The most thorough resource for finding out who is buried at the Payne Gap Cemetery is Find-a-Grave, and we enjoy contributing information to to the site. For those new to the history of the cemetery, the first interred there is Laura E. Carswell, who died in 1889. In fact, her monument states, “the first burried [sic] at the Gap.” Laura was married to John Jacob Carswell, according to Find-a-Grave.
Patsy Blasdell, a living relative, recounts, “The story goes she came to visit W.T. (William Thomas Carswell, 1846-1912), her son, and suddenly died … [W.T. was] Pat Carswell’s paternal “Grandpa Billy” … W.T. and his wife Lydia Baker were the ones who first settled the Carswell ranch and start paying taxes in 1882. They are both buried at the Gap I think beside Walter Byrd, my grandfather “Grandpa Byrd”. W.T. and Lydia had two children. When Lydia died she was worked to death at Aunt Mattie’s house in Moline, according to Grandma. She brought her few belongings up to Grandma and Grandpa Byrd’s house and said, “Carrie, I’ve come home to die,” which she did shortly after.”
As Patsy points out, the Duncan and Carswell families are in abundance at the cemetery. I count eighteen memorials in the cemetery across both family names (eleven Duncans and seven Carswells). The latest to be buried appears to be a Duncan, Richard Doyle Duncan (1933-2019).
