Samuel M. Cassidy, Jr.

from Cave Spring Farm 1784,

"The first burial was in 1791 and the last in 1868. Nearly all direct descendants of Robert Boggs since 1868 are buried in Lexington Cemetery.

Octagonal in shape, the stone wall is 65 x 62 ft. on the two axes. Walls are 24" wide on top, sloping to 36" on the bottom & average 5 1/2' tall above ground level. Capping the wall are precisely cut bush-hammered stones 9" thick & smooth as a sidewalk. An iron gate on the north face is opposite the family monument also facing north while all other head stones face east. In the south east corner are unmarked flat rocks set upright marking the graves of "house slaves." "Field" hands were buried outside the wall perimeter & their stones have disappeared through cultivation.

The main monument has a heavy limestone footer, a marble base & a marble column. The original cap was destroyed by lightning prior to 1900 and a dowel pin hole about 1" in diameter is now filled with plastic compound. Including Robert & Sarah Huston Boggs, 17 family members from 1 1/2 years to 85 years are buried here, also buried here is Harrison Devore son of the Irish stonemason who lived at Cave Spring & supervised the stone & brick construction."

from the National Register of Historic Places,

The Boggs family graveyard is located on a hillside 700 feet east of the main house. The burying ground is enclosed by a well-maintained, octagonal stone wall. A tall, central monument bearing the inscription "Settled on This Place, Feb. 18, 1784" also contains the names of Robert and Sarah Huston Boggs and those of their children. Individual markers indicate the actuaL bury ing places of the family, and in the rear of the graveyard are rough, vertical, unmarked stones denoting where house slaves were buried. Other slaves were buried outside the fence, and thus no trace of their graves remains.

The house and farm complex have undergone a careful restoration and are maintained in excellent condition. The nominated acreage includes the main house, all outbuildings, and surrounding land that could be considered frontage property important visually to the setting of the complex. The Athens-Walnut Hill Road in front of the main house is used as the northern boundary, the access road as the western boundary, a line running along a ridge to the rear of the log house as the southern boundary, and a line of convenience to the east of the cemetery through open fields as the eastern boundary.