Trunnell-Bowman Cemetery

I'm just learning and couldn't get these pictures in the right order. This is the cemetery in Kentucky that we have been trying to have restored for several years. It is near the Trunnell house outside Shepherdsville, KY where Henry Trunnell and his wife Mary Jane Field Bowman raised their large family. Mary Jane had been married before to Jacob Bowman who had a large farm/plantation. Jacob became ill, and died at the age of 30. Henry Trunnell ran the farm during Jacob's illness and was a divorced man with the custody of his two children, Philip and Arabella. Before Jacob died, he told Mary Jane that after his death she should marry Henry because he was a good man and would take good care of her and the farm. In his will he said he wanted the half-acre family graveyard maintained and never to be sold out of the family.

During the 160 years since Jacob's death the cemetery fell into disrepair. It was on a corner and an up-scale development grew up around it. Most people had no idea it was a cemetery, it just looked like a thicket of trees, weeds and junk that blocked their vision as they drove around the corner. In the summer vines grew up over all the graves, trees had grown up and broken stones and young kids on 4-wheelers had gotten in and knocked over and broken other stones. We were unable to find anyone to hire to clean it up until David Strange, the Director of the Bullitt County History Museum took it on as a project. Some of the nearby neighbors had voluntarily gone in and begun to clear out the brush and junk. David co-ordiniated a large group of people including surveyors, county road people, and neighbors interested in cleaning up the eyesore. Many in the extended Trunnell family contributed funds most of which were used to construct a fence. A local man donated his time and repaired the stones- one had been broken into 4 pieces. We only raised enough money to fence 2 sides and are hoping to fence one other short side that borders on the road. The long side on the back borders on the neighbors who do the mowing and they have requested that it be left open to their yard for ease of upkeep.