Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice Besley Cemetery, Columbia Township, Bradford County, PA A.K.A. Columbia Valley Cemetery Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History Sites How To Use This Site Warning & Disclaimer Columbia Township Page Bradford County Cemetery Addresses No Commercial Use Say Hello to Joyce  Read by J. Kelsey Jones September 1983 Photo by Joyce M. Tice  October 1997

Joyce's Search Tip - December 2007 - Do You Know that you can search just the Bradford County Cemetery Records on the site by using the Cemeteries -Bradford button in the Partitioned search engine at the bottom of the Current What's New Page? If you use that partition follow these steps to search just one cemetery.  1. Choose Cemeteries - Bradford.  2. Enter part of the cemetery name [ie Ballard or Berrytown] AND a surname.  3. Choose the Find ALL Words option. Then it will find just the pages with that surname in the one cemetery you indicated.  See also - Bradford County Cemetery Addresses

Subj:  Besley cemetery
Date:  05/17/2004 10:18:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From:    wendela3@cableracer.com (Wendela)
To:    JoyceTice@aol.com

 Joyce,  I have been told that my great grandfather John F. Benson is buried in the Besley cemetery next to his son Nelson.  His grave is marked with a lilac bush.  I was told he died of a heart attack in the Austinville church in 1904.  My grandmother Frances Ethel Benson Howard took me there several times as a child telling me that "that is where my father is buried".   I have been to the cemetery with my uncle Albert and talked with Nelson Benson's grandchildren  about the burial as well as the couple that over see the cemetery, they concur that he is indeed buried there.   John was married to Betsey Soper ( Elizabeth D. Soper).  Betsey  was also  married to Roy Williams and they are both buried in the Soper cemetery in North Towanda.  Roy doesn't have a headstone either.  Roy died some time after Betsey, who died in 1951.  My uncle and brother attended the funeral and burial  for Roy.  I have not  investigated the death date for Roy or John.  I did try at one point to contact someone with some history of the church in Austinville by leaving a note for someone to contact me that might know if John did indeed die there.  I contacted the Vickery funeral home about John's death and was told all the records before app 1940 were destroyed by fire.  So could you add these burials to the cemetery  listings..

Also the Warner/ Struble cemetery in Litchfield twp is possibly owned by the Schnieder family.  A local farmer in the area told me that they were the owners of that land now.  I was there this past week and found two other stones in the ground and will send them when my computer is back and running.  It seems one of the people there was in the service.   The stone said company H and that is all I could get.  This cemetery is way up on the hill before the house in a grove of trees.  You can't see it from the road at this time due to bushes around it but it is fairly easy to get into from the back side.  I also went back to the Fox cemetery on Rte. 187 near the Ray Merrill farm/garage.  The cemetery 2/10th's of a mile to be exact on the right or the same side of the road as Ray's home.  I wrote down all I could see.

Reva HOWARD Wagner

Joyce Tip Box -- December 2007 - If you are not navigating this Tri-Counties Site via the left and right sidebars of the Current What's New page you are doing yourself a disservice. You can get to any place on the site easily by making yourself familiar with these subject and place topics. Try them all to be as familiar with the site's 16,000 plus pages as you can. Stop groping in the dark and take the lighted path. That's also the only way you'll find the search engines for the site or have access to the necessary messages I may leave for you. Make it easy on yourself.

Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Published On Tri-Counties Site On 10 OCT 1997 By Joyce M. Tice Email: Joyce M. Tice You are the  visitor since the counter was installed on 12 JUNE 2004 Counter reset June 2000 & June 2004 when page was moved