The Brandenburg Cemetery is located in northern Bracken County near Foster. The exact location is too complex to give simple directions here, but briefly it is located at the top of a steep hill off of Kennan road which crosses the AA Highway. A couple of years ago, several decsendants from across the U.S. met at the cemetery for a clean up and re-dedication ceremony, however, this action was not without local controversy and the legal question of decsendant visitation is still sketchy. Due to this gray area of legality, I will not post the actual directions to the cemetery but if you would like to visit this cemetery as a decsendant, feel free to contact me for directions. The event was featured on the front cover of the Kentucky Post for September 26, 2002 and the link below will take you to the electronic version of the article. One purpose for visitng this cemetery with such fan fair was to prove its existance. Many of the stones are gone or buried, but the patriarchs buried there are considered to be Kentucky pioneers based on their settlement date of pre-1800. This is an important cemetery to Kentucky as well as the Brandenburg/Hughbanks descendants and the pictures below document the condition of the cemetery as it was left on September 25, 2002. Some of the legal information about this cemetery can also be found at www.savinggraves.org under "Hughbanks Cemetery".
This is how we left the cemetery in September of '02. Note the wooden markers placed in the cemetery based on previous reports of stones seen back in the 1970's.
Some of the stones may still lie beneath this old car from the 1950's. The car must remain where it sits based on landowner wishes.
John Brandenburg born in 1779, Hampshire County Virginia and his 2nd wife Catharine (Cummins/Cummings?)
James Hughbanks, born in 1799, Lewis County Kentucky. His wife Julina remarried to Samuel P. Shaver. Many speculate that Julina was buried in the Brandenburg Cemetery since she was not found in the Fisher Cemetery (Pendleton County) with her 2nd husband. No proof has been found to place her in the Brandenburg Cemetery. Full poem at the bottom reads: He passed from our sight like a dream or a story, from a bossom of love to a mansion of glory.
Absalom Maddox, son of Nancy Brandenburg and William Maddox. Elvira Hughbanks, daughter of James and Julina (Brandenburg) Hughbanks.
Two stone pieces that still contain legible writing.
