McClenny Family Website

McClennys of Sedley, Virginia

On March 23rd and March 24th, 1997, I went to the town of Sedley, Virginia on a "field trip" to discover whatever I could about the town and our family history.

On March 24, 1997 I visited with two cousins who I had never met.  Both of them are life long residents of Sedley, Virginia.  Joseph Elton McClenny, Jr. (known as Elton) and James Docie McClenny, Jr. (known as "Red" and I have three separate grandfathers and share the same great grandfather in James Madison McClenny.  All three of us are about the same age and we had a terrific time during our first meeting.

The following information was learned and/or observed while in Sedley:

The McClenny Plantation encompassed what is known today as Sedley, Virginia.  On the plantation was a private, family cemetery with a few graves.  The plantation home was destroyed by fire in the early 1900's and the Baptist church now sits on the property next to the cemetery.  Some say there are fourteen graves in the cemetery, but the stones for many are missing.

The original plantation was quite large in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  When the railroad came through the plantation in 1907, they were granted the right of way to cross three (3) miles of the McClenny property.

I attempted to locate the tenant house into which Marietta Rowe McClenny moved when the McClenny Plantation Home burned.  Her relative, Harvey Rowe, lived in the house for several years following her death.  The house burned down during the night in the early 1990's and Harvey died in the fire.

When I asked about the railroad tracks which used to pass directly behind this house, I was told the local water system for Norfolk, Virginia removed the tracks and installed an aqueduct to supply Norfolk with water from Lake Gaston.

A new Methodist Church has been built on the property, which previously contained the tenant house.

Ms. Nell Rawlings of Hopewell, Virginia had a nice watercolor painting of the tenant house.  I visited her in Hopewell, Virginia on 03-24-1997 (the day before her birthday) and she provided information about the McClenny family and showed me the painting of the house.  Nell let me borrow a picture of Marietta Rowe McClenny so I could have a copy made.

Over the years the McClenny family must have sold the plantation/farm in bits and pieces and none of the land remains in the family.

At some point in time, the Sedley Baptist Church was constructed on the site previously owned by the family.  During the mid-1990's, the Sedley Baptist church asked family members to donate the cemetery property to the Church as the church needed additional parking places. 

In return for the property, the Church offered to move those buried in the cemetery to the Sedley Rosemont Cemetery, which is about a quarter mile away.  Apparently, family members did not approve of the moving of the graves and the church is in the process of building the parking lot construction around the small graveyard.

I took pictures of the remaining tombstones and made a list of the graves remaining, which are identified.
 

I then went to the Rosemont Cemetery in Sedley, Virginia and discovered additional gravesites of family members:
 

Mary Doris McClenny		10-21-1917 to 09-17-1987
Daughter of James M. McClenny & Marietta Rebecca Rowe
Moody Alfred Munford, Jr.		08-16-1906 to 10-12-1971
Husband of Mary Doris McClenny
Moody E. Munford		??-??-???? to 01-18-1935
Son of Moody Alfred Munford & Mary Doris McClenny

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