Virginian's Burying Ground
aka McCoy or Dragoo Cemetery
Buchanan Township

Section 26 Buchanan Twp
Located at 936 Chippewa Street, in Buchanan, MI.
On Private Property

Photos by: Teresa O'Riley

Catherine - wf of Wm McCoy

Barnhouse

Elizabeth M Tomlinson

R. Warfield

This cemetery sits in the yard of a private residence and only a very few stones are left. Always ask permission of owner for access when viewing any cemetery on private property.

Virginian's Burying ground was incorrectly named as McCoy Cemetery in the 1980's. Also known to locals as Dragoo Cemetery because of burials connected to that family for over 50 years.
It was actually known as Virginian' burying ground because a number of settlers buried there were from Virginia.

Nancy Heib (nancyheib@aol.com)   donated the burial listing and history noted below. She has many of the individual histories of the people below on Find a grave .

Brief Cemetery History per Nancy Heib - This Dragoo family cemetery is for the family of Jacob and Isabella Dragoo who came from Monongalia County Virginia to Buchanan, Berrien County Michigan with their children in 1834. The other surnames listed in this cemetery, are related by marriage, to this Dragoo family. There were burials in this Dragoo family cemetery for 53 years, from 1837 to 1890, spanning four generations of the Dragoo family. There is also one Civil War Veteran who is buried there (William Harrison Barnhouse), who married Jacob Dragoo's granddaughter Isabel Dragoo. The first person buried there was Jacob and Isabella Dragoo's daughter Christianna (Dragoo) Hines (not Christianna Ewell). Second and third burial is thought to be that of parents Isabella and Jacob Dragoo in 1838.
Susannah (Ingleright) Weaver, there is a record of her also being buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Buchanan, MI with her husband Jacob Weaver. I am not sure if her body was actually moved, or if the family just had her name added to the headstone in Oak Ridge.

Nancy has four "direct" ancestors buried in "The Virginian's Burying Ground". (Jacob and Isabella Dragoo, and their son Ewell and his wife Jane (Barnhouse) Dragoo). She has written a book on this cemetery and this Dragoo family titled: "The Virginian's Burying Ground, Buchanan, Berrien County Michigan, and The Family of Jacob and Isabella Dragoo". There are copies of this book in the Buchanan District Library, the "Library of Michigan", and the Allen County Public Library, in Fort Wayne, IN.

Note: There are two other young children not listed, who "possibly" could also be buried here:
1. Lavina (or Livina) Dragoo, the daughter of John Fleming Dragoo Sr.
2. Edith Darie Kirkendall, the child of John F. Dragoo's daughter Lurinda and her husband Wm. "Van" Kirkendall. Note:
This cemetery has since been destroyed by vandalism.

Burial Listing