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The Staytonville community came together in 2006 and 2007, under the leadership of local avocational archaeologist Kent Slavin and Janet Wilkins of the Jonathan Caldwell Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, to restore its community cemetery, unused for more than a half century. GAC and Scott Lawrence of Grave Concerns assisted the community group with documenting, mapping, and repairing monuments in the Spring of 2007. Local volunteers had already cleared the dense brush and dying trees, and removed the household trash that had accumulated on the lot off Greenwood Road, south of Milford, Delaware. While the markers were in generally good condition, a number had been broken by falling tree limbs and illicit automobile traffic. A thin layer of sand and vegetation covered the brick foundation of the church, which Kent Slavin exposed for mapping.

Nathaniel Hays, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, established a cemetery for his family on the site in 1805. The family conveyed the one-acre parcel to the Methodist church in 1841. The congregation built a church and buried its dead around the churchyard, apart from the Hays burials which were in the northwest corner of the lot.

Churchyard map .

The newly restored cemetery stands as tribute to those who built and molded the community, and to those who continue to do so.

Undated photograph of Staytonville Methodist Church, previously known as the Tea Town, then Lebanon Methodist Episcopal Church.

Cemetery view.

Surviving inscription data appear below, the numbers corresponding to the markers on the map above.

Download the Inscription Data here