Wheatland Rural Cemetery Association

Wheatland Rural Cemetery, formerly known as Wheatland Baptist Cemetery and Belcoda Cemetery, is a historic cemetery located at Belcoda (where McGinnis, Harmon, and Belcoda Roads meet). It is the earliest cemetery in the town of Wheatland and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Belcoda

The hamlet of Belcoda was and is a farming community. According to the Town of Wheatland historian, the first settlers in the Belcoda area were Elisha and David Farwell who came about 1800. Other early arrivals were the Sages and the Cadys. Joseph Blackmer came with his family from Connecticut in 1808. Then Rawson Harmon, with his wife, six sons and five daughters from Massachusetts, settled in the area in 1811. The church was the center of this community. It was begun in the log schoolhouse in 1811, and in 1813 Rev. Solomon Brown, who had been a soldier in the Revolution, became the pastor of the church. A church building was built in 1821, which attracted a very large congregation. The Belcoda Baptist Church divided about 1852 and established daughter churches in Mumford, Clifton and Riga. The mother church did not survive and closed about 1860 and was torn down about 1880. In 1917, a boulder with a plaque on the site commemorates the original church and a time capsule was placed beneath the boulder.

Timbers from the church were taken by wagon to Mumford and used to help build the Second Baptist Church led by Rev. Clayton Coles, once a body servant from General Stonewall Jackson. Reverends Coles and Brown are among those buried in the cemetery.

The Cemetery has been looked after by Trustees for decades. The name was changed to the Wheatland Rural Cemetery Association in May, 2014 in order to reflect that one does not need to be Baptist in order to be a member or to be buried here.

Please see the Documents page for by-laws and burial guidelines.