in full Regalia and performed their whole duty," and that her remains were followed by a long procession "to the Milton Valley Cemetery."
See a related record at the Clarke County Historical Association ↗
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